Forum Activity for @Elaine Gonzalez

Philly Candy Show in Atlantic City

Posted in: News & New Product Press

I'm happy to hear that so many of you will be attending the Philly Candy Show. Please stop by the Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate booth. I will be demonstrating chocolate artistry techniques using Peter's Chocolates. I have been a part of that show for the past 25 years and I've loved every minute of it! Looking forward to meeting you.

Oaxaca

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

The raw beans would be the ones that they skewer. Once they turn chalky they pulverize if you squeeze them and they would not be suitable for eating. I will send you the recipe for making chocolate atole if you write to me.The raw beans are easy to spot in the market. They resemble regular cacao beans but they are flatter and wider, similar to lima beans. The ones for sale are washed, not fermented per se. The fermented ones are the chalky ones. I do not know of a source for purchasing them outside of Mexico.

Oaxaca

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

The bi-color cacao beans are buried in a deep hole in the ground. This is done under certain astrological conditions by a few chosen women who, for six months, daily pour water into a hole alongside the covered beans. The beans ferment during that time, the shells turn black and crack open to reveal the chalk white transformation of the meat of the bean. The beans are then dried in the shade for several days. These beans are traditionally used to make the enormous head of foam that is placed on top of a cup filled with atole. Making the base for the foam on a metate is a laborious task but the results are amazing--a large bowl heaped with foam capable of staying "alive" for 7 or 8 hours. It is the most revered ceremonial drink in Oaxaca.You can sometimes find pataxtle (spelled many different ways) for sale in the Benito Juarez market as well as at the abastos market in Oaxaca city. You'll also find them in the village markets of Tlacolula, Teotitlan del Valle and others throughout the state of Oaxaca. I don't know of any purpose for using them other than for making foam for chocolate atole. Sometimes this drink is sold in the markets but I would not recommend drinking it there. The queen of chocolate atole making is Abigail Mendoza in Teotitlan del Valle.

Oaxaca

Posted in: Travels & Adventures

I have conducted chocolate tours to Mexico (including Oaxaca) since 1990. Unfortunately, my last tour was a year ago. Oaxaca is a hot bed of chocolate in Mexico, one of the few areas that still practice many of the chocolate traditions handed down to them by their ancestors. To get a real feel for the place, do as the locals do and have breakfast at Fonda Abuelita, one of the oldest stalls in the 20 de noviembre market. We traditionally order chocolate de agua and pan de yema. Then we cross the street to the Mercado San Benito Juarez to shop for chocolate pots, molinillos, traditional metal chocolate molds (used tor shape patties), jicaras (gourd drinking cups), and cacao beans--lavados (washed), beneficiados (partially fermented), and fermentados (fermented). If you're lucky, you may see someone selling pataxtle,"white cacao" which comes from the Theobroma Bi-Color trees. These beans are really special and are used to make perhaps the most revered chocolate drink of all--chocolate atole.