Well, they are not really the same thing like "pohtato" or "potahto." The cacao bean is the basis for all chocolate and cocoa is a processed powder. Cacao vs Cocoa is good reading and it will make you want to run and grab the nearest high cacao content chocolate bar because it is "healthy!"
We have about a dozen cacao trees planted under the shade of larger trees that line the "quebrada" on the other side of our garage. Lilo planted the cacao around June last year. They stand about 3 feet now and look like someone stuck a spindly stick into the ground
and dressed it up with about a dozen battered long green leaves. Since the trees are near the chicken coop, the hens give the leaves a quick peck as they waddle by in search of insects. And the insects are certainly having a feast on the leaves. It will take about 4 years until these trees produce pods that contain the cacao beans and up to 15 years to fully mature with the football sized pods. The tree can grow as high as 50', however, we will keep these trees pruned back to about 6' in height. Firstly, to make it easier to harvest the pods and secondly, to keep the trees short enough to take advantage of the shade canop
Cacao tree is an evergreen and needs medium shade, lots of water/humidity and good soil for its long tap root. Growing the tree is the easiest part of the whole process.
Diego, one of our house painters brought us 3 cacao pods from his family farm. I borrowed this image of an open cacao pod from a website called factsanddetails.com with tons of information about cacao production. As you can see, the beans are covered in a white flesh. The process to separate the beans from the flesh is called fermentation. We put all the contents of the pod in a large bucket with water for about 3 days. Yikes!! The smell was unpleasantly intense and the contents turned black. Next, we used our fingers to squeeze off the remaining flesh (black) that was clinging to the beans. Then placed them on a large, black garbage bag on the gravel in the driveway to sun dry. Next, I cracked the outer shell of the bean and tried to remove the paper thin protective skin that covered the inner cacao bean. There were many, many beans in each of the pods so I spent a couple of hours in this process.
At this stage, the beans are edible. If you want to make chocolate, the next step is to roast them. I made a little misstep in the roasting process. Our stove, from a manufacturer in Panama called Nisato, is propane gas (from a canister.) The oven temperature knob does not display the degrees like 150, 200, 250 etc. It just has the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4. I have no idea what temperature that these numbers signify. I visited the Nisato website and it had no information. And I can't find the information booklet that came with the stove.
When I use the stove, it is a guessing game as to what the cooking temperature is. I watched a couple of YouTube videos on roasting cacao in the oven and made an educated guess. However, I over-toasted the beans and they have a smoked flavor. I have yet to make chocolate sauce from the beans because they next step is grinding the beans into a fine powder. I don't have any equipment for this task. I suggested to M that we use the VitaMix. He didn't like that idea. I could get a rolling pin. In the meantime, we snack on tablespoon of cacao once a day.
There are many health benefits in eating cacao. It contains antioxidants, phytochemicals and Phenethylamine, or PEA. Cacao falls in the newly popular category of "super foods." Though some websites caution against eating too much since it contains caffeine. Any health issues that caffeine aggravates will be affected with cacao. We have at least a lb of cacao now. That'll keep us buzzing around the property for awhile.
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