"cacao" news and stories

It sounds more like an adman's fantasy, something you'd hear in a TV commercial replete with lush tropical vegetation and a waterfall thrown in for good measure (cue the sexy voiceover): "From deep in the mountains of Peru comes some of the world's most rare and delicious chocolate."

But as it turns out, the story behind Fortunato No. 4, the chocolate being released this week by Marañón Chocolate (in a demonstration at New York's Institute for Culinary Education), is more than just an ad gimmick. It truly is rare, made from cacao beans that were long thought to be extinct.

Chocolate made from the Pure Nacional cacao tree was once renowned as a delicacy around the world, but in 1916, disease struck the trees in South America, wiping out nearly the entire population. It was thought the variety had vanished entirely, until three years ago when two Americans were sourcing fruit in Peru's remote Marañón Canyon, and they found what they first thought were ordinary cacao trees. Then they split open the football-shaped pods.

Scientists have long devoted research efforts to staple crops like corn, wheat and rice.

But chocolate-maker Mars, Inc., in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service and computer bigwig IBM, has devoted its energy somewhere sweeter -- to cracking the genetic code of the cacao tree.

Mars announced it has figured out cacao's genome sequence and made it available in the public domain to help improve the cocoa growing process to benefit the world's cocoa farmers and create a more sustainable global cocoa supply.

"The idea here is to bring cocoa to a level that is similar to crops of much higher importance -- corn or rice -- that have access to these genomic tools that speed up the process of breeding," Dr. Juan Carlos Motamayor, Scientific Research Manager of Mars Inc.'s Cocoa Sustainability Program, told Slashfood.

Some people are worried that in the not too distant future, chocolate could become much more rare and expensive... and it's not because of global warming (at least not for the most part). In fact, John Mason, of the Nature Conservation Research Council (based in Ghana), says that "in 20 years chocolate will be like caviar."

This terrible fate is possible mostly because of poor farming practices in Western Africa, where most of the world's chocolate is grown. According to this article from CNN online, farmers clear cut sections of rain forest and work that land to death. The problem with that method of farming is that it is not sustainable: cacao trees (from which chocolate is ultimately produced) on the clear cut land live about 30 years, compared to 75-100 years in the regular rain forest. The farmers would have to then clear another section of rain forest to grow trees on.

There may be hope, though. A handful of different groups have come together to try and solve this problem, including farmers, environmental groups and Cadbury, the British chocolate maker. The interests of each group intersect, and so they've created a scientific research unit to study ways to farm cacao trees sustainably. There may be hope for humanity (and chocolate) yet.

I used to drink Kahlua a lot many many years ago, but as I've gotten older I've gotten away from Kahula/chocolate/mocha/whatever flavored drinks and more towards gin and wine. However, that doesn't mean that I'm against using Kahlua in dessert recipes.

This delicious-sounding recipe for Kahlua Brownies comes from Garrett McCord over at Simply Recipes. It uses 1 1/2 pounds of 60% cacao chocolate, though I wonder how the brownies would taste if you used something even higher (say, 70%) or another type of chocolate?

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, my least favorite holiday (if you can call a day created by greeting card companies a "holiday"). And it's not just because I don't have a honey to share it with. I've always hated it.

But I do know that you're supposed to take a bath or a shower that day. Well, you should take a bath or shower every day, but on Valentine's Day in particular you don't want to smell. Don't take an ordinary bath though, take a chocolate bath. A hot springs spa/resort in Japan offers such a bath. The water in the tub is mixed with cacao and fragrance, then liquid chocolate is poured over the people in the tub.

But I'm confused by the picture. If this is for Valentine's Day, I assume it's for couples. What's with all the people in the tub? Is this the family version?

Related:

Yunessun Spa for food lovers