Chocolate Plantation

Welcome to a Chocolate, I mean, a Cacao Bean Plantation!  

Some friends of mine went on a trip to Costa Rica recently.  While there in the rain forest, they were able to visit a Cacao Bean Plantation. They took a fun tour and  learned a lot about how chocolate is made.

It was fascinating what they told me about the production of my favorite food!

Cacao bean pods

I have never seen a cacao plant before.  The beans grow in pods.  

When you break them open, they look like this:

Ray said the open pods smelled slightly banana-like.

The beans are inside the white casing.  They need to be fermented and dried before they can be processed into the chocolate we know, love, and eat way too much of.

Fermented and dried cacao beans

The plantation featured a chocolate tasting at the end of the tour.  Look at this lovely table (below)!  Those are local fruits all sliced and ready for dipping in a chocolate fondue.

The chocolate they brought home with them - that I got to taste - was really delicious - but very STRONG in flavor and cacao bean content.  Which brings up the question: what's your favorite?  Milk chocolate?  Dark chocolate?  White chocolate?  Do you like it plain or do you prefer it with nuts or other ingredients - as in a chocolate bar or a fancy bonbon?

I once knew a woman who was allergic to chocolate.  I felt so sorry for her, until she hastened to add that it "tasted like dirt" to her, so it wasn't a problem to avoid it.  

I do not have that problem.  I like chocolate in all its forms.

I'm so happy to have shared, in a small way, my friends' visit to the rain forest cacao bean plantation.

What a fun experience!

All I can say is: YUM.

- Photos courtesy of Ray Fry