Tarapoto: Coffee and Chocolate

By far, my favorite part was our visits to a coffee co-op and an organic chocolate farm. In both locales, we learned the whole farm-to-table process of making two of my favorite products.

First was the visit to the coffee co-op, Agroindustria Warmi.  There, one of the partners, Fanny, talked us through the process of making coffee.  Though I had learned a lot of this through my training with Starbucks, it was so much better to actually see all the steps of the process in person.

The coffee cherries are picked.

The bean is removed from the cherry and dried in the sun.  We saw mats laid out, drying the beans, all through the town.

The farmers bring their dried beans to the co-op facility.

This contraption is used to remove the dried husks from the beans.

The beans are then roasted in this pan in small batches.

The dried beans next to the roasted beans

The beans are hand ground before packaging

Liz & I took our turn at the grinder in order to sample some and it was definitely worth it! 

Then, we moved on to visit the Rio Bosque Magico in Chazuta, where Heriberto and his family explained how they grow, harvest and produce their own organic atisanal chocolate:

This cacao variety is Peruvian.  The ripening fruits are green while the mature ones are yellow.  

This variety is from Ecuador.  It´s a deep red when ripening and a lighter red/orange color when mature.  Heriberto is working on combining these two species to create an even more superior variety of cacao.

These tiny buds take about 6 months to grow into the mature fruit. 

We got to sample the actual cacao fruit from each variety.  We were surprised at how distinct they were from each other (but both were delicious!)  Liz said that it reminded her of the Indian jackfruit, something along the lines of a flowery mango flavor. At this farm, they also use the fruit to produce a honey sauce, ensuring that all parts of the cacao plant are used as fully as possible.

As this is an organic farm, Heriberto relies on the natural fauna to help the plants to grow and mature.  This large grub (toe for size comparison) is one of those creatures that helps the process.

After touring the farm, it was on to the production side:

They carefully select the beans that they want to use for their own chocolate and sell the rest in the market, again so that nothing is wasted.  Currently they use a combination of the two varieties to give their chocolate it´s unique taste.

Heriberto´s wife Marilena, runs this part of the operation.  Here she is toasting the dried beans on a wood-fired stove. She prefers the wood over gas to better know when the beans are properly toasted.  

After the toasted beans cool, the last layer of husk is removed.

I was so enthusiastic about helping I managed to burn my thumb on the hot beans.  :(

Now, you´re left with nibs, which can be eaten straight, but are especially good when added to smoothies, granola, etc, for a light chocolate flavor.

Once again, we were put to work at the grinder!  Here the nibs are ground and mixed with sugar.  They go on to regrind the mixture 5 more times to make it smooth and silky!  (My arm was tired after just one round!)  After that the chocolate is mixed with any additions (peanuts, honey, liquor) and put into molds.  Liz and I both agreed that the peanut ones are our favorite-they tasted like you´re eating a crunchy dark chocolate Reeses´ peanut butter cup.  (I don´t actually know if that exists, but if it does, that is what is should taste like!)

Just writing this post has made me hungry for some more of this chocolate.  Time to plan another trip to the jungle!