We visited an Artisan CHOCOLATE factory in the RAINFOREST in Mindo, Ecuador 🇪🇨🧡😍💥🤩🌈🤗🇪🇨
Starting with these cacao beans is the secret ingredient to making the best tasting CHOCOLATE in the WORLD!
The cacao beans grown in the unique fields near the West coast in central Ecuador 🇪🇨
Being surrounded by flowers and fruits - which the butterflies pollinate - is why these cacao beans can yield such stupendously delicious chocolate.
Here at this little artisan factory that we visited, we saw the process step-by-step:
- first growing the cacao beans in the rainforest, then harvesting them at just the right time;
- then naturally fermenting and sun drying;
- followed by custom roasting in small batches;
- then cracking the beans to separate the shell from the cacao nibs with an ancient and simple wind tunnel;
- then gently grinding the nibs with the stone grinder to make delicious creamy cacaseno paste;
- then it is conched for several hours - (this is where the magic of the flavors develop!);
- then the tempering (on cold marble) which is how you get the amazing “snap” texture and the stunning shine …
and finally ...
- the easy part: pour into molds and VOILA!
Our website will have the step-by-step of how we make our chocolates ... stay tuned!
Now it’s off to Manta to spend some time in the cacao fields at the NGO that supplies our beans: the best cacao beans in the WORLD!
