Surrounded by Cacao Trees and Making Healthy Local Chocolate

-The more we learn, the more we intensify the experience and pleasure of chocolate

One of our goals in this blog is to bring you a little closer to the region the cacao is grown and the lives of those who foster the trees.  Rich and Carolyn have become quite masterful at chocolate making.  If you are like me, you will wish you had a way of beaming yourself into their kitchen.  This is an excerpt from Carolyn's diary:

A beautiful day today in Puerto Viejo Caribe, the land of chocolate by the sea! The sun was shining on us as we made a special chocolate delivery by way of bicycles, to the small town of Playa Chiquita. Our client Petra, a family friend of many years and hotel owner of “La Isla Inn”, recently had heart surgery, is on a special diet….no sweets! The chocolate we brought to her were beautiful heart shapes, 75% cocoa, sweetened with Birtch sugar made from the Birtch Tree. Birtch sugar is a wonderful compliment with its smooth taste and has no strange after taste like other substitutes I have tried! It is great for those on diets that exclude use of cane sugar for sweeteners. La isla Inn will soon be carrying this and other Siriana Cocoa products to serve to their guests! On the way back from Playa Chiquita, we stopped into a popular boutique in the center of Puerto Viejo and shared some of our dark chocolate with almond samples. The store owner Celeste, immediately placed an order for more to sell in her shop! More deliveries for tomorrow, Vive Chocolate! I am glad for the health benefits and joy our clients will be receiving from this delivery today. 

And now a little side note on cocoa and its health benefits! Upon our arrival to Puerto Viejo six months ago, I noticed my mom had a small spot/bump on her hand about half the size of a dime. She told me it had appeared months before and was VERY PAINFUL to the touch! My mother was concerned, she did not know what it was, and though she’d been treating it with various remedies; nothing seemed to make much difference. I suggested she place a bit of ground pure cocoa on the area to treat it. Within days, she began to see a noticeable change in the color and size of the spot as it SHRANK and soon after, the pain she had been experiencing COMPLETELY disappeared. It turns out the skin likes cocoa as much as the mouth! Vive the power of cocoa! Be Blessed! Caroline

http://www.laislainn.com/es/hotel-restaurante-la-isla-inn/nuestro-hotel.html 

http://www.nyirfacukor.hu/en/for_diabetics

Siriana Cacao

The Cacao Journey Begins

...that unexpected meeting that changes your life.  

How it began...  I was in conversation with a dear friend and mentioned how I wish I could find that gig that allowed me to meet wonderful people from all over the world, that had elements of intrigue, sexy, and doing good all wrapped into one.  This is how I came to be introduced to Rich & Carolyn.  This blog is about their story, the story of Costa Rican Cacao, its farmers/tribes, and how I got the gig with all yumminess I was looking for.

But first, this is an excerpt from Rich & Carolyn who live in Costa Rica:

Our family’s interest in traveling to Costa Rica began when our parents retired and moved to Puerto Viejo near the Talamanca mountains by the Caribbean Sea.  Mother Nancy, a professional artist and father Barry a degreed engineer, soon began a not-for-profit soup kitchen called “El Puente” (The Bridge)  to help  indigenous the Bri-Bri who were in need of support.

During one vacation to Puerto Viejo, we discovered   ”cacao trees” in the nearby orchard. Our neighbor, nine year old,  Siriana enthusiastically showed us how to make chocolate from the beans of a cacao pod we had dried in the sun, and simple ingredients of maple syrup and powdered milk  from the kitchen!

We became interested in learning more about chocolate and the history of cocoa in the Talamanca region. We were fascinated by stories told to us about cocoa, by tribal members, locals, and people who had planted and harvested cacao for generations in this area.  

The more we learned and the more we visited the beautiful  Puerto Viejo Talamanca by the sea,  the more we dreamed of helping the community, creating opportunities  for local farmers and people needing work.  We also began to discover the beauty and nutritional benefits of cocoa and why cacao from the Talamanca Region of Costa Rica is uniquely special! 

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After becoming established there the work began to find markets for the cacao beans that was already being farmed, and to save the existing farms from developers.  Our goal is to raise the standard of living for the farmers we work with and purchase more cacao farm land that is falling prey to developers. We want to preserve what is left of this precious indigenous food. We will be sharing more stories that connect you, the chocolate maker, to the bean growing process.  When you use our beans, this blog will become a resource for you and allow you to tell your bean-to-bar story.

Rich & Carolyn are in Costa Rica and I am here in the middle of the United States to work with you.

From Pod to Fermentation Process