I Made Chocolate!

The port at Roatán

Today was our day in Roatán, Honduras, and it was also the only departure we're going to make fro the ship for the duration. After rising and breaking our fast at the buffet this morning, our group split into two and Jessie and Zaga went to see the sloths and then do some snorkeling on the reef, and Dan, Dave and I went to the botanical garden for a hands-on chocolate making demonstration.

To get to the gardens we had to cram our large American bodies onto a small Japanese bus. I was unfortunate enough to get the seat over the wheels so my legroom was non-existent. I put my feet on top of the wheel housing with my chin to my knees and off we went. After our arrival at the Carambola Botanical Gardens, we took a walk up to the covered outdoor teaching area (good thing too as it rained in the middle of the demo) passing by cashew, mango, coconut, and cocoa trees. The cocoa tree is very interesting as it only grows 7-10 feet tall, and the fruit is born on the trunk--not the end of the branches. Flowers come out of the trunk, and after they're pollinated they turn into pods or fruit about the size of an oval baseball or softball and they just hang there on the side of the tree. When they are ripe they turn yellow and they will ripen on the tree or off.

Once they're ripe, the natives cut through the thin skins (much like you do with a pomegranate) and crack them open. The seeds, or beans, are covered with a white, slimy goop that the natives like to eat. When ripe it's supposed to taste like a sweetish citrus. The one we tried today wasn't quite ripe so the white was firm and pretty bland. After the beans are removed from the ripe fruit, they are fermented on banana leaves for about a week. After the fermentation is finished, the beans are roasted. We started our process today with roasted beans.

Cocoa fruit growing off the trunk of the tree

Our native demonstrator was a grandmother who has made chocolate all her life. She requested two volunteers and I made sure I was one. She reheated the roasted beans in a dry skillet until they began popping like corn, and then we took them and removed the papery skin coating on them. Apparently the skins are boiled ot make a great relaxing tea. After all of our beans were peeled, we took a hand-crnaked grnder which was clamped to the table, and we put the beans through it. This point in the process was another continuity break for us as the beans (now called cocoa nibs since they're out of their skins) are run through the grinder up to 19 times to turn them into paste. To save time, we did the first grind on one batch and the last grind on another that had been prepared for us.

Then we added melted cocoa butter and powdered sugar to the bowl of chocolate paste and set it in a bowl of water on the stove. The goal is to take it to 122 degrees F, but their cooking thermometer was broken so our demonstrator just told us when it was done by looking at it. After heating, the bowl of paste is put into an ice water bath and the chocolate is stirred until it's cooled and stiffer (but still moving). Then it's heated one more time before being poured into molds. This process of heating, cooling, and reheating is called tempering, and it prevents the cocoa fat from separating out, prevents the greyish bloom, and gives the finished chocolate its dark, even, glossy color.

We didn't add anything to our chocolate, but if we had wanted milk chocolate we would have added powered or condensed milk after the first heating, and nuts after the second heating right before pouring. We finished by pouring the chocolate into candy molds to cool. The cooling process takes 40 minutes so, after a lovely lunch of chicken with rice and beans cooked in coconut milk, and plantain chips, we were given some of the chocolate from a previous class that was already chilled. Then we piled back onto the bus and headed the short distance back to the pier. The rest of the day was spent napping and relaxing. It was incredible.

I know it didn't happen unless there are pictures so tomorrow I hope to have pics of me making chocolate!