Cacao from our new rural tourismo project in Esperanza.

Cacao is a forest crop and we are going to plant it in our forest. Phil and Humberto harvested cacao (pods with seeds that become chocolate) from our trees and Humberto showed us how to eat the fruit of the cacao. It is sort of clear white and deliciously sweet. It does not taste like chocolate in any way, you spit out the dime sized seeds which are then fermented and roasted, later becoming chocolate. How cool is that? We will grow Cacao as a cash crop at the farm. CATIE is working on a new cultivar of Cacao and we will try that variety as well as what is here. I love chocolate, good chocolate, semi-sweet dark is my favorite.

Most of the world’s cacao comes from Africa, and most of that comes from Ghana and Costa de Marfil.

A new cultivar of cacao, bred for our area, will soon be available, it is suppose to have good disease resistance.

The cacao I photographed here comes from our new property that is part of our rural tourist resort in Esperanza. Cacao is a product of Central America but Costa Rica has only a small portion of the markets share.

Our small rural resort will create jobs and job opportunities for the people of Esperanza de Turrialba. We have beautiful waterfalls, mountains, trails, forests, rivers, beaches, pure water, organic food and birds of all kinds on our private 1,270 acre rainforest farm. Come, get away from it all and visit the real Costa Rica. Come meet the rural people and get a taste of the sweetest place on earth, Esperanza.