TUESDAY. Today was my first full day in Costa Rica and it’s been amazing. Everyone has been so nice and welcoming. The country itself is breathtaking with its diversity of climates and biomes. I’m especially fond of the mountains. I spent most of the day at CATIE who are responsible for creating the disease resistant and high yielding cacao strains that are found throughout both Costa Rica and the world. They have a genetic bank of 1250 different variety’s of cacao. We got to see their nursery and learn about how they graft as well as how they cross breed different varieties and test them.
We also did a semi-formal chocolate tasting which was very fun. We used the chocolate wheel I’ve heard about which was very different that what we do but very informative. My time at the shop has definitely paid off because I recognized most of the flavor notes that our guide described after we finished tasting.
WEDNESDAY. We went to two cacao farms yesterday, one 400 hectare which was huge–converted cattle grazing land. We got to see how Adrian, the 3rd generation owner was using cacao and agroforestry to restore the land that had been destroyed and make it sustainable.
The next farm was much smaller, 4 hectares, and reminded me a bit of my Dad’s farm in Belize. We got to see how smaller farms have to focus more of producing high quality cacao with exceptional flavor in order to be sustainable.
~Shaman