Ancient and Modern Tabascan Cacao

The Olmecs are the earliest know civilization yet researched in Mesoamerica. Modern science has not identified a form of Olmec writing explaining their culture in their words. As a result, wide ranging theories have flourished ascribing origin and meaning to the 17 monolithic head sculptures unearthed in what is now the Mexican state of Tabasco.

Cacao has a unique chemical composition of over 500 different compounds, high concentrations of some of these compounds lead archeologists to believe they can identify traces of cacao that are thousands of years old.

In 2011 US based scientists working with the National Academy of Sciences, Yale University and the University of California identified the earliest remains of cacao at an Olmec site dating approximately 1800 BCE, more than 3,800 years ago.

(Go deep with me about colonial archaeology elsewhere on the blog XOXO)

Widely considered to be the first civilization to domesticate the cacao tree and to ferment cacao beans. Initially the Olmec are thought to have been fermenting the sweet pulp around the bean which led to fermented beans at a slightly later date.

Our very first cacao sourcing trip was to land previously inhabited by the Olmec people, a small area outside of Cunduacan a town in what is now the Mexican state of Tabasco. ⠀⠀

It was very very hot at the cacao farm outside of Villahermosa inland from the coast of what is now the Gulf of Mexico. We were greeted with an open cacao pod, invited to remove the pulp covered beans and pop them directly into our mouths.

They were refreshing and the pulp had a pleasant flavor. Next we tasted cacao nibs produced by the same beans after they were dried, fermented and roasted. They were delicious, not surprising as we were sitting on the porch of La Joya, one of Mexico's most prestigious cacao farms.

Our friend Professor Nisao Ogata head of the University of Veracruz Tropical Trees department had given us a personal introduction. The cacao grown at La Joya is Criollo Blanco, highly sought after for its flavor and rarely exported to the United States. It was Professor Ogata's belief that beginning with some of the very best tasting cacao Mexico was growing we could orient our palettes as chocolate makers.

We spent time in the forest of cacao trees at the prestigious La Joya farm in south eastern Mexico recording the sound of birds and admiring the bright yellow cacao pods and learning about the complexity of the cacao marketplace.

Harvests at prestigious estates are often sold in advance five years at a time. For much of La Joya's history these sales were conducted with European buyers. World renowned Belgian and Spanish chocolate makers have claimed the Criollo Blanco beans grown in the forests of La Joya. Following the centuries old model of violent (economically, physically, culturally) raw materials extraction from the Americas to profitable European manufacturing sectors.

We were on site at the farm as negotiations took place for the next five years of harvest, to a Mexican from the north. Carlos the third generation operating La Joya lamented to us privately that he would prefer to use the land for cattle ranching because the prices were better. Even the generation before him was split on the matter, with one sibling planting quick for profit sugar cane - another commodity that will be discussed on the blog - and one sibling replanting a couple of hectares of the precious Carmelo C-1 cacao trees that the farm is famous for.

It was an invaluable education for us to find ourselves unexpectedly at the table as witness to the agreement as it took form. What we observed has informed our decisions as chocolate makers and has guided our responsibility as we make choices about the cacao we purchase to do it.

It was like standing in front of an open oven. The La Joya cacao farm is outside of Cunduacan, in the Mexican state of Tabasco. A state that regularly floods and is infamous for a heat that slows everything to a delirious crawl by midday. By the afternoon negotiations had slowed and everyone retreated to hammocks and fans. One of the farmers invited us to join him for lunch down the road and we were grateful for the chance to enjoy cold drinks and tacos.

Over lunch he explained his position at La Joya was for the extra money and that also helped his mother with their small crop on his own land. From what we learned his family was typical of many small farms across the state, they sold the ripe cacao beans raw freshly removed from their pods, to a central fermentation facility. Many of these facilities are set up by multinational corporations that ship the homogenized blend of processed cacao out of the country.

These small farmers receive a much lower price than the beans that were fermented and dried at La Joya and sold to specialty markets. Regardless it is an attractive system for small farms because they don't need the infrastructure or staff to manage the difficult task of fermenting and drying on site.

One of harmful effects this system has on Mexico is the proliferation of lower quality commodity centered cacao being planted, followed by the widespread loss of traditional skill and innovation involved in both fermenting and drying cacao.

At the end of a long weekend, five years of future La Joya harvests had been sold to a Mexican businessman from Monterrey. Before leaving the farm we conducted our own negotiation and bought 20 kilos of beans from the most recent harvest.

When we returned to the capital we spread out the cacao and with the help of family we sorted through the beans before packing them into a suitcase to cross the border with us.