Belize (Sweet) Finale
To bring this month-long Belize series to a close, there is clearly one element that was missing. I talked about the extreme sports and the local cuisine, I shared recipes to introduce you to Belizean cooking and show you how the locals satisfy their sweet tooth too. Hopefully you have gotten a good taste of what a trip there would be like, and you may even have added Belize to those forever growing travel wish lists that we all have.
When I travel, there is always one thing I come back with. It may even take up a largely disproportionate amount of space in my luggage. It always does when I come back from Paris and Lyon, and simply from neighboring cities in Switzerland. Even when in Croatia, I was on the hunt for it, and succeeded. There is a particular drawer in my kitchen devoted to this one item, and it has packaging from Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Italy… and now Belize too. Yes indeed, you guessed it,… I’m talking about chocolate.
It all started when we were on Hummingbird Highway, heading from Placencia to the Cayo district, passing tall banana trees, colorful school buses and children scurrying about in their uniforms. I admired grapefruit trees galore, became puzzled by the rain that came and left in a matter of minutes, and learned all about why Fyfe bananas are not exported to the US (the top 3 banana companies control the market – Delmonte, Chiquita and Dole). I admired brightly colored houses in shades of green, pink and blue, and got a hunger passing tortilla factories and stands selling tamales, tacos and garnaches, fried corn tortillas topped with salsa, cheese and beans. Best of all, I saw ladies and their children sitting beneath umbrellas, with a few products laid out on the ground besides them for sale…including cacao pods!
If you have never seen the inside of a cacao pod, well, it does in fact resemble something that might be on the set of a science fiction movie. Pods are oblong and quite hard, and can range in color from yellow and green with tones of red and purple even. A good whack on the ground will split the pod open, revealing a bright white gelatinous interior. Rows of white seeds attached to an inner core actually reminded me of fruit I discovered in Bali, like the inside of a mangosteen or srikaya (sugar-apple). I was told that adults buy these cacao pods for children (1 BZD each) to suck on the white, gooey, sweet-tart pulp and spit out the seeds. You don’t want to bite into them though, it would be awfully bitter and astringent. Women also make a paste from the cacao beans and use it in drinks like Ovaltine or in porridge.
But most of all, the beans inside become chocolate! One brand you may already be familiar with is Green & Black’s. Did you know their cocoa comes from Belize? They have been using organic beans from Belize since 1994, supporting the farmers there and the Toledo Cocoa Grower’s Association. Goss Chocolate is another brand well known in Belize, recognizable for its simple yet shiny gold packaging. It caught my eye at the Belize City airport, where I grabbed it just before heading back to Switzerland. Goss, a small family owned chocolate company on the Placencia Peninsula, also uses local organically grown cacao beans and cane sugar. A small sprinkle of fleur de sel once home enhanced this bar for sure. Another bar I grabbed at a little grocery shop in San Pedro was Kakaw, small (and overpriced) 1.4 oz bars that came in assorted flavors like chili and orange.
Cotton Tree Chocolate is perhaps the best known of the bunch outside of Belize. They use cacao beans grown in Mayan villages near Cotton Tree Lodge in southern Punta Gorda. There is a small piece of paper in the wrapper that tells you who worked on your bar. It told me that Pablo Chun grew the cacao in San Jose Village in the Toledo district near their factory, and within one month of harvesting, the cacao became my bar (that cost me 16.50 BZD mind you!) thanks to Vilma Veliz, Juli Puryear and Onika Harry. Thanks team! Cotton Tree Lodge runs chocolate tours, so you can actually see the whole process up close. I would have loved to take part, but our Belize itinerary took us north instead. They have two big events coming up in fact – Chocolate Week in March and another in May hosted by Taza Chocolate of Somerville, MA.
I can’t say I was wowed by the quality of any of the above chocolate unfortunately. But as usual, I still got a thrill from discovering new brands, tasting new bars and from adding a few Belizean wrappers to my collection!
