In Sarapiqui, we visited the Tirimbina Rainforest Center where they hold chocolate plantation tours deep in the woods. Upon our arrival, we walked thirty minutes deep into the woods on a suspension bridge that went across the Sarapiqui River (where we went white water rafting earlier that day). This chocolate plantation operates as a nonprofit company and privately owns and protects 350 acres of land. This land is not used for commercial chocolate production; it is reserved with the purpose of educating tourists about traditional coffee cultivating processes. This traditional cultivation is friendly to the environment and aids in the conservation of cacao plants. We spent two hours watching and learning about this traditional process.
The first step in the production of chocolate is to collect the orange fruit shown here, which is known as a
pod. The pod is carefully broken open to reveal about 30 beans, which are white in color and slimy in texture. The next few steps are very similar to the coffee production process, as the white
pulp is removed from the outside and beans are fermented, dried, and roasted. Fermentation reduces the bitterness of the beans and usually takes seven days, and then the beans are dried in the small drying house shown above. If it is raining the beans are kept under the roof, but when the sun is shining the beans are rolled out into the sun. Naturally the beans are 60% water, but after the drying process they are reduced to 5-10% water. You can tell if the beans are dry by cracking it open; dry beans will be brown and smell like cocoa while beans that are still wet will be purple). Next the beans are roasted in the oven in order to remove bacteria, get any remaining water out, make the shell easier to remove, and develop a better smell. Once the shell is removed, the bean becomes known as a
nib.
Next comes the grinding process. We saw Giovanni grind the cocoa beans by hand using a mortar and pestle in the traditional fashion, but commercial chocolate producers will use machines to grind the
beans much finer. The grinding process removes the fat from the cocoa beans and creates a gooey mess. After the cocoa is ground and turned into cocoa liquor, there are two different production options. In order to make chocolate bars, cocoa liquor is refined, sugar is added, then
conching and
tempering occur. Conching is the process of mixing the cocoa for 72 hours to make it smooth. Tempering is when chocolate is heated to 45 Celsius, mixed to melt it completely, then lowered to 32 Celsius so that cocoa butter will crystallize and become shiny. The chocolate is put into a mold to harden and becomes a chocolate bar. The other production option includes pressing the cocoa liquor to create cocoa butter, which has multiple uses, and a cocoa presscake. The presscake is ground and turned into cocoa powder, which can be used to make cookies, cake, ice cream, and drinks.
Fun Facts
- Before 1519, cocoa powder was mixed with vanilla, chili, and corn to make a thick and spicy chocolate drink. In 1519, nuns brought sugar and cinnamon to Central America and revolutionized the chocolate industry.
- Cocoa stimulates serotonin production in the brain and makes your happier.
- The chocolate bar was created in 1847 but did not sell well until the industrial revolution because it was too grainy when ground by hand.
- Cocoa seeds used to be used as currency. A tomato cost 1 bean, an avocado cost 3 beans, a slave cost 100 beans, and a turkey cost 200 beans.
- Kasey Mazza (@kaseymazza)
