cacao to cacao

I am so in love with vanilla or should I say vanillas?
The Madagascar version is my favorite..funny so is vetiver from there.
Everything I get from Madagascar is fragrant, smooth. Don't get me wrong, I love all of them, the Tahitian vanilla total is fantastic.
What better to pair with than cacao??
That is how you say it now. Not cocoa but "cacao".
Why the change in wordage, you might wonder?
Well the people that harvest and roast cacao beans speak mostly Spanish but not limited to. Anyhow the rest of the world calls the chocolate, cacao after it's processed in to a dark brown powder or paste..
The seeds are harvested and roasted..to be raw I would assume at very low temps below 115 degrees.
I tried making cacao when I was in Costa Rica, but it was such a pain in the aasss that I quit. I only had like 5 or six beans anyhow. It takes a long time to do anything without equipment but the people there adapt well..us, not so much.
There was a time when Costa Rica produced a ton of cacao, but there was some sort of thing that killed most of the cacao in the northern areas..sad..don't worry, there are people down there who are planting new crops and maintaining the plants health organically.
Vanilla grows in the same areas too. Hot, damp, rainy, sunny, well drained..Ah, what a life for some. I would love it, if my mom and dad and all my kids were there with me..my family, what with all their little quirks, that is where I am happiest, I think.


xx