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Costa Rica 2017

Family Vacation To Costa Rica
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costa rica

  • Andy saw this ant carrying a brightly colored beetle while on our chocolate tour. I could not help taking the photo.
  • cocoa fruit in different stages
  • finger long small cocoa fruit, with years worth of immature flowers at its base
  • during chocolate tour, learning about the forest and the cocoa trees
  • grass hopper chewing on fern next to trail.
  • The Gumbo Limbo or Bursera Simaruba, goes by several aliases, such as the Spirit Gum, Birch Gum, Turpentine, Naked Indian, or more commonly named in popular vacation destinations…..the “Tourist Tree”, because of its red color and peeling skin! the peeling helps keep it from being covered in vines
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  • Musa Velutina pink banana were all over. I suspect they are an invasive non-native plant.
  • interesting fruit growing where they extract the cocoa seeds. We got to smell it, but not taste it.
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  • This is the founder of Caribeans Coffee & Chocolate. This is a small family run business in Puerto Viejo. what a great tour! We learned a lot and got to taste and smell all aspects stages of the chocolate making process. I wish I could order some on line! His shirt is a bit of a joke.
  • the beans were covered in a fleshy sweet pulp. the seeds were a little fibrous, and bitter. Not very chocolaty at this stage.
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  • Fermentation is done in banana leave lined wooden boxes. It takes 5 to 7 days.
  • seeds are then dried. We got to taste some at this stage as well. They start to taste like chocolate now, and the smell in this drying building was heavenly.
  • this is the view at the top of the ridge where we had most of the tasting. It was worth the tour just for the view.
  • resting after hike to top of the hill.
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  • we got to sample chocolate made from cocoa collected by other small farmers in the area. Each had different flavor and color. Some more fruity, some more bitter, some had stronger chocolate flavor than others. All good!
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