Malvaceae Theobroma Cacao

Bribri Reserve, COSTA RICA
Feb.12, 2015

Chocolate.  What's the first thing you think of when you hear "chocolate"?  Hard thumb-size squares from a bar wrapped in tinfoil...  Chocolate cake (with chocolate icing)...  Brownies...  Chocolate covered almonds...  Hot chocolate...  But probably not this:

Malvaceae Theobroma Cacao

Meet the source of all that chocolaty goodness - the cacao tree.

The fruit on this tree contains the cacao bean, or seed, from which chocolate is created.  The Central and South American indigenous people first domesticated the tree and started making cacao a couple thousand years ago (must be one of many reasons they are a relatively content people), before the Spanish arrived and brought it back to Europe [1].

The Jungle Beach House gang, all avid fans of chocolate (who isn't?), spent a day inland in Bribri territory, expanding our appreciation for this common staple food by learning where it all comes from.

Upon arriving, we freshened up first with a drive and hike to some spectacular waterfalls, where crossing the river in the van meant driving right through it.  The young man driver then took us on foot over muddy trails, then up through the river to the falls.  While England is the land of ABC's, Costa Rica is the land of ABW's...

Hiking the path of least resistence - the river

The small things always seem to be the dangerous ones
in these lands - he's cute, but poisonous

The next river crossing was over a proper bridge, leading to the cacao farm where we were hosted by the local Shaman-in-Training.  Here, a shaman is one who knows the native plants and how to use them, and combines that knowledge with spiritual knowledge and practice to heal people from sickness and troubles.  Training starts for the chosen shaman when he is a child, and lasts for many years.  Interestingly, for the Bribri, clan lineage is passed down through the women [2], and they alone can prepare the cacao for sacred ceremonies.  However, only men become shamans.

This particular Shaman-in-Training is also an astute business man, inviting people to his clan's plantation, taking them on a tour of his gardens, explaining the cacao process through one of the English-speaking Bribri guides, and feeding them lunch.

The plantation

The cocoa tree fruit is actually a collection of white mini-fruits in the main pod, like a passion fruit, each with their own individual seeds.  The fruit tasted of not much, and was sort of jelly-slimy-ish, like a passion fruit.  I accidentally chewed and swallowed the seed as well - I missed the instruction about spitting it out - and it didn't taste at all like chocolate.  Yet.  

Our man holding the cacao fruit

Crushing the cacao seeds - I suspect the hollowed
stone table is a result of years of crushing

First, the thick rind is removed from the fruit.  The fruit is then roasted in the sun for a few days, where it ferments and falls away from the seeds.  The freed seeds continue to roast in the sun for another set of days.

After roasting comes crushing, which squeezes out oils and results in a chocolate paste.  This is easily rolled into little balls, often mixed with a bit of cane sugar juice, and ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, mint, chili peppers, almonds or other herbs and bits (we did a taste test of many of the varieties).

With no "un-natural" additives, this pure chocolate will not melt in the heat.








The farm does not only have cacao trees.  The Bribri are pretty self-sufficient, growing most of their own food, meat, and shaman plants.  And cosmetics.

The cool thing about Bribri cosmetics - it looks great on everyone, no matter what your colouring

Lunch:  chicken stew with potato, plantain and yucca

Coconut shell tea cups

After getting pretty, having some lunch, and sipping tea, our man took the four of us through his garden.  Each of us was given a leaf (from a plant I can't remember), and told to crunch it into a little ball and hold it squeezed into a hand until he told us to let go.  When he gave me mine, he looked at me and said "ah, you are quite sensitive".  Gak!  If I'm that obvious, no wonder poker is not my thing.

He explained the many uses of his plants, similar to the guide I met in Cahuita - apparently tamarind is a fantastic plant, internal, external, and it tastes real good too.  Again, it made me want to create my own garden!

When we were finally allowed to unfurl our hands, he looked at the colour the leaf had left on each of us.  Joanna's blue indicated she was a calm and cool soul.  My and Jenny's red indicated fiery and passionate.  Marie-Soleil's was colourless, so we all concluded she must be pure.

Red pigment on my hand from crushed leaf

With all of us agreeing (for the most part) that the colours were indeed correct indicators, I wondered: does calm people's blood actually run cooler than fiery people's blood?  A small bit of googling tells me that blood temperature can vary by person, as well for an individual throughout the day, for women and hormonal cycles, with health, with body parts (extremities like hand vs the core)...  What about skin temperature?  Sweat temperature?  Do different temperatures extract different pigments from the crushed leaf?

...I'm hungry - time to go make another feast.