Cacao trees love to nestle under the canopy of bigger trees, making it an ideal agroforestry plant which supports diversity of habitats for animals and keeps the nutrient value of the soil.
The pods grow directly from the trunk and branches
The pods grow directly from the trunk and branches
Cacao pods come in a variety of colours, from blues, pinks and purples, to reds and greens. They all make their way to yellow when they are ripe.
You can already feel the heart opening just sitting with the trees
They are then opened with a machete to remove the beans which are covered in this delicious white fruit that tastes somewhere between a mango and a lychee. Absolute taste explosion!
The beans and pulp are then fermented in these big crates for 5-7 days, being turned each day to ensure even fermentation. This is where the chocolatey flavour begins to emerge
Fermenting generates heats of around 50 degrees Celsius so cacao is NOT a raw food, despite what advertisers may claim. If cacao tastes sour, that's a sure sign it's been over fermented
Beans are then left out to dry, usually in the sun, where they will again be turned every day to ensure even drying
For small scale production they will dry the beans on a tarp out in the sun. They will then be quality checked to take out any mouldy beans (if a high quality operation, which most aren't)
They are lightly toasted in small quantities to remove the skins and further develop the flavour and bioavailability of the active compounds. Small quantities ensures the beans are not over roasted.
At Keith’s Cacao this will be done by local Mayan women in their homes, allowing them to roast and peel at their own pace, around their family duties and other work.
The beans are then peeled by hand to ensure no mouldy beans get into the final product. This is very labour intensive so most cacao makers will use a machine for this, lowering the quality.
Keith's Cacao will inspect each bean three times: once after drying, again after peeling, and once more by another person before they are ground.
In very small productions the beans will be ground using a hand mill like this one. It's very labour intensive and doesn't grind it very finely, so most will grind in an larger machine mill.
During the grinding the cacao is turned into this delicious past called cacao liquor, which is then spooned into 454g bags by volunteers.
These were called 'cacao bagging' evenings. A group of 10 would spend a couple of hours once a week packaging cacao while singing, chatting and having a very high vibe time.
I was usually the quality control, making sure the packages were the right weight, and were clean and tidy. Cacao bagging is now done by a team of local workers rather than volunteers.
Once packaged, each block is then blessed and stacked by Keith, pouring some of his love and magic into each block. They are then left to cool and harden and finally are wrapped by the workers.
The final result is blocks of magic, ready to be enjoyed. As it cools the cacao butter will separate creating these patterns. This shown the cacao has not been tempered (heat treated)