Tsatsayaku takes first place at the Chocolate Festival!

What an amazing day at the Cacao and Chocolate Festival. People from all over the Amazon came. The highlight of the day was Tsatsayaku taking the top prize in "Best Chocolate." Kudos to Henry, David and Saul who worked their magic this week. They had some pretty stiff competition from some established chocolate makers from Quito.

 

 

 

Ned and I enjoyed experiencing the food (grubs!), dances and cultural celebration of the Amazon region.

Here is Henry offering me a grub worm to eat.

 

 

Rather than write a lot about it, I thought I would let the pictures tell the story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the record, I asked permission from everyone who let me photograph them. I think the faces really tell the story about the beautiful Kichwa and other indigineous people.

 

 

 

 

 

The Peace Corp Volunteers from all over Ecuador came for the festival. Here they are enjoying lunch together.

 

 

 

Ned and I ate some pincho de chontakuro, which are big fat tree grub. They are live, then bbq'd on a stick.

 

Ned trying his first bite of the little grub.

 

The jury is out...

I didn't eat the crunchy skin, but instead just sucked it out. I left the head intact.

 

 

The festival was held in the town of Archidona, one of the first towns settled in the Amazon. Here's the first established church in the Amazon.

 

 

The statue in the town square.

 

 

One of the dance troupes.

 

 

 

Congratulations to Henry, Saul and David of Tsatsayaku - the first place winners!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Getting Ready for La Feria de Chocolate

As luck would have it, we timed our trip for "La mejor cacao y chocolate feria del Ecuador" aka as the major cacao and chocolate fair of Ecuador! The fair will be held in Archidona, still in the Amazon, but farther north than where we are staying. The fair starts today. Most of today's agenda is lectures given by local agencies about the potential of chocolate for the economy in this region.

We plan on attending tomorrow when everyone will be selling their cacao and chocolate products. The purpose of the fair is to showcase the cacao and chocolate of the Amazon. Today is all about getting ready for the fair. Henry's plan is to make as much chocolate as we can so that it can be sold at the fair.

We started the day with the usual sorting and weighing of the dried beans. Today we will be making chocolate from 36 lbs. of beans

 

 

 

 

 

Ned is instructing Saul on how to get a consistent roast. Here's Saul documenting time and temperature. One of the most difficult things in making chocolate is maintaining a consistent flavor from batch to batch. Varying temperature levels, as well as batch size, will effect the flavor of the beans.

 

 

 

Never underestimate the power of a great winnower! Ned and I used to do this by hand, when we were doing this as a hobby and not as a business, and it took us about an hour per pound to separate the shells from the nibs. We, Cello Chocolate, give our shells from the winnowed beans to Ol' Republic Brewery. They make an awesome stout from it. Tsatsayaku sells their shells to one of the association members who makes a tea from it. It's a win-win situation.

Besides selling chocolate liquor (bulk unsweetened chocolate), Tsatsayaku also sells 1 lb. bags of nibs. In the near future Tsatsayaku hopes to create a marketplace at their chocolate making facility to sell other related cacao products such as cacao wine, tea, chocolate bars both sweet and unsweetened, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder.

 

 

After grinding the nibs to a dry paste they were placed in the melanger. This will refine the chocolate liquor to a smooth texture.Tsatsayaku hopes to purchase a large melanger that will be able to handle a capacity of up to 65 lbs. of liquor.

It's all about knowing your market. Here the local restaurants and bakers prefer the unsweetened chocolate. It reminds them of the times as children on the fincas (farms) when their grandparents would harvest the cacao themselves, roast it, hand grind it and serve it with milk.

Here's the finished product (a 1lb block) ready for the fair! Ned and I have been brainstorming with Henry on ways to help raise money for Tsatsayaku. They need about $16,000 to finish the building of the plant. (Henry keeps phenomenal records and spreadsheets and has presented his findings to the Peace Corp headquarters in Quito. He was kind enough to share this information with us as well.) Without these finishes which includes construction of the ceiling, a cooling system, lighting system, tubing for hoses for cleaning, ventilation system for the roaster, stainless steel work tables, observation room for tourism, and ceramics for flooring or epoxy paint on floor, the Department of Sanitation won't issue them a license. (Yes, they have been selling the chocolate now under the radar...shhhh). One of our ideas is to begin a Kickstarter campaign for Tsatsayaku. Ned and I would not only run the campaign, but also make sweetened chocolate bars from the bulk chocolate liquor that we will buy from Tsatsayaku. We thought Cello Chocolate could give them as incentives to people donating to the Kickstarter campaign. Stay tuned...

