What does artisan food, Caribbean beaches and chocolate all have in common?
They all come together in the small surfer town of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. I know the craft movement is growing and getting stronger all the time, but I never thought I'd stumble upon it in a town an hours drive from the Panamanian border, let alone to the degree I found it. It was all because on the way to the beach one sunny day I decided to stop and check out a sign that said Chocolate Tour.
Located on the main road, and I use that term loosely, is their shop, the Caribean.
It's also a hostel, restaurant, coffee shop, and generally cool place to chill. With a view of the Caribbean only slightly blocked by trees, having a cup after the 2.5 hour tour is a must. By they, I mean Paul and his wife. Two very awesome people, you wouldn't believe where they're from, Madison and Minneapolis. Crazy, right? All the way out here I meet people from my hometown and what are they doing? Chocolate. Well, that's only a part of what they are doing.
Heading up a team of about half a dozen people, not including shop staff, they are on a mission to change the world. Seems kind of grandiose, but if you scale up what they are doing, maybe it can. There are a lot of issues in Costa Rica when it comes to wages, and lots when it comes to Fair Trade products. You know, the stuff we blank out when we head to the local organic shop which only sells the stuff, the stuff we cross our fingers and hope it is actually benefiting those who need it and not just another marketing tool. They actually are doing their part and you can see the results firsthand.
It's not about the money is the gist, and it isn't.
The farm is completely sustainable, buried within the jungle as a natural part of the ecosystem. No special chemicals are used, local experts from indigenous tribes were consulted and people from those tribes who have had cocao as a part of their culture for thousands of years were hired to do the actual farming. He even pays them double the local wage, $4, even though they only asked for $2. Why? Because he feels the people are more important than the profit. His yield might not be epic but his affect on the community is.
His amazing philosophy of improvement also needs to be mentioned. You might think that when someone starts a business like this they have some idea of what they are doing, but Paul didn't. Youtube, Wikipedia, and local experts were his teachers. And everything he learns he shares with the cacao farmers. When he figures out a better way to dry the beans, he lets them know. When someone asks why their beans came out tasting like dirty dishwater, he helps them figure it out. All to help them improve the quality of their beans. The big companies might not care since they do so many processes to even out the taste, but he does. Raise the standards one farmer at a time, educate them, and maybe that will bring the whole bar up. With the increasing demand for artisan quality ingredients he's hoping that because of his work there will be a lot more direct connections between beans and bars that give straight to the farmers.
The tour is a cool 2.5 hours, starts at their shop, and costs $26.
At that price for what you see, eat, and learn, it's a steal. The trail is right beside the road and is pretty steep. Surrounded by the jungle within a couple feet of starting you'd swear you were on an animal sightseeing tour. The coolest thing we saw was pointed out by Paul nonchalantly as we climbed up the path in between interesting factoids about Spanish sailors, Montezuma, and the value of the cacao bean. 'Oh, that's pretty cool, a strawberry arrow frog.' You mean the deadly frog we've all seen in biology texts and have had nightmares about them hopping on us? Yup, and that wasn't the only one we saw.
Paul is a font of knowledge, or as he put it, a fire hose of information about chocolate. I can't remember him not talking, aside from eating chocolate and waiting for to answer questions he asked. As we strode up the path he jumped off to grab a full on cacao pod for us. Cracking it open Paul offered us a taste. Covered in a slimy white film was the coveted cacao bean. It took a bit of willpower to dig one out and stick it in my mouth. It tasted nothing like chocolate, more like bitter almost overwhelmed by sour. Still, I ate a couple more, mainly because Paul said it was super healthy. Healthy is always good. Even if it tastes nasty.
By the time we had gotten through the jungle and made it to the top we were ready for a tasting
But that wasn't to be, yet. Instead he showed us another part of the process. We'd eating raw beans, now he wanted to show us the next step. Would you believe cacao beans go through a sort of fermenting process, just like beer? It's mostly to remove the outer skin and bring out the bean, but still. When he opened the container this warm, malty aroma hit me like a hammer. All of us declined to dig our hands through the gooey, smelly mess in the wooden box even though Paul said it felt really cool. Big cacao producers don't bother with this step, or rather do something very different to get the bean. Paul, on the other hand decided to go all the way in his artisan movement and begin to retool processes abandoned hundreds of years ago during the industrial revolution. That means a lot of trial and error, and man does he have stories.
The tasting room, if you could call it that was at the very top.
Overlooking the Caribbean coast it was simply breathtaking. Combine that with a full on chocolate tasting, well, it was practically heaven. Taste, talk, taste, talk...all while staring at the beautiful blue of sky and ocean. When he called it the most complete tour in the world he wasn't kidding. If not that, probably the best. The chocolate we got to taste...well, compare it to a wine tasting in quality and detail. And to make it even better, when we got done with the tasting we turned around to find another table filled with chocolate and a variety of spices. His directions, try mixing chocolate and stuff and let us know which you think is best. Four people around a table of chocolate and stuff to mix it with, you can imagine the fun.
There are so many things I had to skim over here, otherwise you'd be reading a book.
The awesome history of the cacao bean, the spiritual aspects of chocolate, the deep conversations about economics and chocolate both in modern and historical context, and the cool back story as to how Paul and his wife found themselves making chocolate in a surfing town in Costa Rica. Oh, and I can't leave out all the cool inventions Paul had to create in order to make certain processes work without having to buy crazy-expensive machines. What do you get when you combine a vacuum cleaner, PVC, and a ventilator fan? I guess you'll just have to visit Paul and his wife at the Caibean in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica to find out :)
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