What is Earth From Down Under

Earth from Down Under is a blog about our twice in a lifetime retirement visits to the Antipodes with stops in Hawai'i. To stay in touch with friends and family while on our trip, we will post updates as often as possible. (Click on the photos to enlarge them for the full effect.)



Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Steelgrass Chocolate Farm

Inside the sacred pod!
Pods waiting for people or critters to liberate the seeds!

I'll bet most of you don't know what steelgrass is! We found out yesterday on a visit to Steelgrass Chocolate Farm. However, we didn't go to see steelgrass (or bamboo - so named because of its tensile strength). We wound our way up a serpentine trail in pursuit of CHOCOLATE. Our chocoholic friend, J.Q., will appreciate our determination! The enterprising farmers, Will and Emily Lydgate, are decendents of a famous Kaua'i family for whom nearby Lydgate Beach is named.

The farm, fairly small and unpretentious, makes a real effort to promote diversification on the island. The big plantations, sugar cane and pineapple, have closed down because they cannot compete with cheap labour from the southern hemisphere. Will and Emily are developed this teaching farm to promote the development of new workable crops to shift away from monoculture. The chocolate tour, originally developed to educate local growers, has become a big hit with tourists. One must book well ahead to attend the thrice weekly tours.

The three hour lecture included botany lessons on cultivated plants, papyrus, India tree, black bamboo, vanilla, opportunities to taste tropical treats - rambutan, lychee, butterfruit, palm honey, sugar cane with lime but most important of all CHOCOLATE - 11 different kinds of single estate chocolates, one local and the others imported. We tasted cacao beans straight from the pod that taste nothing like chocolate, membranous sweet outside, and if one bites the seed - soapy inside, then fermented beans that smell like the real thing and bear some resemblance to what one would expect, then the heavenly final products. It's a miracle that man figured out how to transform the fruit to this divine "food of the gods".
Matt, our knowledgeable guide hailing from Minneapolis originally, provided the entertaining commentary. Did you know the pods grow close to the ground so that rodents will chew them and release the fruit? Or that there are only 3 kinds of fruit, criollo, trinitario and the most common, forastero? The bars most of us grew up with are called "formula bars" because they are meant to taste the same every time. He referred to Starbucks here, I don't know why! The single estate delights, like fine wine, can vary from batch to batch.
After a blind tasting, I found my favourite was the 68% Dagoba "Milagros" beans grown in Peru, bar created in Ashland, Oregon! Unfortunately the small company has been bought out by Hershey. Why do the big companies always manage to wipe out the "competition"? Matt said they probably lured the owner by offering trips all over the world to taste chocolate. I figure he was probably able to afford to retire on Kaua'i! The runner-up was 64% Valrhona (French) "Manjari" criollo, grown in Madagascar. Actually I think, unlike Dagoba, the bars are easily available at the St. Lawrence Mkt. and elsewhere in Toronto. I was very surprised because I'm sure we bought some while in France last spring, and I didn't think it was exceptional when compared to my daily jolt of 72% Camino Cocoa - bittersweet. Blind tasting is a good idea, it avoids prejudice!

Duncan favoured Felchin (Swiss) 74% "Elvesia" criollo/trinitario blend out of the Dominican Republic. Will Lydgate told him he had a true connaisseur's palate. It is a chocolate used in Europe for making fine chocolate desserts.

Quoting from our tasting sheet: Dark chocolate has among the highest concentrations of antioxidants of any food. Antioxidant levels are measured by Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC for short). As a point of comparison prunes (now called "dried plums" to make them more attractive to consumers) have 5770 per 100 grams. The hands-down winner, dark chocolate weighs in at 13,120. Milk chocolate has 6740 but has only 10% cacao content, and its benefits are negated by the milk that blocks antioxidant asorption. Dark chocolate is a health food - feel free to eat 1 oz. per day but forget the milk chocolate!

After the blind tasting, Matt, passed the bowls of numbered samples again, and we all engaged in a feeding frenzy to finish every last morsel. Ah, the theobromines, aka mood elevators, are kicking in ...

No comments:

Post a Comment