Chocolate

I could romanticize the chocolate growing, harvesting, selling, making, consumption process but I'm just going to give it to you straight instead. I have to state that there is a hell of a lot more to all this than I had ever thought and how anyone ever figured out how to make refined chocolate is beyond me because it is hard. That said I guess I better start from the beginning.

Cacao trees or chocolate trees grow well in the jungle here in Panama and as I'm told in many of the other countries in Central America. It rains a lot, it's humid, there is shade, and it never dips below 70 degrees. As far as I can tell, the cacao production in Central America is almost entirely done by independent farmers and my guess is that it is just easier and cheaper that way. In the local town here of Almirante there is a cacao co-op that has been running since 1952 and is the oldest co-op in Panama. It is also older than the Peace Corps. I had the chance to go there today and it was a sight. They really do have the system figured out.

So here is what I know so far: In my community the indigenous tribe moved here to work for United Fruit Company or Del Monte or Chiquita Bananas. Pick your poison. They moved moved here about 40 to 50 years ago and it was just forest. They built houses/huts that were distanced from each other and which also had their own farms of mostly plantains. The people that were either brought into the cities of Almirante or Changanola only had the liberty of working for the big fruit company when they decided to leave it left the town in economic ruins. The native people here somewhere along the line switched their farms to cacao and selling groups were formed.

Along the line, big companies in the U.S. and Switzerland came and decided that this cacao was really good and since it is all organic, shade grown, and sustainable are buying it up as fast as the people can produce it. Almost all of the farmers here, which is in my town makes up 95 percent of the community, sell to the co-op and depend on it. The big companies are getting smoking deals on great cacao and the locals are getting some money for it and not burning down the entire forest to have cattle. Now. Is it a living wage? The rough numbers I've figured out is that it makes about 1 dollar an hour for the family on average. That combined with other small incomes from the mother or kids put the total family income at about 10 to 15 dollars a day for an average family of about 8. This is below the the international poverty line by at least fifty cents if you go by person and if there is a bad crop or a disease it could be real bad. Although most people still farm other substitutable plants and animals in time of need.

The co-op is well organized and has received help from other governmental organizations such as USAID which provided the people with the large air dryers for the beans. They also provided materials on how to protect the forest while still being able to produce enough cacao. The government here also helps the co-op stay organized and provides training. This is all good.

Like I said before, before I came here I knew nothing about where chocolate came from so here is what I've learned about the process: The fruit grows on the trees. You take the fruit off, take the seeds out and put them in some sort of dryer which can take awhile depending on how hot it gets and for how many days its hot. After the seeds have dried out or fermented enough they are either sold to the big companies to be refined or roasted and ground up to be used. Here they use the ground up and dried chocolate for a chocolate drink. Now. I have found out as of late that trying to make the kind of chocolate you find in the store is hard and involves equipment. Equipment that involves electricity and costs money. Both things that these people don't have. You have to pretty much use a machine that heats while grinding the chocolate in a certain way to break down the bitterness. Sugar is also broke down and added. Then the chocolate must be heated and cooled a certain way to be called real chocolate. I have looked up many ways of doing this and have found none that I could do here.

What they do do here is sell the raw ground up chocolate in balls to be used for baking or cooking. You can add sugar and milk and make whatever you like. It actually does taste like chocolate and some of the bitterness is taken away. Its dark, its natural, is good, and besides all the sugar, it pretty good for you. It also costs 1 dollar here for what costs 10 in the states. I'm on a mission to not only help them sell this partly refined product that others sell here, but to find a more sell-able product with better packaging and marketing. For the gringos mostly. We shall see what I can do...