Author: pritchard.jonathan@yahoo.com

Cocoa in the Raw

Today is national chocolate day in the U.S. so it seemed like a good time to talk about my experiences learning about and making chocolate here in Ecuador. Ecuador is the #7 producer of cocoa in the world, but its industry is one of the oldest. The cocoa plant originated in the Americas, and archeologist have found traces of cocoa in 5,000 year old pottery here in Ecuador!

 

 

 

Cocoa pods are full of seeds which are covered in a sweet fruit. These can be eaten raw and are pretty tasty themselves, but in order to render the best chocolates the seeds should be fermented whole.

 

 

 

 

The seeds are then dried for several days until you get a product ready to be turned into chocolate.

This photo show seeds in different stages of the drying phase.

Picking Out the Good Pieces

After the seeds are dried, it’s time to make the chocolate.

The first step is to pick out all the broken, underripe, and small pieces.

Sub-par pieces can burn during the toasting process and leave the chocolate with a bitter taste.

 

Toasting

Next we toast the cocoa on a medium-high heat with constant stirring. We want all the pieces to cook evenly but not burn.

Once you start to smell the aroma of chocolate you can give it a try. If it isn’t ready then it will be bitter.

Keep in mind that this is before adding sugar so don’t expect it to taste just like chocolate. Think more the raw cocoa powder you add to make chocolate milk.

Prepping for Grinding

Once the seeds are ready they need to cool for minute, and then they can be peeled.

They may be brittle at this point. It’s not a big deal if you break some, they’re all getting ground up anyway, but it can make a mess and you don’t want to waste any of that precious cocoa.

It was kind of a fun challenge to see who could get through the most without breaking any. I lost.

 

Grinding

We ground ours with a hand grinder.

It needs to go through the grinder at least 3 times when you do it this way, but the more you do it the more consistent the texture will be.

It’s also a great arm workout.

 

Mixing

Then we mix it with the sugar.

I’ve found that my favorite is a 70/30 cocoa/sugar mixture, but people’s taste vary.

You can also mix in nuts, ginger, orange zest, spices, or whatever else you think will be good with your chocolate.

Chocolate covered coffee beans are one of my favorites.

Molding

You then place the chocolate in whatever mold you have, and let them cool until hard.

It can just be a plastic bowl or whatever. We had these cute flowers molds.

 

 

 

 

After they harden you pop them out on a clean surface and admire your work for a bit.

 

 

 

 

Eating!

Ok, now it’s ready to eat.

We enjoyed ours with some hot chocolate made from the leftovers.

And that was the day I learned you can have too much of a good thing.

 

You never know exactly what is on the other side of a door until you go through it. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time speculating about what doors I should take and taking the doors that other people have pointed me toward. Sometimes these paths make sense. This door leads here and that sounds like a reasonable place to be. I’ve probably let what other people say have too much sway in my actions. Ultimately our happiness is in our own hands, and I think it is about time I took hold.

It’s easy to get caught up in the feeling that we don’t have control or that we’re swept away in this tide of things that have come before us. We can fall for the idea that only a few doors are open to us or that there are only a few prescribed paths we can take. If we let this be then it will be true.

This life is beautiful thing because we have absolute control over what we do. That isn’t to say that we won’t have to deal with consequences if we make a poor choice. But that is part of the beauty of learning. I’m done only taking the doors that have been opened for me. I’ll kick down the doors that I want to take from now on. This life is a precious gift and It should not be wasted on anything for which we don’t feel a great passion. No more barriers. I’m walking through the door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step, breathe. Step, breathe.

As I climbed up the tallest mountain in my home state (Guadalupe Peak in Texas) I couldn’t help but think about the endeavor that I am undertaking of starting my own web based business. Sure I just finished a masters degree in technical commmunication, but it didn’t really teach me what I need to know to get going on my own. How do we do anything though? Whether it be complete a stint in the military, get a masters degree, start a business, or climb a mountain, we do it the same way. One step at a time.

The day after I came down off of the peak I met an individual who ironically gave me the same advice. Step, step, breath. So I embrace that as my mantra. Do something for my business, and then take a breath. Then get ready to do the next thing. It is a process, but I embrace the process as part of life. Step, breathe.

Sure it takes time, and it can be overwhelming when we look at that summit from the bottom. I knew there was a peak up there that I wanted to get to, but I couldn’t see the view until I got there. All I could see was that one step and this huge task in front of me. So thinking about the view from the peak wasn’t really going to get me there. Maybe it can help drive you forward. There is a reward waiting at the end. Maybe I didn’t know exactly what that looked like, but isn’t that point of doing something new? To see what you have never seen before.

Even thought the peak in Texas isn’t the tallest in the world (8,751 ft), it’s still a peak. It was still a task to accomplish and the view was still amazing. So maybe a caveat to my mantra: Step, breathe, enjoy the victories when they come. Now I’m ready for the next step, the next breath, the next victory, and the next step again, because that is how we keep moving.

As I branch out in my freelance writing career I have to consider what kind of writing I want to do and what kind of people I want to work with. For this purpose I’d like to tell you some things about myself. First and foremost, I am an animal and I’m offering my services in exchange for money to support my basic needs. It’s that simple. If you have a writing gig that pays a reasonable amount, I’ll take it. That being said, I do have some credentials.

• Qualified submarines and was a mechanic on a U.S. navy vessel
  • Performed mechanical maintenance
  • Maintained publications for my division
  • Translation: mechanical aptitude and knowledge of technical documents and instructions
• Obtained a bachelors degree in English with a minor in chemistry
  • Tutored general and organic chemistry for two years during undergrad
• Masters degree in technical communication
• Worked as a technical writer for an IT department generating and editing content and running their content management system

Beyond that, I am an empathetic being so what a reasonable amount means will differ based on the assignment. Soul crushing work will need to pay a lot more. Interesting and fulfilling tasks may get away with less. For example, at the moment I am working on a personal project to help veterans obtain the care they need and deserve. You  can check out the site at http://www.gedunk.org This is an important issue to me and I don’t care if I never make a cent off of it. If it wasn’t for the pesky need for sustenance and a roof over my head I would devote my entire attention there. Maybe getting paid for that project will pan out for me eventually, but for now I am selling my wordsmith skills.

Another thing to consider is that I am going to serve in the peace corps in Ecuador in May of 2017. So how my access to internet will be is questionable. If you’re willing to work around this then maybe we can work together.