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Fine Chocolate
The story of chocolate begins in jungle lowlands...
A Cacao Pod
Cacao originated in northern South America, near Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, and Colombia. The trees can grow to 30-50 feet tall. The cacao fruit or pod can be red, orange, yellow, or green when ripe, depending on variety. Inside each pod are 30-50 cacao seeds.
After Cortez came to Mexico and took cacao back to Spain, it was eventually spread around the world in similar jungle lowlands. Most today is grown in West Africa.
We get our cacao from Central and South America, Mexico and the Caribbean, where cacao originated.
Harvest
A cacao tree will bear fruit throughout the year and has peak harvest times twice a year. When the cacao pods are ripe they are carefully cut from the lower branches of the tree and taken to a central area for fermentation. It's very hard work picking the cacao pods off the lower branches of the trees. I tried it one day and couldn't keep up with these hard workers. Thank them when you enjoy your next chocolate!
Inside The Cacao Pod
Crack open the thick pod and the cacao seeds are covered in a sweet/sour fruity pulp. There are 30-50 seeds in each pod. Birds, monkeys, and people enjoy the juice around the cacao seed. It's refreshing in the tropical heat. Jams and jellies are also made with it. Alcoholic drinks, too!
Cacao Seeds
This is a close up of the cacao seeds inside the pod. They have a white mucilaginous coating that tastes fruity and refreshing, like a tropical LifeSaver or Starburst candy. The seeds themselves taste like a raw bean and somewhat bitter— not at all like chocolate. The seeds must go through a process of fermentation, drying, and roasting to taste like chocolate.
Fermentation
The cacao seeds, still with their fruity coating, are taken out of many pods and massed in a heap, then covered. Over the course of 3-7 days, depending on cacao variety and conditions, natural yeasts eat the sugars in the white fruity coating and ferment them. The seeds are turned several times to ensure they thoroughly ferment. The temperature rises as yeasts eat the sugars and create carbon dioxide and alcohol, bacteria consume the alcohol and create acetic acid (vinegar), and the process slows to completion. The seeds turn brown at this stage. The fermentation process changes the proteins in the seed to taste like chocolate. From here, it's off to the dryers.
Drying Cacao Seeds
Once the cacao seeds are fermented for 3-7 days, they are carefully dried for an additional 3-7 days. The seeds are turned every day. This can be done in the bright sunlight or on drying beds, such as this one. Too fast, and they will retain too much acid and can make a sour chocolate. Too slow, and they may mold, which will ruin the chocolate. It's a painstaking process making fine chocolate. Thank these guys, too!
Fermented & Dried
These cacao seeds have been properly fermented and dried. They're about the size of almonds. At this point, they're often called cocoa beans, rather than cacao seeds. To make dark chocolate, they are roasted, cracked, winnowed, and ground with sugar, sometimes vanilla and lecithin. To make milk chocolate, powdered milk is added. To make white chocolate, the dark chocolate mass is pressed in a hydraulic press, separating the cocoa butter from the cocoa mass, which becomes cocoa powder. The separated cocoa butter is then combined with milk powder, sugar, vanilla, and lecithin to make white chocolate. Kakawa Cocoa Beans are all of these chocolates in one bite!
Kakawa Cocoa Beans
Imagine the smooth and subtle tastes of Old World chocolates, combined with the pure and intense crunch of New World cocoa beans. Every kind of chocolate in one bite; fresh-roasted fine-flavor cocoa beans, luscious layers of the best white, milk, and dark chocolates, and a velvety coating of exceptional cocoa powder. That's the experience of Kakawa Cocoa Beans. We work hard to make them because they're delicious. Our customers agree!
Kakawa Cocoa Beans— true chocolate for true connoisseurs.
