CHOCOLATE DEMO AND TASTING
If you’d like a unique team-building experience or a fun event for your bridal shower, anniversary party, or other significant milestone, how about a historical chocolate demonstration?
In the Spring of 2021, I spent six weeks at Ixcacao Chocolate in the tiny Mayan village of San Felipe in the Toledo District of Belize. There I learned how to grow, harvest, ferment, dry, and roast cacao beans and the process of turning them into chocolate bars, cacao powder, and cacao butter. Thousands of years ago, the Mayans took cacao beans, fermented and roasted them and created a hot drink they called Xocotahl (Zho Ko Tahl) and it was this beverage that was served to the first European explorers when they arrived in Central America.
Chocolate is native to Venezuela and many thousands of years ago it made its way across Central America. For many generations the dried beans were used as currency and traces of Theobromine (only found in cacao beans) and caffeine have been found in ancient settlements all the way to Utah’s Pueblo Bonito. This is because dried cacao beans were traded throughout the ancient civilizations of South America, Central America, and the Southwest United States.
Your Historical Chocolate Demonstration will start off with a warm cup of Xocotahl followed by a cacao bean demonstration using a Matate, the stone grinding mill so many ancient civilizations used to mill corn and cacao. We’ll crack cacao beans into cacao nibs, winnow the shells, then grind the cacao nibs into heirloom chocolate. From there we’ll taste chocolate with the addition of sugar, milk powder, cinnamon, orange zest, sea salt, and chili pepper and discuss their relationship with chocolate.
I’ll bring everything needed for your event and I will require the opportunity to heat water for the opening drink. I’ll share secrets and stories of our time in Belize and offer up knowledge of the past and present Mayan civilization. Your historical chocolate demonstration will last approximately 90 minutes. Use the contact form below to reach out to me and schedule your Historical Chocolate Demonstration and Tasting.
Investment
500.00 US
+ 7.00 per person for chocolates and all associated tasting wares.
250.00 deposit is required to schedule your event.
I accept Venmo, your local check, and Cash
As this event features chocolates made and shipped from Central and South America, or handmade chocolates purchased locally, your deposit will be non-refundable 14 days prior to your tasting. Please confirm your final number of guests (the minimum number of guests you will be charged for) no later than seven days prior to your Historical Chocolate Demonstration.