Changes in Latitude

Cacao was brought from the Amazon Basin to Central America by the Maya 2,600 years ago, according to analysis of residue in Maya pottery.  Aztec royalty drank cocoa all day and night to fuel stamina for attending to their many wives and concubines.

Cacao was introduced to Europe by the Spanish around 1585, the date of the first recorded commercial shipment of chocolate from Veracruz, Mexico to Seville. Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus named the tree ‘Theobroma’ which means “food of the gods”.  Cacao beans were historically used as a currency, serving in the place of small coins as recently as 1840 on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula.

The largest producers of cacao in the Americas are Brazil, Ecuador & Venezuela with a combined market share of 10%.

The best quality cocoa beans are from the Criollo variety. Criollo cacao can be enjoyed directly from the pod and, properly fermented, maintains natural sweetness. When used commercially, the Criollo variety requires less sugar which is why 70% – 85% cacao dark chocolate bars are possible.  Gourmet chocolate represents roughly 4% of the world’s annual cacao production, a market of 160,000 short tons per year.

The main source for Criollo beans today is Venezuela’s Hacienda San José, www.cacaosanjose.com , with representatives in France, Switzerland and Spain. This hacienda has 200 hectares of Criollo cacao with an average density of 1,000 trees per hectare.

Criollo cacao is prevalent throughout C. America, with crop development occurring from Guatemala to Panama, where it thrives in rain-forested regions to an altitude of 2000′.

In Panama, cacao cultivated by indigenous growers produces a superior product preferred by chocolate aficionados over products produced by newcomers to this exotic crop, according to French Cacao Broker Mathilde Grand of Isla Colon’s Starfish Cafe.

Grand’s “Citizens Chocolate” markets tribal cocoa spheres, a hand-crafted organic product from a cooperative in Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean coast of Panama.  This region is home to the Ngobe-Buglé whose autonomous lands stretch between International Park Amistad to the coast of the Caribbean Bastimento Nature Reserve.   In the shade of their jungles, cacao is cared for and harvested using sustainable indigenous traditions.  After collecting the ripe pods, the seeds are removed, brought to fermentation then put out in the sun to dry for several days.  Once dried, the seeds are roasted over a fire, ground and rolled into spheres that are perfect for baking or melting into water, milk, and spices for a delicious drink.

© Mathilde Grand

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This post is comprised of excerpts from the article “Cacao: a crop ready for new investment?”, written for Alternative Latin Investor‘s next issue. Photos by Mathilde Grand ©

View from atop Volcán Barú

Volcan Baru is Central America’s most spectacular peak.  The Baru Volcano is at the heart of Parque Nacional Volcan Baru.  It is halfway between Belize and Bogota and adjacent to International Park Amistad, an UNESCO World Heritage Site.  From its summit one can view the Pacific Ocean, southern Costa Rica, the Caribbean Sea, and a good portion of Panama’s northern highlands.  Dawn atop Volcan Baru is a photographer’s dream.

The whistles of the quetzal – so splendid it was worshipped by the Maya as a sacred bird – entertain the few hikers brave enough to ascend 6,100’ over eight miles to the volcano’s 11,400’ summit.  Many of Panama’s 50 species of raptors can be seen soaring for prey, as can hummingbirds – the main pollinators of the numerous and exotic species of Heliconias.  Five species of cats make their home in this cloud forest; pumas are most numerous.  One species in short supply is mankind.

The shortest ascent is via El Salto, the author’s home, at 5,000 feet.  Allow 5.5 hours in thin air, and plan to leave around midnight to navigate a crude path in the dark.  To enjoy vistas too magnificent for words, hikers must reach the summit before clouds and fog form mid-morning.  Hikers enjoy breakfast at the summit and descend in periodic or constant rains for well-deserved feasting and resting before posting photos on the Internet bragging of their accomplishment.

