Ahhh... chocolate!

As promised, today I'm continuing on in the theme of cacao.  Last post was about the raw state, but today is about the finished product, and how a group of women is using it to make a difference in the lives of their families and in their community.

In the happening little town of Chazuta resides an interesting and delicious business called Mishky Cacao.  I have been told that this is Quechua for "Tasty Cocoa" and I can say with absolute certainty that the name suits very well.

Our visit took place at the same time as our visit to the Allima Cacao cooperative that I featured in the last post.  Indeed, they are linked closely.  After our educational and fascinating visit to Allima Cacao we stuffed ourselves into our mototaxis and headed off up the road back into town. On the way up the hill from the plantation, the lead mototaxi hit a deep hole and nearly tipped. 

Our host leaped off the back of the motorcycle he was riding on and heaved the mototaxi upright again, then helped it get up the hill by pushing on the back. The passengers leaned forward as far as they could and the machine managed to get up the remainder of the slope.  Crisis averted, we roared back to town, where we encountered another rocky slope.  Carrying three large Canucks in the machine was obviously more than either machine or driver were accustomed to.  He paused at the base of the hill, surveyed the rocky surface and then shouted and waved away the motorbike and pedestrians on the hill. They scurried for cover, he gunned the engine and we roared and bounced and rocked our way slowly up the hill.  Engine grinding and smoking, tires making popping noises on the rocks and with the three of us laughing hysterically in the back, the driver leaned forward and willed the machine up the slope.  I could see the veins in his neck stand out with the strain, and I am certain he was also grinding his teeth with the effort.  By the time we reached the top of the hill the machine was nearly at a standstill, but we finally bunny-hopped over the lip of the hill and hit the straight-away that took us to our destination. 

Mishky Cacao is housed in a tidy bright pink little building, and you can smell chocolate before you even open the door.  On stepping in, we were greeted like long lost friends by four women inside.  We were embraced heartily, and once introductions were made we were offered chairs to sit on for a presentation. The space was pristine clean, and had a variety of small machines in place for the processing of the cocoa beans.  One was a grinder that processed the perfectly aged beans to a fine powder.

This grinder was small but very effective, and apparently a huge improvement over the previous model in terms of its ability to produce the fine cocoa powder needed.  There was another machine containing a smooth pale brown liquid, in which large paddles constantly mixed and churned.

It smelled heavenly, and turned out to be liquid milk chocolate, being prepared for truffles and candies.  There were also some intact cocoa pods sitting on another machine, presumably for demonstration, along with a pair of greenish and deeply wrinkled large pods of some other type which at first I took to be a different type of cacoa. I was both right and wrong, as I was soon to discover.

 

After some hugging and visiting, one of the women seated us all on plastic chairs and began to tell us about Mishky Cacao.  It was born in 2009 when a group of thirteen women in Chazuta envisioned a business that produced artesanal chocolate products.  It had its humble beginnings in a back yard, without financing and with very few tools. Today it is housed in this small but efficient space, and is thriving.  It produces many types of chocolate products, and more are in the process of being created.

As I was to learn from our hosts, the large green wrinkly dinosaur of a fruit is the Majambo.  It apparently grows freely and with abandon in the same area as cacao.  In fact it is a wild relative of cacao, an ancient fruit that has been consumed by Peruvians since forever.  The fruit inside is yellow when ripe, and the seeds are covered with a sticky fibrous pulp.  The women in the Mishky Cacao cooperative came up with the idea of adding the Majambo fruit to chocolate and a delicacy was born.  The resulting  combination is smooth, buttery and rich, and there are tiny grains of coffee beans along with the delicious creamy majambo.  I have no photographs of this product, happily, because we ate it.  All of it, and quickly.  The seeds of the Majambo are also used, toasted, and have a crunchy nutty flavor, slightly bitter initially and completely addictive. We had an opportunity to ask questions about the processing of the chocolate, and were invited to sample more of the products.  We all purchased chocolate in various forms and types, from 100% pure cocoa to milk chocolate and drinking chocolate.  It is without a doubt the richest and most delicious I have ever tasted.

The women in this cooperative are obviously and understandably proud of what they have accomplished.  They have built a successful business from the ground up and are continuing to grow it.  Most importantly, this little business has improved the quality of life for these women and their families.  Entire families are involved in the process of growing, harvesting, processing and transforming the cacao, from tree to truffle.  It enables women to improve the income of their families, and still to raise their children and be present for them.  We were told that both the men and many of the older children work at the plantations which supply Mishky Cacao with its cocoa beans. It is truly a family affair.  It has also brought a sense of pride and accomplishment not only to the women and their families, but also to the community as a whole.  Somehow that just makes the chocolate taste so much better. 
 

And that is the sweet story I promised you.  Life is sweet, chocolate is one of the things that makes it sweeter.  But the next time you purchase chocolate, think about the work that goes into growing and processing this delicacy.  Instead of slamming any old chocolate bar, go out and choose some high quality, fair-trade chocolate, and savor it.  Let it melt in your mouth and think about the people who depend on it for their livelihood.  What you buy really does matter.


And so we come to the end of another post, another story.  I will be back soon.  Hasta luego, amigos y amigas.