Chocolate and Birdies

My class got to go on another amazing overnight field trip to the Mindo area where we birdwatched, heard a lecture about chytrid fungus in frogs, swam, hiked and went on a tour of a local chocolate "factory". There were hundreds of hummingbirds surrounding the lodge area at all times; you could easily find 6 hummingbirds on one feeder. These guys were not afraid of humans at all and they would zoom right by your head. We also saw many toucans and parrots in the forest through the scope our professor brought. The second and third collages are mainly form the chocolate factory tour. They grow all of their own ingredients organically in a small garden such as ginger (3rd pic bottom right) and coffee (3rd pic top left). However, they buy their cocoa beans from farmers that live in the lowlands about 1.5 hrs away because the cocoa beans will not grow at the about 2,000 feet elevation on Mindo. About 70 years ago Ecuador was the highest producing country for chocolate. There is one picture of cocoa beans in the garden (2nd pic bottom right), but these will never develop enough to properly use. The company is called El Quetzal, named after a bird native to Mexico, which is where chocolate first was made 3,000 years ago. The Olmecas mixed cocoa powder with water or milk, no sugar, and used it as an energy drink that everyone could consume. The Mayans and Aztecs then added vanilla to the drink and considered it a sacred beverage that only kings and Gods could drink. Cocoa beans were so cherished that they were used as currency and called the Golden Bean. A man from Holland heard about this drink and invented the hydraulic press which led to him being able to create the first chocolate bar, which we love and enjoy today. There are two types of cocoa that can be cultivated, one is called Nacional, and the other is a hybrid called CCN. The Nacional product is more difficult to grow, but is of a higher quality. El Quetzal solely uses the Nacional product and pays their farmers extra. To get an idea of the difference, in placed like Belgium and Swiss, in order for a chocolate bar to be considered premium it must have at least 12% of the Nacional strand in it. In comparison, the chocolate bar sold by El Quetzal with the lowest percent cocoa is 67%. We got to try all of the different products the company makes and I am definitely sold.