Insider’s tip from Dave at Hostal Boquete:  make sure your camera is fully charged. The journey is 10-hours walking plus 1.5 hours drive from Boquete to the trailhead and back to the pueblo.  Essentials: flashlight, quality footwear, warm clothes, gloves, rain gear, 2.5 liters of water, food, and sun block.

Coffee is integral to the culture of highland Central America.  Boquete, Chiriqui, near the Costa Rican border, is the Napa Valley of coffee, with over 20 local labels, tasting rooms, and finca tours.  Coffee aficionados from www.UniqueCoffee.com will be travelling to Boquete in Feburary.  In the meantime, notes from Roaster Seth Appell’s most recent visit to C. America are worth sharing…

“In a noble social experiment, the country of Costa Rica shunned the expense of a national army, investing instead in the building of schools and hospitals, providing low-cost education and healthcare for the general population. Rather than following the colonial model of large tracts of farmland owned by the wealthy minority, agricultural centers were built upon a cooperative model, providing coffee plants, education and materials at cost or free for anyone with even the smallest amount of arable land.

Spend a day with the members of CoopePalmares, and you quickly begin to understand the wealth and freedom of this country that values its families, heritage, and the skills necessary to produce truly fine coffee.

In the center of every coffee field is a home. Each proud farmer we met was born in the center of his own two or three acre coffee field. A man can tend two or three acres of coffee trees with his own hands. For 365 days a year, a farmer cultivates his tree’s, cleans the soil of weeds, and prepares for a harvest that returns a meager third of his income. 250 coffee trees produces that two sacks, or 300 pounds of coffee. And yet with this he sends his children to college. At harvest time the entire country returns to its roots. Children come home from school, and families reunite to harvest coffee across the country.

It is a fact that during my entire stay, I never met a man working at any job whose family was not involved in the coffee back home. It’s a simple fact of life that coffee provides only a portion of the income necessary for a good life, and indeed Costa Rica is a country with a comfortable middle-class. The spirit of “Pura Vida”, the pure life, is the spirit of the Costa Rican people.”

Coffee pickers from the indigenous Ngöbe are beginning to return from Costa Rica to their native Panama.  They have been helping with the larger cooperative’s harvests.  It is encouraging to realize how Panama respects its indigenous peoples.  The atlas reveals that Panama’s population is comprised of 8.4% indigenous peoples.  This atlas has a page for each tribe’s land area (Comarca).  Quick arithmetic reveals that Panama has reserved 20% of its land for its first Americans.  Panama’s Comarca’s are not marginal lands; but prime property.  This is tangible respect.

I recently had the joy of meeting Dra. Maria Ruiz of Boquete’s Casa Ruiz.  We discussed coffee and philosophy.  I was mesmerized by Dra. Ruiz’s perspective on the subject of creating peace within a community.  “Peace results when people respect (and feel respected by) their neighbors”.   Respect is a reoccurring theme this week.

This theme reminds me of a recent journey to meet the people of Latin America’s last kingdom, the Naso.  The Naso Comarca is on Panama’s Rio Teribe, where villagers live in harmony with the land, off the grid, growing almost everything they need to thrive gracefully in concert with Mother Earth, including coffee and cacao for chocolate.  The Naso raft down river to trade surplus crops for grains and other incidentals.  My children couldn’t believe how happy the Naso children are without electronic diversions.

Unlike the Naso, many Ngöbe live outside of their Comarcas.  Like Costa Rica, entire families are involved in harvest coffee.  Unlike Costa Rica, many farms are too large to be owner tended, and the Ngöbe people tend the crops year round, living on the fincas.  Others follow harvests and return to their Comarca for the balance of the year.  The return of the harvesters is an exciting time in Boquete and, for several months each year, the entire pueblo revolves around coffee, festivals, and the holidays.

For information on an upscale tour of this area and some of its finer cafes, fincas, and many rainforest adventures, check out our Coffee Culture Tour link.