360° Mexican Cacao

The Lacandon rainforest is a nearly impenetrable mass of mountains and jungle on the border between Mexico and Guatemala. It’s resisted most efforts to tame it so far. The first settlers didn’t arrive until the 1970s, and they didn’t get far. It’s still full of wildlife, a couple of uncontacted indigenous groups, and other people who would prefer that you didn’t contact them, thank you very much. In other words, it’s WILD. And that’s why we headed for it, following hours of rutty roads through a dreamscape of jagged hills, small settlements, and a raging river the color of an ice pack. It was here, on the edge of the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, that the Mexican cacao experts Carlos Avendaño Arrazate and Alexander Mendoza López, from Mexico’s national institute for agriculture and forestry, came across some extremely unusual cacao trees during a collecting expedition in 2010. Read the full article at hcpcacao.org !

For this part of the discovery expedition, we've headed to La Chontalpa, one of Mexico’s most famous cacao regions. La Chontalpa is in Tabasco State, near the Caribbean coast, and it has a perfect climate for cacao. The people of La Chontalpa have been growing cacao for 3,000 years. Over that time, they’ve chosen some favorites,...mostly Criollo strains with white beans that are low in bitterness. They call these beans almendra blanca. In the 1940s, a man named Carlos Echeverria inherited an abandoned cacao farm in La Chontalpa. He named it Finca La Jolla. Carlos began experimenting with the trees, breeding them together to create the ultimate white-beaned variety. Eventually, he came up with a winner. It had an incredible rich, buttery flavor. He called it Carmelo. Read the full article! https://www.hcpcacao.org/hcp-in-action/episode-4-comalcan-carmelo

Meet Dionisia and be enchanted by the ancient Chinontec language! The HCP traveled through the Chinontla region of Mexico discovering different varieties of pataxte or bicolor. Alejandro lets us in on the scoop on an exciting fermentation project in the region. Music — Sarandonga by Lolita

The HCP Discovery Expedition continues to Oaxaca where we explore cacao through a different lens. Join us on this journey with photographer Shava Cueva to talk all things Mexican Beverages, listen to the success story and cacao memories of Flores Hera of Il Rito Chocolatería, all why discovering the enchanting, spiritual process of making a ceremonial cacao beverage with Carina Santiago of Tierra Antigua. Read more about the experience from the point of view of renowned Food Writer, Rowan Jacobsen, on our blog.

In this interview we learn about why Alejandro started his business Revival Cacao Mexico (Euro-American Cacao Company) working with cacao growers in Tabasco and Soconusco and the work he's doing there. The conversation is peppered with lots of great information about the history, genetics, and culture of cacao and chocolate in Mexico today. To order cacao or lean more, visit www.revivalcacao.com If you enjoy learning about various chocolate makers and others in the industry, visit my website beantobarworld.com to watch more videos, learn for free at the learning centre, and download the Bean To Bar World App to connect with makers near you! 0:00 Introduction 0:25 How Alejandro got started 3:55 Alejandro starts his own chocolate making business in Mexico 5:19 Going from making chocolate to supporting the farmers 8:43 Mexico is a net importer of cacao 9:30 Cacao lavado and domestic drinking chocolate in Mexico 16:10 Romanticising traditions in Mexico 17:25 Criollo or "white" cacao from an evolutionary perspective 20:59 Criteria for choosing Mexican cacao 25:44 Varieties vs populations of varieties 26:37 Chocolate origin ideas 28:45 Varieties of cacao in Mexico today 29:35 Fermenting cacao with a mixture of genetics 33:37 Good quality cacao has to be co-op based or single estate 38:59 Selling price of Mexican cacao vs Mexican cacao 42:46 A boom of bean-to-bar craft chocolate making in Mexico 46:46 Mexican cacao production falling 48:04 Makers buying from wholesalers vs direct 58:10 Value added cacao products made in Mexico 1:02:40 Cacao in Mexico is part of food culture 1:06:27 Modern day food culture in Mexico & elsewhere 1:10:14 Ingredients matter 1:12:00 Aging cacao farmers in Mexico is an issue 13:52:00 Other products Revival Cacao Mexico currently sells 1:18:52 Theobroma bicolor - cacao's cousin 1:24:29 Goals for Revival Cacao Mexico 1:27:00 Tabasco Cacao 1:29:15 Cacao for drinking chocolate (cacao lavado) vs cacao for eating chocolate 1:38:20 Traditions of food making and quality of ingredients 1:41:13 How to contact with Revival Cacao Mexico

HCP is in Mexico with Alejandro Zamorano Escriche, the founder of Revival Cacao, in search of lost, overlooked, underappreciated, or simply impossible-to-get-your-hands-on cacao varietals that might make good candidates for future heirloom designation. It’s part of HCP’s mission to Discover, Identify, and Preserve new heirloom cacaos. While the Identify and Preserve pieces of the mission have been happening for years, everything is finally in place to proactively Discover heirloom cacaos not yet on anyone’s radar and work with the producers to usher them into the world of fine cacao, and we couldn’t be more excited.