Have you ever had chocolate from Belize? Let us know if so!
Tags: Belize, cacao, Chocolate, Cotton Tree, Goss, Green & Black's, Kakaw, Sweet, Travel
February 28th, 2010 at 00:10
Love this post! beautifully written, and I’ve never seen the inside of a fresh cacao bean and had no idea you could do any of those things with it. I thought it was probably inedible and was discarded and only the beans were kept. I suppose that before I discovered I could get some Valrhona chocolate around here for less than a vital internal organ, I was probably partially Belizean due to the quantity of Green & Black’s chocolate I ate. And I never knew it was made from Belizean cacao. I feel smarter. 😉
February 28th, 2010 at 00:26
How appropriate that you leave the chocolate round up as your finale for Belize. 🙂
I am totally surprised that you found so many different types of chocolate there. I’ve had Green & Black’s chocolate before, and never made the connection. How terrible.
Re: the taste, some of my favourite small, independent chocolate maker here in Australia, had either training in Europe, or the kitchens run by people from Europe. I think that makes a difference.
And re: the inside of a cocoa bean, I am with Hilda, I’ve never seen that before – and not what I was expecting at all. It’s amazing that they sell on the side of the street like that. How different life is there.
February 28th, 2010 at 08:33
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March 1st, 2010 at 00:30
No surprise that you’d fill the post with so much information, that you’d find the best chocolate from Belize (who’d a thunk), and as Julie and Hilda said, that you’d uncover the weird inside of the cacao pod (yes, it did seem like something from a sci fi movie). Another great post with wonderful pictures to support the information. Thanks.
March 1st, 2010 at 00:47
I just knew that you would end your Belize posts with chocolate. I would have never believed in a million years that you would be obsessed with chocolate, but you are! You write about each and every morsel of chocolate. I can taste it with you! Great photos!!!
March 1st, 2010 at 08:53
oh this is good! never had the pleasure of looking inside a cacao pod before! but how typical of you to tease us with chocolate in your last post of the series! thanks for the trip kerrin. hugs!
March 1st, 2010 at 10:06
Hilda, haha, thanks for the great comment ! Too funny, you became partly Belizean huh – which G&B bars did you like ? And where oh where do you get Valrhona at a decent price, I’d love to hear… Oh, and no worries, I didn’t know that anyone would put those slimy white particles in their mouths either ! 🙂
Thanks Mom – and yes, who knew all those plain M&M’s growing up… would lead to THIS ?! 🙂
March 1st, 2010 at 23:31
What a great post Kerrin – I learned so much! I had no idea what the inside of a cocoa pod looked like and I didn’t know G&B’s cocoa comes from Belize! I’m going to miss your Belize series!
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:49
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March 2nd, 2010 at 14:23
I didn’t know Belize was famous for chocolate. I have some green & blacks downstairs. I must go and eat it now to celebrate finding out.
March 2nd, 2010 at 14:54
Mowie, thanks ! I’m so glad you enjoyed the Belize series.
Sarah, excellent idea ! 🙂 So how was the chocolate – what bar of G&B’s did you have, and what’s your favorite ? The one above that I got in Belize is cherry. Do tell…
March 2nd, 2010 at 15:13
I just bought mint fondant filled G&B and 2 bars maya gold. 🙂
March 3rd, 2010 at 10:16
Hi Kerrin! This is definitely my favorite post of your Belize series. What a great description of your drive along the highway! Plus, like everyone else who’s commented, I learned something new about the cacao pod. I had no clue it looked like that. And the chocolate… so fantastic that you can know a little more about the people who work so hard to bring you the good stuff!
P.S. Did you ever get my e-mail from forever ago, as in 6 weeks ago?!
March 3rd, 2010 at 21:07
Excellent post. Didn’t have a clue that Belize even dealt with chocolate!. I only think of Switzerland