Chocolate Tree anyone???

[Jerry]

http://mgonlinestore.com/Cacao/

[tranquility]

MmMmmmmmm Chocolate  .....
Lawanna

[Joyce]

Yummmm! 

I think you need a male and female tree in order to get fruit.   

Also need a certain midge to pollinated.
http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/book/chap5/cacao.html

[Jonna]

Another plant that originated in Mexico and changed the world.  Much of the chocolate around here is grown in Tabasco, a low lying, kind of swampy area on the Gulf in the narrow isthmus of Mexico.  My maid is from there and I have an endless supply of chocolate in all forms.  This last batch was a bag of the beans (seeds) and I roasted them (great smell) and ground them for hot chocolate and coffee.  Not a lot of desire for hot drinks here    so I still have a lot of it left.  Plus, it is kind of a hassle.  You have to rub the beans after you roast them until the shell comes off.  It isn't hard to do but time consuming.  Chocolate is used in a lot of foods here, not all sweet but some are unsweetened meat and poultry sauces.  My favorite way to get it is when she brings me the already roasted, shucked and ground bars.  It's common for every family there to have a preference for how they like their chocolate. They take the seeds to the chocolate roaster and he returns bars to them with their names scratched on the back.  I have gotten several with Manuela's sister's name on them.  it is a mixture of chocolate, sugar and cinammon, the percentages are a family tradition.   I haven't tried it but the gel like substance around the seeds is also eaten and used in deserts, it's chocolatey and naturally sweet I'm told.    Do you really think it would grow in SoCal?  I'd think that it would get too cold for it in the winters, I'm not sure it can handle temps below the 50's. 

[Jerry]

They claimed zone 10

I have no room anyway, just thought it was interesting and had to share.
Jonna the desserts sound wonderful.

If the grow chocolate on a chocolate tree, what do they grow on a rubber tree???

[Kittyzee]

Jerry, Jerry!       The chocolate tree sounds wonderful,,too bad it would never survive here.  I love chocolate--just plain good chocolate.  Nothing added, except a little sweetener.  I'd like it if Manuela would stop by and drop off some here too.....

[Joyce]

Jerry,

When I was in Sarasota a couple years ago I went to Selby Gardens and they had chocolate trees growing in their conservatory.

 

[Jonna]

Yep! That's it, I've seen them growing.  They are a weird tree with the fruit coming right off the trunk like that.  The fruit looks like a papaya.

A couple years ago in Antigua, Guatemala I was at a cafe and there was a chocolatier shop there.  The guy was from Argentina and I watched him making truffles for a long time, yeah and I bought a few too!  He told me that there are several steps to get the really fine chocolate that is used in Europe and the US by good chocolate makers.  He said that in poorer countries they only do 2 of the 3 or 4 steps so the chocolate is grainier and not as smooth.  He made a truffle with dark chocolate and cardamom that i still dream about. 

[Cedric]

Its a lovely small tree. I would like one here. We had them in Africa at the coast in the garden, they make a wonderful colourful and interesting garden subject as long as you rake up the fallen pods once a year as mosquitoes love breeding in the pod shells. Far as I can remember the trees don't get very big more like a large hard wood shrub.

Lobster with chocolate sauce is delicious. Savoury or sweet chocolate is fabulous, it stimulates the happiness quota in our systems, literally. I add a half a teaspoon cocoa powder to everything rich, stews, curries and gravy's. Its as versatile as anchovy in the savoury department.

How nice to get it so fresh.