Cacao-New Meaning to the Word Bitter

A couple of years ago I was traveling thru rural NJ (yes there is a such thing as rural NJ) and went thru the quaintest little village in Lafayette.  I was with a fellow Chocolatier and she and I were commenting on the charm of this town when we saw a place called, The Chocolate Goat.  Being Chocolatiers, we of course had to stop.  If for nothing more than some “market research”.  It is pretty cool working in a profession where I can write off chocolate purchases as a business expense.

The Chocolate Goat did carry a few things chocolate that I had yet to see.  One item in particular was brewable cacao.  It was ground up cocoa beans (or cacao beans) that you could brew into a tasty drink.  Tasty.  Such a subjective word.  The store clerk said she loved it and had a cup every day.  Never had it.  Got to try it!

The packaging for the brewable cacao said, “Taste the Chocolate”.  Yes, taste, so subjective.  My friend Dianne was over the first time I decided to give it a try.  We brewed up a couple of cups and could smell the faint aroma of chocolate as it brewed.  As we anxiously awaited the brewing we discussed how excited we were to try something new and how amazing it was probably going to be.  Probably.  That’s another subjective word.  It had the color of tea once brewed and the faint aroma of chocolate.  We poured our cups and sipped at the same time.  Dianne’s eyes got really big and I’m sure mine did too.  I couldn’t tell if hers were big because it was SO good, or big like mine as I was trying to swallow it and not spew it all over the place.  It was Bitter.  I mean bitter with a capital B and I definitely didn’t “taste the chocolate”.  We both asked one another, “What did you think?”  It’s sort of like on those Travel Channel food show moments where the host travels to some foreign country and is fed something really bizarre and they say, “Well that’s interesting”.  Fortunately for us, we spoke our minds and said, “It needs a little something.”  Haha, little something.    

If you’ve ever bitten into a raw cacao bean, it will give new meaning to the word bitter.  It happened to me in the Dominican Republic last year.  Yes, I was warned but that “just gotta try it” attitude got the best of me.  Wowser.  Yep, definitely did not taste like chocolate.  Yep, definitely bitter.   Actually, it wasn’t that bitter but not something I would want to just snack on.  Or ever really eat again either.  This brewable cacao, I dare say, did give new meaning to the word bitter.

But, as Dianne and I discovered, when served with sugar and cream it was actually quite tasty and had a very delicate, sweet chocolate note.  I’m proud to say after finding just the right amount of sugar and cream, I did finish brewing, and enjoying, the entire bag!