Cozy grove cocoa beans full#

These ladies are business savvy and boss all their husbands and brothers around to run their co-op on a tight ship, laughing all the while. They keep precise records of the beans going through each step of fermentation/drying and are very concerned with quality.

They are eager students of all things cacao and it was fun to see them pepper Patrick with questions as soon as we got out of the car. Here is part one, part two, and part three.īeatriz, Aurelia, and her sister-in-law run quite the co-op in Mantuano. This is part four of the chronicles of Greg’s and my trip to Venezuela. Venezuela 4 of 4: Mantuano, Trincheras, Patanemo, and Canoabo Augby Caitlin READ MORE ABOUT: machines process video.Though we are still in the research phase, we are excited about the possibility of integrating this machine into our process. Ivan promised to come visit the factory next time he’s in SF.Īll in all, a productive and illuminating trip to learn about some pretty amazing technology.

Cozy grove cocoa beans full#

He told us, “in Mexico, corn is life.” We were too full to sample the corn or the chicharones, but we both enjoyed mango, lime, and tamarind icees (kind of like sorbet). Ivan helped us out and let us sample a few things and explained how they seek out the best corn in Mexico to import. To top it all off, we stopped by Hay Elotes, a permanent structure version of a Mexican street cart selling all things corn and delicious ice cream/icees. The meat was delicious and the grits were amazing! These were accompanied by outstanding homemade pickles, jalepeño cheesy grits, and crisp coleslaw. We hit up Micklethwait Meat Company where we tried their pulled pork, pork shoulder, and brisket. On our way out of town, we decided we needed one last barbecue fix before heading back to SF. All simple in concept, complicated to achieve, and amazing to see in action.ĭavid and Gary were incredibly knowledgeable and helpful and we both learned a lot during our visit. The beans fall past the camera and then, if rejected, are blown into a different chute with compressed air. The machine has a set of cameras facing each other (so it can “see” both sides of the beans) and is fed from the top using gravity and slight vibration to move the beans down. We worked with them to understand the priorities around rejecting beans based on color, size, and shape. There were several tests to try and we had brought an overweight checked bag (shh!) full of raw beans from a two different origins to play with.ĭavid and Gary had calibrated the machine with a previous sample we had sent. The AMVT lab had several machines and we were warmly welcomed by David and his colleague, Gary. It came with the most amazing sweet and tangy sauce and was just the ticket to kick off our Texas adventure.

We made it just in the nick of time to be their last late, late lunch customers of the day and got to sample some mighty fine brisket and pulled pork. We flew into Austin and stopped by La Barbecue to fuel up for the drive to Houston.