Rivers of cocoa

At Matema beach I relax from this intense vacation. While driving here I notice dense forests of cocoa trees. Interesting! Yet another thing I have to investigate further 😏. Next to the road I ask a random mister "Hey, sir! You're involved with this cocoa?"

I must have some kind of intuition for meeting just the right people. Baraka turns out to be a voluntary teacher, teaching young (orphaned) kids basics before they get into primary school: independence from "the system" and self-defense 😃! Prior to that, he has been village executive officer. He teaches me the fundamentals of coca processing and fetches fresh cocoa for me which I can try to ferment and dry myself. The white flesh around the beans is very tasty! Reminds me of "guanabana" fruits of Venezuela. Together, we also find a mama who sells already fermented and dried beans to cooperatives, of which I acquire 2-3 kg. Fermentation of the beans takes around 7 days, whereas drying requires 3-4 additional days in the current sun. Afterwards, the beans are ready for roasting and post-processing, either into chocolate or powder with separated cocoa butter. The whole process is indeed extensively complex, involves a lot of time, heavy labour and many resources. If you tend to buy a bar of chocolate in Germany for less than a Euro, please ask yourself if this is a reasonable price? It can never be!

Baraka invites me to stay for lunch with his family and we go hiking up the valley to Matema waterfall which is prettier than expected. It looks like a river of milk flowing down the rocks 🤤. Later, I visit the barber and get a new shirt tailored from Tanzanian kitenge by a nice old lady.

The good thing about the rainy season is that you can spend a whole day just watching the game of weather. And this is what I do the following day (and night).Read more