Midnight Emergency

Keli on the floor at midnight watching the chocolate turn and writing in the blog.

This is the beginning of our tradition of naming each chocolate batch with the title of a blog post. We will also list all the ingredients and any special factors that went into the chocolate.

So this batch of chocolate is called Midnight Emergency, (or M.E. for short,) and, like the last batch it is flavored with vanilla and cinammon from Villa Vanilla, a bio-dynamic farm in Costa Rica.

The sugar is 80% from our farm - made by Keli, our neighbor and his wife. See my picture at http://chocolatefarm-costarica.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-flavors.html to see my tragic expression as I cut sugar cane. And as for the cacao butter... I pressed it myself with a new oil press from our own cacao beans. We added some cashews and dried cherries to a few of the bars.

Keli started writing this blog at 12:30 AM - way past her normal bedtime, but she was energized by the crisis. Below is her report.

I know that somewhere there is someone who would read this and say all this fuss is totally unnecessary but these are the times when love and devotion truly comes in - or is it just the fear of losing a batch of chocolate with great beans?

Tonight something went wrong, we think that there might be a little moisture in the farm sugar we put in. Any moisture in the chocolate makes it thicken up and eventually stop.
The machine did stop turning a few times and we had to take big clumps of sugar pieces out. I suggested we stop it and take it all out but that wouldn't solve the problem of the moisture. Jim said he would sit next to the machine all night if that is what it takes. So I told him this would be a good time to start chanting - so the chocolate can absorb some high vibrations.

Jim, devotedly watching the chocolate.

Honestly I don't know if this batch will make it, but it sure is adding to the adventure. And just as i wrote this i heard a sound - when i turned around to see there was chocolate on the walls. But not too much. To be con't.