A small group of cacao trees (Theobroma cacao) are starting to bear fruit in the orchard, and I'm excited to learn how to prepare some home-made chocolate drink when the fruits have ripened.
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| A cluster of cacao fruits. |
From the online videos I've seen, it looks like I need to ferment the seeds for a few days, then dry these under the sun for another few days. The dried cocoa beans are roasted, and the skin removed. After that, the beans are ground with a manual grinder, together with the optional ingredients (sweetener and flavoring). It will take several passes through the grinder before the combined ingredients assume the consistency of a thick chocolate paste. This can now be molded into tablets which are locally called "tablea."
The final step is boiling the tablea with some water, and adding more sweetener and milk to taste.
Much of this process will surely be done by trial and error later, but I need to go online shopping now for an old-fashioned, hand-cranked grinder.
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| Some 9-year old cacao trees are thriving in the orchard. |
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