Barbara Wilson

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Chocolate Making Course at Mindo Chocolate Makers
Chocolate Making Course at Mindo
Chocolate Making Course at Mindo
Chocolate Making Course at Mindo
Chocolate Making Course at Mindo
grinding whole beans bean to bar class
nacional flower vs other
cacao flowers showing nacional vs criollo

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Mimi Wheeler
02/14/12 10:25:11 @mimi-wheeler:

Hi Barbara. Thank you for your note. As I wrote to Joe, unfortunately, Norm and I will not be able to make it to Ecuador this spring. I am hoping for November. The tickets were too expensive when we started looking too late. Hope you both are doing well!

Warm regards, Mimi


Clay Gordon
05/06/10 09:09:34 @clay:
Barbara: I've been following your conversation with Matt and visited your site. I appreciate and encourage what you're doing in-country. The world needs more of these kinds of operations.However, the following statements in one of the paragraphs on your site are not correct:Cacao originated in the Amazon basin in Ecuador and the cacao tree variety is called Nacional (or criollo) and is considered to be in the top 2% of quality cacao beans. Nacional only grows in Ecuador.- Cacao did originate in the Upper Amazon River basin. There is no evidence that conclusively points to its origin in what is now Ecuador. Provenance could just as easily be Peru, Bolivia, and/or Brazil.- Nacional is not a variety of criollo, but a variety of forastero that exhibits fine flavor cacao characteristics. Criollos were bred from forastero varieties introduced into Mesoamerica thousands of years ago.- Nacional is considered to be a fine flavor cocoa bean. Fine flavor cocoa represents about 3% of the world harvest at the moment. Nacional is in that 3% - but is not considered to be the top 2% of the top 3% - which is what is implied.- Nacional will grow anywhere in the world that cacao grows. However, there is a particular flavor profile associated with Nacional (called Arriba) that does not develop when Nacional is planted outside of specific areas of Ecuador.I hope this clears things up.
Matt Caputo
05/04/10 15:39:53 @matt-caputo:
Barbara,I would love to buy wholesale, but first, do you offer samples?Thanks,Matt www.caputosdeli.com
Matt Caputo
05/02/10 21:24:25 @matt-caputo:
Do you have a website? I would like to check it out. Also, do you sell wholesale?Thanks,Matt
Matt Caputo
05/02/10 06:20:31 @matt-caputo:
what is Mindo chocolate?