Choco-latte!!!! mmmmmmm

That is how I say chocolate while I am making it....

So I went to visit Miss Vera the other day. When I got there, she was roasting some chocolate to make into chocolate nuggets to sell for chocolate tea. Mmmm

So of course, I helped her as we chatted, a common weekly occurrence these days and she came up with this glorious idea to test me to see if I have been learning anything these past few months. What a task: Could I possibly make the chocolate myself, starting right from the bean on the tree, when just five months ago I had never even seen how chocolate grew?

Step 1: Pick the pod off the tree, cut open, and suck the sweet casing off the bean as a bonus treat before the chocolate dries out…apparently it is a huge hit with the kids too…an all natural candy…mmm

Step 2: Lay the beans to dry in the sun for a few days until all the gook (for the lack of a better term) dries off.

Step 3: Parch the beans over an open fire in the bush. Thankfully, I had Frank there to help me get the fire started.

Step 4: Once the beans are blackened, shell them into another bowl

Step 5: Mash the shelled beans with some grated nutmeg, two cinnamon leaves (both given to me by Miss Vera from her yard) until they produced their own butter to mold into the nuggets below.

Step 6: Once dried, these nuggets can be grated into boiling water with some milk, sugar and an orange leaf to make delectable chocolate tea, the Jamaican way! :)