Chocolate in the Jungle

So we're back from another amazing jungle trip to Pomarrosa, a small organic finca on the outskirts of Machalilla National Park. Anthony, our school director, 8 adventurous students and I made the journey, and it was definitely worth every minute. The beautiful scenery, and amazing food, the thrilling horseback journey, hiking, coffee roasting, and my favorite part, CHOCOLATE.

Benito, the manager of Pomarrosa, walked us through each step of processing cocoa, starting with the pod, and ending in a rich delicious cup of cinnamon hot chocolate.

Step One: Go out into the bush and find some cocoa pods!
Cocoa grows out of the trunk, not on the branches, and can ripen all year round, and even at different times on the same tree.

        

Anthony finds a ripe one!

Step Two: Pull out the beans inside the pods and roast them

The "roaster" that we used is a traditional ceramic oven made from local clay. First build a fire inside and wait until the coals get and hot. Then you put another ceramic bowl over the first one that's holding the fire. Then you throw in the cocoa and keep it moving around so it doesn't burn.

               

Step Three: Peel the cocoa beans by hand, leaving the shiny inside part.

By the way, this is the perfect moment to grab a few and pop them in your mouth. 

Pure dark cocoa-y goodness.

Step Four: Throw all the beans in a grinder

A warning: As you grind the beans, your face is over the bowl and there will be an intense chocolaty smell bathing your face. This causes uncontrollable smiling (as seen in the photo below), and makes you ignore the pain in your arm muscles from working the grinder.

Flavia grinding away

Step Five: Ball up the cocoa paste and boil it with water, milk, sugar and cinamon until it's creamy, hot and delicious.

First bring the water to a boil with the cinamon. Then add the cocoa and let it simmer until the cocoa flavor is imbued in the water. Then add lots of milk and sugar to taste.

Step Six: ¡Disfrutalo!
This is the easy part. You will notice a bit of on oily sheen on the surface, and lots of sediment at the bottom. This is normal. That's how you know it's the real stuff! And by real stuff, I mean experiencing the richest, smoothest, freshest chocolate you ever had in your life.