The Xoconusco has landed
Great news! Our cacao from Xoconusco, Chiapas, Mexico has finally arrived in Honolulu after 6 months of winding it's way slowly through Mexico City, customs holds in Texas, to Los Angeles, and finally landing in our laps to start making some traditional chocolate bars with this Royal Aztec heirloom Criollo cacao, especially for all of you our wonderful kickstarter supporters. Can't wait to open the sacks and inhale the sweet aroma!
We thank you again for sticking with us and the Chiapas cacao growers over the many months through the long process of learning how to import heirloom cacao from its origins in Mexico through many bureaucracies, and allow us to show the world how wonderful chocolate made as it was originally envisioned is!
Dried, fermented cacao comes to us in many large burlap sacks like these from the CASFA cacao coop
Dave was lucky enough to visit both Oaxaca and Chiapas recently and met
with both the cacao grower Don Isidro from whom we are getting our cacao
and the cacao coop CASFA where they had many great discussions on how
to continue to improve the fine art of cacao fermentation to get the
best flavor out of their heirloom beans, how to speed up shipping next
time, and how to get the word out on the wonderful taste of cacao from
the birthplace of chocolate in Central America.
Don Isidro showing off his beautiful plump Amelonado Criollo cacao from his orchard in the Huehuetan hills of Xoconusco
While in Oaxaca city, Dave stayed in the Huayapam district where the beautifully aromatic Rosita de Cacao or Cacahuaxochitl flowers lined the street and where most of the most skilled tejate chocolate drink makers in Oaxaca's Abastos market hail from. The tejate drink/foam he witnessed is a combination of these Rosita de Cacao flowers, cacao most likely from Chiapas, mamey sapote seeds, and a few more ingredients that are whipped into a wonderful froth with a molinillo.
A woman in the Huyapan market demonstrating her chocolate drink frothing skills with the molinillo stirring in a big bowl of tejate made with cacao, Rosita de Cacao, and pixtle or mamey sapote seeds.
Dave even met with folks a local Mezcaloteca
where they had a vast variety of Mezcals made from agave of different
species & regions that they paired with our chocolate, of which they
liked the Rosita de Cacao bar the most. We hope to include this as a
stop on our cacao & chocolate tour happening in October or January.
Stay tuned to our classes page or fill out our short tour survey so we can make it the chocolate trip you have really dreamed of. If you have moved since our initial survey, please let us know your new address by email at info aht madrechocolate doht com.
This
has been a huge week for us with the long-awaited arrival of the
Chiapas cacao, starting the new KCC farmers market in Honolulu, our
first cacao farm & chocolate factory tour on Oahu's windward coast,
and we won best bean-to-bar chocolate in Hawaii at the Big Island
Chocolate Festival as judged by "Mr. Chocolate" Jacques Torres and Hasty
Torres of Madame Chocolat in LA.
We
hope we can meet all of you individually in Hawaii or Mexico if you get
a chance to visit, and thank you for your continued support of helping
us all get back to the roots of chocolate. Big thanks to all of you who offered to go down to Laredo, TX to assist us in getting our cacao through the FDA and customs clearance. Sometimes it takes a village! Now it's down to the business of chocolate making: roasting, cracking, winnowing, grinding, tempering, molding, wrapping, and mailing bars to you as thanks for your backing.
The pairing of mezcal and our Xocolatl Mexican inspired chocolate bars was a hit and went late into the night!
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Aug 14, 2011
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- Website: madrechocolate.com
Pledge $20 or more
50 backers Limited (10 of 60 left)
A bar of stone ground, organic dark chocolate crafted from aromatic cacao beans grown by a coop of small farmers in Chiapas, Mexico.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2011Pledge $35 or more
50 backers Limited (10 of 60 left)
A bar of our organic, Chiapas dark chocolate plus a bar made with these aromatic cacao beans and traditional Mayan chocolate ingredients such as chili, allspice, rosita de cacao, orijuelas, or sapayul.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2011Pledge $60 or more
24 backers Limited (36 of 60 left)
One of our new beta flavors (well before the rest of the public has a chance to taste it)! Plus a bar of our organic, Chiapas dark chocolate and a bar made with these aromatic cacao beans and traditional Mayan chocolate ingredients such as chili, allspice, rosita de cacao, orijuelas, or sapayul.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2011Pledge $100 or more
37 backers Limited (8 of 45 left)
A one-of-a-kind jaguar cacao chocolate (made with patashte, the sister plant of cacao). Plus a bar each of organic, Chiapas dark chocolate, a chocolate with a traditional Mayan ingredient, and one of our new beta flavors (well before the rest of the public has a chance to taste it)!
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We will create a delicious bar to your specifications, either dark, milk, or flavored with your favorite ingredient, and send you 5 of these personalized bars.
Pledge $1,000 or more
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We'll bring you into our chocolate shop in Hawaii for a day to learn how to make chocolate. If you can't make it to Hawaii, we'll send you an entire chocolate-making class kit complete with all the ingredients, chocolate tasting samples, and clear recipes. Plus we'll send you all of the rewards listed above!
Pledge $5,000 or more
1 backer
We will send you all the above special and personalized chocolate bars, and we'lll invite you to accompany us to southern Mexico or Central America on one of our cacao explorations to see first hand where chocolate was invented, and learn how the ancient and modern Mesoamericans make their delicious chocolate drinks and foods with beautiful aromatic flowers and spices (airline tickets not included).
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