Making Chocolate

Ecuador was once famous for its cacao (cocoa).  It still is, to a degree.  From the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, Ecuador was one of the world's largest producers and suppliers of cacao.  Then, in the 1920's, the cacao crisis hit, bringing with it a larger economic downturn.  Since then, Ecuador has not regained the same level of cacao production it once had.

That's not to say, however, that the farmers aren't trying.  Many of the PC-Agriculture volunteers here have worked with cacao farmers, cooperatives, and other organizations.  I could delve much deeper into the topic, talking about the different types of plants, the pros and cons of each, etc.  But I won't bore you with that.  Instead, I will show you simple proof that chocolate is indeed being made in Ecuador!  I witnessed the process; I tasted the final product; and it was good.  Amen.

It all starts with the seedlings.  The seedlings grow into plants.  The plants grow really big.  They produce pods the size of your face.  And when you split a ripe cacao pod open, here's what it looks like:

 

 

There's a column of seeds nestled inside, covered in a filmy white coating.  If you pop the seeds into your mouth, you'll find that the coating is tangy and tasty -- but make sure not to bite into the bean itself, which is extremely bitter.  This is the part that is used to make chocolate.

 

The next step is roasting and drying the seeds:

 

In the streets of Guayaquil cacao beans are spread in the sun to dry.  They make great rectangular patches of brownish orange color.  In the heat they diffuse a subtly exotic perfume ... Occasionally the natives walk among the beans, stirring them about with their bare feet that all may have a turn in the sunshine.

 

That description was written by Blair Niles and published in her book Casual Wanderings in Ecuador in 1923, nearly one hundred years ago.  If you are riding through coastal Ecuador today, you will see the same thing, albeit with some subtle differences.  The great rectangular patches are still there, laid out on cement patios in the golden light of the afternoon sun.  Nowadays, they're tended to with rakes instead of bare feet.  And while you'll see yards filled with cacao in the countryside, you won't find them in Guayaquil.  In Blair's day, so clean a little city is Guayaquil that the fragrance of drying cacao clings to our memory of it, uncontaminated by anything more gross.  I am sad to say (and my olfactory sense is likewise sad to confirm) that this is no longer the case.

 

When the drying and roasting process is complete, the cacao beans look like this.

Next up: grinding the beans.

For the demonstration we saw, a small hand grinder was used.  Specifically, we made one of the little boys do the hard work while we stood back and snapped pictures.  The cacao beans went in the top, and after being grinded, they dropped out onto the plate below as a lumpy, oily paste.

At this point, you have the option of implementing various methods to refine your cacao paste.  You can remove the oil.  You can add sugar.  You can mix it with milk.  You can set the paste into molds to form bars.  You can do combinations of the above.

Rather than bother with carrying out these minutae, however, our hosts ushered us over to a table that had been prepared before our arrival:

On it were various fruits native to Ecuador (all of which, I am happy to report, pair exceedingly well with chocolate), as well as chocolate in its various stages -- on the left, the cacao pods; in the center, roasted cacao beans; and on the right, molded chocolate.

The chocolate we tasted was very dark and bitter.  If you like dark chocolate, I recommend roasted cacao nibs for a crunchy, savory snack.  The drink we were served was pure, unrefined cacao paste mixed with hot water - another type of hot chocolate, if you will (we would, and we did).  If you let it sit long enough, you could see the oil separate and rise to the top of the glass.

My favorite version of the chocolate we tried, however, was the ganache, made by mixing cacao paste with milk.  We drizzled it all over various tropical fruits - papaya, mamey, melon, and starfruit.  Add a sprig of mint and you're good to go.

 

Que viva el chocolate!  Say it with me now...Vivaaaaaa!