Last Victorian Christmas, while selling our chocolate, a local family from Nevada City purchased some of our bars. They were particularly interested in our Ecuador bar since their son, Henry Harrison, was working as a Peace Corp Volunteer in Ecuador. After receiving the chocolate bar, Henry reached out to us via email with some questions about selecting machinery and learning more about the chocolate making process.
Henry, who has an Economics degree, is working in the village of Carlos Julio Arosemena Tola which is about three hours from Quito. This village grows their own cacao and has started making unsweetened chocolate from their own beans. Most cacao growers only grow the beans and don't process them into a finished product, which is a much more profitable enterprise. Kudos to Henry for taking the cacao growing process one step further!
Over the past year, we have continued our on-line discussion with Henry. We ultimately decided that the best way to teach someone and share with them best practices is via hands-on. So, we are now on our way to Ecuador to spend a week or so with Henry and the people of Arosemena Tola.
While there, Ned will be leading a workshop on making "sweet" chocolate as opposed to the unsweetened chocolate liquor that this village now makes. Unfortunately, they don't have the one piece of equipment needed to do this. As a result, Ned and I offered to hand carry a 25 lb. melanger to them.
Our plan is to travel "light". Okay as light as one possibly can with 4 backpacks.
Here's Ned with the melanger in the front backpack. We'll keep you posted how that goes via TSA and immigration. Should be quite interesting..
Yes, I got away with the lighter load.
Our plan is to arrive in Quito, stay in a youth hostel the first night, and then take a 5 a.m., 3 hour bus/shuttle to Carlos Julio Arosemena Tola.
Next posting hopefully we will have met up with Henry! See you near the equator.
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