3 lbs BOLIVIA ABC ORGANIC WALIKEEWA RAW CACAO/COCOA BEANS
This our latest 2018 crop. Arrived in the US in March , 2019. Packed at origin in GrainPro bags. 2014 was our first full year of operations at the Alto Beni Cacao Co, our project aiming to revolutionize the Bolivian cacao industry by building the first-in-country centralized cacao fermentation plant, and nursery program for high-quality Bolivian cacao seedlings. Invalsa's cacao business started in 2009, when Alex Whitmore, founder and CEO of Taza Chocolate in Somerville, MA, contacted us to help his company source organic Bolivian cacao. Taza Chocolate uses it to make their very popular, highest dark-chocolate (87%) bar. 2018 is our fifth year of cacao improvement and processing in our centralized plant in the Buena Vista community. These cacao beans are a hybrid variety a combination of Ameloanado(59%) and Criollo (18%) cacao beans. We are continually making improvements in the quality control system at our plant, but these beans are of a much more consistent quality than previously available sources of Bolivian cacao . We call this beans "Walikeewa", the local Aymara language for "improved". They are much larger than our Heirloom cacao beans and have about 20% less cacao butter content. How do I roast cacao beans? To roast cacao beans, you need to expose them to a high temperature, close to 325 degrees, and then gradually lower that temperature for the next 15 to 30 minutes. The processes of roasting coffee and cacao beans are nearly the same, except because cacao beans are more fragile than coffee beans, they have to be roasted at a much lower temperature. Cacao beans should never get hotter than 325 degrees. We recommend using the Behmor 1600 coffee roaster for cacao roasting. Use the one-pound setting with the P2 profile, but fill the grid drum with 2.5 to 3 lbs. of raw cacao beans. We are an authorized distributor of the Behmor 1600. You can also buy the Behmor coffee/cacao roaster from us.
Invalsa (co-based in Boston, MA and La Paz, Bolivia) sourced these specialty-grade cacao beans ourselves, directly from smallholder farmers in the Palos Blancos region of Alto Beni province.
These are fermented and dried, but un-roasted cacao beans that you can use to make your own chocolate, or other cacao dishes or products.
Happy chocolate-making! Certified by Baysate Organic Certifiers. Packed in a burlap bag