Cacao
Cacao comes from the cacao tree or Theobrama Cacao. Native to the Amazon, this tree is found throughout Central and South America and is often referred to as the “food of the Gods”. It produces large fruit, almost the size of a rugby ball that has crinkly brown/red skin and it takes 14 of these pods to produce a kilo of cacao. Inside the pods are roughly 30-50 almond-shaped cacao beans surrounded by a sweet pulp. These seeds are used to make cacao solids, cacao butter, and, of course...chocolate!
Cacao is a superfood providing one of the highest sources of magnesium in nature and packed full of antioxidants, calcium, copper, zinc, and selenium. Per gram, cacao contains more antioxidants than blueberries, goji berries, red wine, raisins, prunes, and pomegranates. Tasty and good for you! Cacao has a rich aromatic taste and is perfect for raw and heated baking. It can be added to smoothies, oats, or cereal for a kick and extra texture! Here’s some of our adventures in cooking with cacao!
Here at Hopper - Refill, our cacao powder and cacao nibs come from our friends at Seleno Health. They’re a family-run small business based between New Zealand and Peru where they ethically sourced cacao and maca (which you’ll hear about later, watch this space). We like them because of their values and the fact that their cacao comes direct from farm to table, is sustainability grown and is harvested from a small farm in Peru. Watch the impressive use of a machete to harvest the Cacao fruit on this short video.
Once harvested the cacao fruit is extracted and fermented for 5-7 days in fermenting containers or more traditionally wrapped in banana leaves. It is turned regularly to ensure the temperature remains relatively constant throughout fermentation. Fermentation helps bring out the desired flavours of the cacao, and it adds a body and richness that unfermented beans lack. It also tames the cacao seed’s bitterness by reducing the amount of tannins found in the beans thanks to cellular changes that occur during the process.
After fermentation, the beans are laid out to dry and slowly turned and separated until completely dry. These beans are then ready for direct consumption or will be de-husked and sent for processing to be turned into our nibs (shredded whole beans without the husks), ceremonial paste (milled whole beans), butter (heat pressed paste to release the fat and cacao mass) or cacao powder (the left over mass from heat pressing).
Follow this link to a short clip featuring Seleno Health’s Dr Corin Strokey talking through the fermenting and drying process of cacao.
Shop Cacao here: