Deb Bamboo 8
The YouTube Video made transforming cacao to chocolate look quick and easy: Grind freshly roasted beans in a high-speed blender until it becomes a paste. Add sugar. Put the mixture into molds or spread on a cookie sheet. Cool it and there you go.
The reality was a bit more time consuming, especially if you consider the three and a half years it took to grow the beans. In 2020 we planted 25 cacao trees. This year we processed four pounds of beans; not bad for young trees. In another four years we should have ten times that much.
My first attempt at transforming bean to bar took three hours longer than the 20 minutes YouTube promised. The glitch? I hadn’t peeled the skin, which made it nearly impossible to form a paste. Patience and perseverance won. Our high-fiber chocolate - a little on the dry side and no threat to Cadburys - was a triumph, nonetheless.
Subsequent batches with naked beans were much easier, produced smoother tasting chocolate, and didn’t tax the motor of the blender to the point of exhaustion. We added sugar and some local almonds; the next batch will feature Magante honey for a true New Cambium chocolate.
Watching the cacao grow from little thumb-like extrusions to the elegant pods that hold the beans connects us with nature. Making and eating chocolate satisfies our hearts, souls, and taste buds.
Does it get better than this?
Comentarios