Ecuador Chocolate, Sugar, and Coffee

 

Delicious treat and interesting agricultural product.

During our trip on the Lindblad-National Geographic Endeavor II last week (August 17-24), we found the housekeeping extraordinary — our room was cleaned two or three times each day, and during dinner, our bed was “turned down” and a tiny wrapped chocolate placed on each of our pillows. Wow! Ecuadorian chocolate is the world’s best, they say. We found it delicious, especially in the fantastic cakes and candy that we ate.

Growing and Processing Cocoa

Besides eating quite a few delicacies made from Ecuadorian chocolate, and enjoying Ecuadorian coffee every day, we also enjoyed a visit to a very small and low-tech farm where chocolate was produced along with sugar, coffee, and a few other things. The rather primitive technology used here began around 60 years ago when the original owner started the farm. He and his family are still running it, and he described how things are done — one of the ship’s guides translated his explanations.

I’m sure the cultivation methods and food processing used on the mainland of Ecuador is much more sophisticated. There’s something very special about life in the Galapagos, which has a very small population and limited land for agriculture.

After the cocoa beans are extracted from the pods, there are many steps to the final production of chocolate — we saw only part of the process.

Another low-tech part of the process: melting the chocolate with sugar and coffee to create a
special product that can be used to make a beverage. These men are members of the extended family
that still runs the farm after two generations.

Low-tech Sugar Refining

The man in the blue shirt is the founder of the farm, who has worked there for around 60 years.
Just as I was about to take another photo, the beam came around and hit my leg… OUCH!

Sugar-cane juice can be made into coarse sugar or used in the chocolate-coffee mixture.

Q. What else can you do with sugar cane juice? 

A. Ferment it and make moonshine or rum.

Processing Coffee Beans

Coffee beans must be hulled, aged, fermented, and subject to a number of processing steps.

While shaking this open container, the person roasting the beans must watch carefully to get them just right.

A very interesting farm

Besides coffee, sugar, and cocoa, the farm produces torch ginger, bananas, and other plants.
It also has a few pigs and chickens. We totally enjoyed our visit.

Blog post and photos © 2024 mae sander