Tag Archives: plantation
Crushing My Passion, all the way to Costa Rica!

Crushing My Passion, all the way to Costa Rica!

by on February 23, 2011 in On Chocolate & Cacao, Trips

I’m crushing my passion. Steven ‘minorissues’ wrote it a year ago. Gary Vaynerchuk confirmed it (well, his book did). And some hundreds of Facebook Fans, Twitter followers and people who attended a Choqoa Tasting event continuously fuel that passion.
I think it’s been pretty great so far, but far from enough…My first blog post said something about cacao plantations; well that’s where I’m going soon! It’s time for the next level of Choqoa.

Choqoa. [photo By Corey'sWorld]
[photo by Corey'sWorld]

I’m seizing the unique opportunity to join an international program to explore cacao in Costa Rica with Ecole Chocolat. Led by one of the grand icons of fine origin cacao, Steve Devries, we will tour with a small group through different locations:

A week long adventure will take you to the historical roots of cacao growing during harvest. Not only will your chocolate making benefit from a much better understanding of cacao cultivation and processing but you will engage in spirited dialogue on the future of fine chocolate flavor.

On many occasions people ask me where I want to go with Choqoa. The answer is always that I can’t tell. Eventually it’s not me who decides. It’s where my passion leads me, or more correct: the way all of you keep responding to my passion. That’s why I keep on crushing it as hard as I can. Costa Rica will certainly give new directions and inspiration to share.
And I’m looking forward to shake hands with Gary Vaynerchuck tomorrow too on the Phare conference.

Follow Choqoa and help everybody to rediscover chocolate!

Exploring fresh harvested cocoa pods from Saõ Tomé & Principe

by on August 7, 2010 in On Chocolate & Cacao, Trips

A short while ago a friend went for a trip to chocolaty Saõ Tomé and she totally enjoyed walking through the cacao growing everywhere,… jealousy was not far away, an experience that is still on my bucket list! She was so utterly kind however to fly back some fresh harvested cacao pods and dried beans for me, to share everything cacao straight from the plantation.

I was really looking forward to taste the fresh juice or “pulp” which is often described as really fruity. And boy it did, I shared it with some friends and we tasted mango, lychee, banana, grapes and more all at the same time: now you would really understand why this is the ‘food of the gods’!

Having several of fresh cacao pods in my hands it was above all about really looking how this fruit works on the inside. And now I could finally see and taste fresh all these great aromas, which so far I only tasted in a finished chocolate bar and look at all the different parts. The inner structure is just beautiful and it’s amazing to see how sophisticated this fruit grows!

See for yourself, and thank you Helena (@imkedielen)!
I’ll pick up the Claudio Corallo bars soon :)