tree to bar chocolate in Cuba

In my previous post, I was a little harsh on the commercial chocolate currently being made in Cuba at their government-run chocolate factory. But I did mention that there are individuals who are growing small amounts of cacao on their private properties and making a more pure and authentic form of tree to bar chocolate in Cuba–without all that unnecessary sugar.

I asked Zoila to take me to her happy place, and this is where she took me in her beautiful garden.

making tree to bar chocolate in baracoa, cuba

In this post, I’d like to take you to Casa de Zoila, a small property in the Baracoa region of Cuba where Zoila grows her own cacao and goes through each of the steps to make her 100% raw and organic cocoa chocolate bars, as well as bonbons and cocoa balls.

The cacao seeds/beans are removed from the pod and then covered with a heavy leaf and fermented in a bowl for four days to develop the chocolate flavour in the cocoa beans.

Drying the fermented cocoa beans in the sun for four days helps to further develop the rich flavour of home-made Cuban chocolate.

Zoila ferments the cocoa beans in a pot covered with a banana (or any other large) leaf for four days. She then dries the fermented beans in the sun for four days. She then roasts the beans for 15 minutes on a wood fire. After they’re roasted, the beans are fairly easy to shell. The shelled cocoa beans are then run through a manual grinder.

This manual grinder is what Zoila uses to break up and grind the roasted cocoa beans to a fine powder.

The roasted cocoa beans are crushed and ground into a paste, then rolled into balls (called rayándolas), refrigerated for five minutes and are then ready to be made into chocolate bars, or whatever Zoila chooses.

This photo shows Zoila with her cacao display, including the large cocoa ball on the right.

The chocolate in Zoila’s bars is intense as it is 100% pure and hand ground.

The chocolate in Zoila’s Baracoa bars is 100% cocoa and quite intense. She uses pieces of these bars to melt down and make her special hot chocolate drink made with hot water and sugar added to taste. Be prepared! This is not the silky hot chocolate we may be used to in other parts of the world. This is a hot chocolate drink intense in flavour and true to its essence. Think of it as chocolate espresso!

My thanks to the Cuban Tourist Board for financing this trip and arranging my terrific cocoa-focused itinerary. We visited Casa de Zoila for a private tour thanks to the local office of cubatur, the government-run travel agency that worked in cooperation with the Cuba Tourist Board to organize my incredible itinerary to Eastern Cuba. There are other “cocoa houses” you can visit for public tours, including Finca Las Mujures recommended by my friends at Villa Paradiso Baracoa.