 

 

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From Bud to Bar...and beyond

Location: Shandia, Ecuador

Cacao grows within 20 degrees of the equator. Most of the places where it grows are developing countries. Traditionally, it is then shipped to Western Countries where it is made into chocolate. When we receive the cacao it is in a bean form and we make chocolate from bean to bar.

 

 

The challenge in making chocolate where it grows is that it's very hot and humid and many people don't have the infrastructure such as electricity and air conditioning to take it to the next step. Henry, in working with Tsatsayaku, is not only growing the cacao, but making the chocolate as well. Thus they are a full "bud to bar shop." This is really unique! When we visited Belize a few years ago Juan and Abelina Cho were the only Mayans in Belize that were making chocolate from cacao they grew. Thus, they too were a bud to bar family operation. What makes Henry's project so unique is that this "bud to bar" operation will positively impact 140 families!

Today we attended a chocolate truffle making workshop with Henry and some of his associates. It was put on by local government agencies. Ecuador is making a push to "Take Back Ecuador." In other words, they don't want only the United States and Europe to be making products from their raw materials. The reason this is so important is not only for national pride, but also for increasing the standard of living for many of their below poverty level residents. For example, the majority members of Tsatsayaku make less than $150 per month. By making chocolate and then selling their chocolate to this new crop of chocolatiers will increase everyone's income, both the chocolate maker and the artisan chocolatiers.

Today's truffle workshop was led by Chef Daniel Wilca, a chocolatier from Quito. Yes, it was entirely in Spanish, but between Henry's translation, Ned's high school spanish and our knowledge of chocolate we got a lot out of it!

Tsatsayaku provided some of the chocolate for the workshop. Nice coup Henry! The 20 attendees were from restaurants and catering companies from Tena, one of the larger cities in this Amazon region. A great audience for Tsatsayaku's product.

This workshop was amazing. Ned and I specialize in solely the bean to bar operation. The making of truffles and bon-bons and other premium confections are new to us. I think Ned enjoyed seeing how Chef Daniel tackled the challenge of tempering chocolate in a 80 degree, humid, open air space. I enjoyed the chocolate.

And because this is Ecuador, one of the truffles was made with 186 proof distilled cacao liquor. (And made by an associate in the Tsatsayaku group!)

 

We did our fair share of sampling! We made truffles from fruit, coffee, cacao liquor, candied orange peels and other Amazonian ingredients.

This area of Ecuador, the Oriente, is really remote and often is overlooked. By creating products not only from Ecuador, but specific to the Amazon they are hoping to set themselves apart and offer something unique.

 

As a side note, getting to this workshop was an event in itself. As is typical around here, everyone bums rides whenever they can. Juan, from one of the Gov't Associations putting on the workshop, picked up Henry, Ned and me and drove us to Shandia. Rather than take the main road, he crossed over the river on what looked to us like a pedestrian suspension bridge. We criss-crossed several times over the river on these type of bridges.

 

I really enjoyed driving the backroad thru the Amazon passing tiny villages and seeing their "fincas" or small farms.

 

 

 

 

 

After the workshop, while waiting for another ride, Henry took us on a "walkabout" thru the Village of Shandia. We crossed over a pedestrian thatched roof bridge to a beach along the river and Henry pointed out all the bizarre jungle fruit growing wild.

One of the weirder ones was what they locally refer to as "guava." It isn't our type of guava, but instead a 3 ft. long wiggly pod that looks like a giant okra. It has furry seeds inside that you suck on then spit out.

