Cacao: Bean to Bar

By Pacita Juan, Josephine Ramos and Ma. Regina Francisco

Cacao: Bean to Bar is for anyone who would like to know more about the Philippine cacao industry, from the chocolate enthusiast, to the chocolate manufacturer, all the way to the would-be cacao farmer. It is laden with facts and a bit of history of the cacao industry in the country, and tells of how its champions are helping it gain world prominence once more. This book features a step-by-step procedure on how to start a cacao business (from planting the crop to harvesting, to making chocolate bars and other chocolate confections), food and beverage recipes, and a color folio.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anvil Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9789712729157

Book preview

Cacao

Bean to Bar

a cacao grower’s manual

Pacita U. Juan

Josephine V. Ramos

Ma. Regina S. Francisco

Cacao: Bean to Bar

by Pacita U. Juan, Josephine V. Ramos and Ma. Regina S. Francisco

Copyright to this digital edition © 2013

Pacita U. Juan, Josephine V. Ramos, Ma. Regina S. Francisco

and Anvil Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form

or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owners.

Published and exclusively distributed by

ANVIL PUBLISHING, INC.

7th Floor Quad Alpha Centrum Building

125 Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City

1550 Philippines

Sales and Marketing: [e-mail]

Fax: [phone]

www.anvilpublishing.com

Book design by R. Jordan P. Santos (cover) and Joshene Bersales (interior)

Cover photos courtesy of the following:

     Cacao beans and chocolate by Ma. Regina S. Francisco

     Liquid chocolate and chocolate bar by Young-Ice Graphics

         (http://youngicegfx.weebly.com)

     Cocoa powder photo by R. Jordan P. Santos

Folio and inside photos from the collections of Pacita U. Juan, Josephine V. Ramos,

      Ma. Regina S. Francisco, R. Jordan P. Santos and Young-Ice Graphics

ISBN 9789712729157 (e-book)

Version 1.0.1

Contents

Preface

More than just savoring a hot, frothy tsoklate , or having a bite of mouthwatering, luscious chocolate bars, my passion for cacao is buried deep in sentiment, nurtured by Filipino food traditions and rooted in my family’s ties to the land.

I was raised in a simple rural household, our backyard dotted with many crops which included cacao trees. My grandfather used to harvest ripe cacao fruits, gather us kids to take one bean at a time and eat the mucilage, but with a warning not to bite the seeds inside as he would select the best ones for planting. The rest of the beans were dried and stored in rattan baskets lined with woven coconut fronds. They were kept for two reasons—one is to have something to sell when we needed money for small school expenses, and the other, to have "tsoklate" during Christmas, visits, family get-togethers, and on rainy days when all the kids had to stay inside the house.

It was a simple memory from my daily family life which—as I discovered during work-related visits and talks with rural households in several places in the Philippines—was similar to the past of thousands of other Filipino families.

This kindled a burning desire for me to share my experiences, knowledge, and learnings about cacao. For one, I believe that we should sustain one of the many beautiful Filipino traditions of family togetherness. There is also a huge livelihood and business opportunity in the different stages of the cacao value chain, aside from its health benefits and nutrition value.

The Philippines has yet to define and stage itself as one of the significant cacao producers in the world, but strengths, opportunities and enabling conditions abound, waiting to be taken and transformed into added income for farmers, healthy and thriving cacao-producing communities, and larger groups of responsible nature stewards that should perpetuate the benefits of this food for the gods.

This book shares a wealth of information about cacao through the ages—its history of use, ways of consumption, processing and the processed products, growing cacao, and even some recipes. This is our attempt to help in the development of small and big businesses in cacao—from beans to bars.

Josephine V. Ramos

Acknowledgments

To Ms. KARINA BOLASCO and Ms. GWENN GALVEZ for believing in our concept of a cacao growers’ book;

To Ms. JOYCE BERSALES for her patience in sending our files back and forth and keeping us aligned to our timetable;

To Ms. CRIS ABIVA for accepting the role of editor and being tolerant of our minor challenges in gathering data;

To Ms. MERLYN SANOPAO for testing all the recipes and trying all the tablea samples we gathered from many places around the country;

To Mr. ROMY AND LINDA FRIAS for their support;

To chocolate advocates for allowing us to tell their stories.

Feel the Passion

The origins of cacao

It was probably the monkeys and squirrels who first discovered that the cacao plant was edible, its sweet, filling pulp concealed within a thick pod. The animals ate the pulp, then spat out the seeds. Ancient man followed their example, picking the ripe fruit from the trees as they walked past and eating only the delicious pulp. This was probably