High in the clouds forest below Quito there is a place where chocolate is still made by hand (almost). Here the chocolate is a pure form that pre-dates Rudlophe Lindt’s addition of cacao butter to Henri Nestlé and Daniel Peter’s milk chocolate drink to make bars.
In this photo you see an empty pod, bowl of seed, processed seeds, and final product. Now I’ll show you how it’s done.
This series of compartments are where the cacao juice is drained from the seeds. Over three days the seeds are moved from top to bottom as less and less juice comes out. The juice was traditionally thrown away but these guys founds a new use for it which I will get to in the “tasting” section.
These are the drying racks. This rack is full of wet seeds.
This rack has nearly dried seeds. Here in the cloud forest seeds take 7-21 days to dry enough for grinding.
The seed on the left is not dry enough as seen by its more purple coloring. On the right the seed is ready for the next step.
Here the seeds are roasted…
Cacoa butter is removed and the powder is ground with varying levels of sugar. This room is kept at 120F.
The percentage of powder to sugar, of course, is the the percent cacao on the label.
In the cold room the chocolate is put into molds and allowed to cool at a controlled temperature for proper hardening.
This is pure cacao measured for baking brownies.
Here is the recipe. In the coming weeks I will post a bit about tasting this chocolate.
Enjoy!
Here are some of my food articles:
Here are some of my travel related articles about Ecuador:
Ecuador: Las Cajas National Park
Ecuador:Bird watching in Mindo
Checklist for travel to the Galápagos Islands
Do me a favor, please, like or share this on Facebook, Tweet it,or Your Circles. Word of mouth is the best way to let the people you know about your experience.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover …”
-Mark Twain
Awesome!!! I love chocolate!
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This post is awesome! Thanks for stopping by and liking my humble post. 🙂
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You are welcome. You have lots of tasty ideas!
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You had me at chocolate.I’ve only ever used Fry’s Cocoa powder for baking and making hot chocolate. I recall one time a huge bag (it must have a 50 pound bag) broke open where my father worked and he brought it home. I had cocoa for years (it seemed). I was just a kid (back in the 70s) and had hot cocoa with toast every morning for breakfast. For some reason, I think I was the only one in the house who liked it. This was fortunately since at that time eight of siblings were still living at home.
I wasn’t aware of the percentage of sugar to cocoa. I checked my can and it made no reference to it. Perhaps it’s a different brand or form.
Thanks for sharing the interesting world of cocoa.
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The cacao you are baking with may have no sugar in it but you ad sugar when you use it right?
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Pingback: A Chocolate Story | Things that Fizz & Stuff
Thanks!
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What an experience! Love your photos and the story of small batch artisans such as well as what you found in Quito.
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Thanks. The thing is that the owner was gringo from Indiana that was sub dividing the whole area. One of those bum ironies you run into when you find the quiet, awesome places.
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Reblogged this on Recipes For You 2013 and commented:
How to make chocolate with the bean
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Thanks so much. Glad you liked it enough to pass on.
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Pingback: Ecuador: Tasting that hand made chocolate and more | ExploreDreamDiscover Talks
This is very interesting……thanks for sharing
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Super cool post!
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Wonderful story. Okay, how do they get those beans to change from milk chocolate to dark chocolate? (chuckle)
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Interesting & yummy post!
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Thanks for liking my post about the wall paintings in Oaxaca. I really enjoyed your post about chocolate in Ecuador. Oaxaca is well known for chocolate also, but I had not seen this part of the production, which must be similar in some parts. The chocolate in Oaxaca is not made into bars (as far as I know), but is used mainly for drinking and making mole. It’s possible the cacao is exported, even to another part of Mexico, and bars are made there. It would be interesting to explore this when I go back there.
We are back in Alaska now, waiting for the snow to melt!
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Thanks. I guess I never considered chocolate much in Mexico but certainly mole. And yes, waiting for snow to melt!
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Pingback: Places to stay in Mindo, Ecuador | ExploreDreamDiscover Talks
デュポン 万年筆
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Pingback: “I just call it chicken” | ExploreDreamDiscover Talks
Great article and photos 🙂
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Hey, thanks. It was a much more fun and interesting experience than expected. Happy New Year!
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