Our Big Meeting

 We don't have any pictures to document the landmark meeting we had with Hugo Hemmerlink, the premier organic cacao producer and exporter in Costa Rica.  It's too bad we don't have pictures because this is such a big deal for us. It has been three years of working to perfect our fermentation and drying production on the Chocolate Farm in order to produce beans meeting the standards for his company. He will then make chocolate liquor or chocolate from the beans and sell them to chocolate makers in Europe and the U.S.  

We talked about the different ways our chocolate will get out there to chocolatiers and the different certifications needed to meet the requirements of the various buyers.  The first one, getting the “organic” cerfification is first on our list.  Though we will not do this for now, mainly because the expense of the certification compared to the amount of beans we can sell does not make economical sense.  Rather then pay the $2000 for the certification, we actually paid for worm castings fertilizer for the trees and this year plan on a special forest derived organic mulch/fertilizer as well as compost tea all harvested from the primary forest on our land.  We’re not organically certified but we do go above and beyond any requirements for being organic and hope that we will attract people who can appreciate this. 

Prayer Batch

Prayer was a name we came up with because we had some beans that seemed to be so good we felt it is the best fermentation we have ever had.  But you never know how all the other factors will shape it, so we just prayed.  And it is an amazing batch, in fact i think it's the best we'v ever made.

These beans had a darker color then most of the beans we produce and it turns out that it's because they were left out in the forest for some extra days (by accident) and so probably what happened is that they fermented for longer.  It's kind of like cheese, sometimes mistakes make the best cheese, and it can't be repeated.

70% made with organic Dulce, just the sugar cane boiled and deyhdrated.  Here's pictures of the dulce going into the dehydrator