"I was so tired, I started seeing spots," said Oscar. "I felt like throwing up," added Ruby. That's what happens when you get a private clinic with a couple of former Ecuadorian professional soccer players. It was a great start to the morning.
The two Fernandos, Nano and Palele, the former professionals, were kind enough to give the kids some pointers and run some drills after breakfast today. Nano and his American wife, Marjorie, own the house we're renting. Palele is a cousin who lives here and helps out on the property.
After soccer, Palele and Edwin, a worker on the property, led us on a rigorous hike to a couple of waterfalls. We walked down the road and into the cloud forest, with huge leaves towering over us, ferns, orchids, vines, and lots of water and mud. According to the local people, if you don't get wet in the waterfall, you'll get sick. We took no chances.
After lunch and some schoolwork, we went into town to tour El Quetzal, a small chocolate factory (only four people make chocolate there so "factory" is a bit of a misnomer). The beans ferment for up to 2 months, dry on racks, and then get roasted. Next, the chocolate nibs are extracted and ground. After 3 days of mixing, sugar and flavored are added, and the chocolate is molded into individual bars and wrapped by hand. Here are Oscar and Neil checking out lemongrass, which flavors some of the chocolate.
Best of all, the tour ended with a tasting -- cups of pure chocolate syrup to sample alone, with sugar, and with sugar plus hot chilies. We also got to try chocolate syrup (made from the run-off in the fermentation phase), chocolate barbeque sauce, and chocolate ginger syrup. Chocolate brownies topped off the tasting. Boy were we wired!!
We also met a real live chocolate ambassador, an American chocolatier on a tour of Ecuador. First, chocolate ambassador is a job?!? Second, this guy knows someone who survived in the jungle for a month eating only chocolate. According to our new friend, Ecuador is a chocolatier's best kept secret. Who knew that cocoa beans grown here -- and there are five distinct cocoa regions each with their own qualities -- are the prize ingredient of chocolate the world over? It has something to do with growing the beans for flavor vs. for shelf life.
Maybe the time is ripe for artisanal chocolate to have its moment in the sun. I'm intrigued with the idea of developing as refined a taste for chocolate as for wine. It figures that Northern California, and not New York, is shaping up to be the center of artisanal chocolate in the United States. (For you Northern Californians out there, Dick Taylor chocolate, available only in your area, is supposedly a truly worthy product.)
We're off to bed soon, as tomorrow morning we are going birding at the crack of dawn.
Maybe the time is ripe for artisanal chocolate to have its moment in the sun. I'm intrigued with the idea of developing as refined a taste for chocolate as for wine. It figures that Northern California, and not New York, is shaping up to be the center of artisanal chocolate in the United States. (For you Northern Californians out there, Dick Taylor chocolate, available only in your area, is supposedly a truly worthy product.)
We're off to bed soon, as tomorrow morning we are going birding at the crack of dawn.
2 comments:
I think there are some NYC chocolatiers who would quibble with that. Jacques Torres and Mast Bros, both of your home borough come to mind!
Just had some 86pct with a nose of basil, cranberry and mid summer morning dew from our choloclate cellar. All the rage out here.
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