 

If that wasn't enough excitement for the day, when we eventually returned to our village of Arosemena Tola via bus, Jorge Luis was waiting for us. We left the very humble hostel we had been staying in and were brought to Oro y Luna, an incredibly beautiful and upscale "bed and breakfast" hostel. We are blessed with beautiful grounds of lush tropical plants, night blooming flowers releasing the most magnificent aroma, monkeys nearby, a quaint bungalow and internet to boot. I'm not so bold to expect hot water, this is more than enough.

 

 

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Making Chocolate at El Centro de Acopio de Cacao

Location: Arosemena Tola, Ecuador

The people here are incredibly sweet, almost ridiculously nice. It's not uncommon for a stranger to see us and extend their hand for a greeting or acknowledge us with huge smiles. This morning the plan was to walk about 15 min. from our hostel into town for breakfast. As is typical of most mornings in the Amazon, it was raining. We were appropriately suited up and ready to do the walk when a pick-up truck pulled up and Jorge Luis greeted us. He came to pick us up and take us to his hostel called Oro y Luna for breakfast. Last night Jorge Luis told us that he currently had about 27 French people staying at his place and wasn't able to accomodate us. So imagine our surprise to see that he took time from his busy morning at his hotel to come for us.

His place is amazing! It's situated near the Rio Anzu and the grounds are lush with flowering tropical plants and birds. We no sooner entered the outside dining area and we were greeted with hot coffee, fresh squeezed juice, sweetened porridge, croissants with fresh jam, scrambled eggs, slices of cheese and plates of fresh fruit. Wowza, this is certainly not the roughing it in the Amazon experience I had envisioned. If anyone ever has the opportunity to travel to this area I can heartily recommend this little piece of paradise, Oro y Luna. It would make a great home base for exploring nearby areas in the Amazon.

After that delicious breakfast, Jorge Luis drove us to the El Centro de Acopio de Cacao, the cocoa processing facility that we had visited the day before. We met up with Henry and his crew (David, the Director, Saul who will be making a lot of the chocolate, and Marilena who assists with tours, making chocolate and other needs). We then proceeded to make chocolate from the cacao grown by the local farmers.

 

 

 

Here's Ned testing the temperature of the roaster. Here they refer to this piece of equipment as the "Toastadora de Cacao."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next process was cooling the beans. They are put on a rolling rack and have cool air blown on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the beans are roasted and cooled, you need to separate out the beans (or nibs) from the shells. This process is called winnowing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The nibs are then put thru a grinder. It crushes them and turns it into a liquid paste also called chocolate liquor. Normally, this is when Tsatsayaku (the chocolate association or facility where we are) ends their process. They pour the chocolate liquor into 1 lb. molds and then sell them for about $4.

 

 

 

 

 

With the addition of the melanger that we brought with us, we took some of the chocolate liquor and showed them how to make sweetened chocolate. At the end of this week there is going to be a big Chocolate Feria (chocolate fair). Henry thought it would be fun to not only showcase their chocolate liquor, but also have some sweetened bars to share.

 

 

 

Remember the French people that I referenced earlier staying at the local hostel? Well, it turns out that they stopped by the chocolate plant for a tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the middle of the chocolate making, Henry and I took a break to brainstorm some sales and marketing ideas. Henry shared with me some great spreadsheets and data he has collected over the last 18 months.

 

 

 

 

 

After this very productive day, we grabbed a ride with someone into Tena, about 30 minutes away. We tagged along with Henry as he sold the day's production of chocolate liquor to several restaurants in town. Talk about just in time inventory!

 

 

 

 

 

We ended the evening having fish tacos and Amazonian cocktails at the Guyausa Lounge. Yum. The buses run all night so it's pretty easy catching a ride back to the village. It's very weird to be heading off to a pretty remote location on these fancy buses. The one we caught tonight had disco lighting on the ceiling and showed some boxing movie on a large flat screen tv. Pretty wild. We assured Henry that he didn't need to babysit us any longer and we'd be able to find our way home. Mmmm. The village sure looks different at night! We couldn't find the taxi stand, walked thru the whole village and just ended up walking to the hostel which is located on a remote dirt road. We were kept company by the myriad of wild dogs that roam the streets of Ecuador. Even though they were serenading quite loudly in reality they were pretty harmless...says me was clinging to Ned with a rock in my hand. Oh..and thank you iphone for having that handy flashlight!

 

 

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