Guatemala can be called the world’s capital of chocolate. Here, the cacao beans are grown, fermented, roasted, and made into delicious eco-friendly chocolate. There are many people in Guatemala who dedicated their lives to making chocolate.
This tasty video about chocolate got over 100,000 views during less than 2 days.
Guatemala is known for a lot of things: coffee, avocados – but more than anything else, it should be known for chocolate.
Chocola, Guatemala
This is a place called Chocola. It's known for rain and fertile soil, which means it's an ideal place to grow cacao, the main ingredient in chocolate. The ancient Maya grew it their 2,500 years ago and people are still growing it there today.
“My name is Victor Alfredo Diaz Can. My work is growing cacao. I grew up here in Chocola working the land. We ferment the cacao, and we get it to point that it’s ready to be sold or to be put in the chocolate workshops. The time that it takes from seed to production is very long. We take seeds from the pods, we categorize them and wait for 5 years”, says Victor, farmer.
Antigua, Guatemala
So after the cacao is grown, it's off to the chocolatiers. Brenda is a 4th-generation chocolatier. She makes her chocolate the same way her great grandmother used to, back in the day. And now she's teaching her children to do the same.
“My name is Brenda Elizabeth Oliva Sican, and I make artisanal chocolate. The most important point in the chocolate-making process is the roasting. It’s best to roast cacao with a wood-fire, not fire with a gas stove or an oven. it’s not the same thing. The flavor the wood gives the cacao bean when you roast it is distinct. Many people come here looking for something different, and that’s what we want to do: give those people something that they don’t find in their country that we can offer them here”, says Brenda, chocolatier.
This is Fernando. He's a newer chocolatier, taking a more modern approach to Guatemala's chocolate Renaissance.
“This is the room where the cacao paste becomes chocolate in these machines. It’s a slow process that requires patience. We make 1 metric ton a month – or, 12 tons a year – in this room. Guatemalan chocolate is so delicious because of the cacao. Making chocolate is my life these days. It’s what I dedicate most of my time to. With chocolate, the possibilities have no end”, says Fernando, chocolatier.
“We believe that it’s important to keep this tradition alive because that’s our history, and the cacao that we grow in Guatemala, as we know, is the only one of its kind in the world”, adds Victor, farmer.
“Chocolate is passion”, says Fernando, chocolatier.
“Chocolate makes people happy”, adds Brenda, chocolatier.
“Chocolate is Guatemalan”, adds Victor, farmer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVRaaBCc1MA
