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Ultimate Guide to Chocolate of Oaxaca, Mexico

Chocolate and mescal are probably the most important things that Oaxaca really is known for. Funny enough, Oaxaca Is literally like the culinary hotspot of Mexico, which I did not know, but I’m very impressed. Chocolate in Oaxaca is a really big thing, it’s part of their culture, it’s pride, it’s part of the community.

I love to go and do different tastings and different experiences. My husband and my sons go along with it. Personally, here’s the thing. I do not like chocolate. I am one of those rare beings that really don’t like chocolate. Not only that, but I consider myself very lucky because chocolate is everywhere, and I’m grateful. I don’t like it because I’d be fat if I did. My husband, on the other hand, is obsessed with chocolate. He has to have a chocolate fix every single day. He says it’s like orgasmic for him.

Honestly, I wish I could find a food that makes feel like that. But regardless, so because of that and the love he has for it, I wanted to do a chocolate tasting. Even though I personally don’t like the tasting, I do like the experience.

I started to search for it.

Oaxaca Chocolate

Chimalapa Cacao

Interestingly enough, very few places actually do tastings of chocolate. You would think that there would be a lot of it, but there’s not. I was recommended this one place that was called Chimalapa Cacao.

Chimalapa is actually a little community outside of Oaxaca where they make chocolate. Interestingly enough, no chocolate is actually grown here. It is produced and it’s not cultivated. Like the cacao into the chocolate and the whole thing. But there are actually no cacao plants. Everything gets brought in here, but it’s just known for its way of doing it.

I contacted them via Instagram because that’s pretty much one of the few ways you could do it. Or you could call them.

Different Chocolate Workshops

I contacted them and apparently you could only do it by reservation. They have several different workshops. They have their own drink workshop or choose your own tasting of different chocolate drinks, which also gives you a little bit of information beforehand. Or you can make your own chocolate, depending on the amount of time.

My husband, even though he’s not into workshops, he’s like, oh, I’ll do it because I like the experience. I know he loves chocolate, but he’s like only something that’s not more than an hour long, because the majority of the other workshops when you make it and all this other stuff, they’re usually around two, or 3 hours. But this particular one and this place that we got in touch with were very good. They’re like, oh, we will work with your preference.

Different Cacao and Degustation

We went through the whole process of the different cacao beans and the tastings. We did the tasting too.

It’s called the degustation, which is the tasting of different drinks. So some of the cool facts about chocolate, are because we hear the difference. We hear cacao, and then we hear chocolate. And we’re like, what’s the difference?

Chocolate Making

Cacao is just 100% the actual plant, the bean itself.  The second you add an ingredient, usually, the first ingredient to add to cacao would be sugar. The second you add that in, it’s automatically called chocolate. That’s literally all it is. Today, chocolate has many ingredients, but the main ingredient that you would add is sugar, which is number one.

Whenever you hear, say, for instance, you hear it’s 70% cacao 30%. They says 70% cacao, which is like dark chocolate, meaning that all it really means is that it’s 70% cacao and 30% sugar, literally sugar. Because at times 50 50, that means 50% is sugar. Yes, that’s how much sugar is added. The other one is cinnamon, or panella, which is like the rawest form of sugar. It could also add cardamom to it.

Milk does not really get added into it at all. That is a very westernized thing to do. And it’s mainly done with water here. Like, if you’re going to drink the chocolate and if you’re going to eat the chocolate, it’s literally like two or three, no more than four ingredients. They like to keep it really natural.

They also add a few almonds here, especially here, so you will find that it has some almonds in it. So then you get to try them. They show us all these different types of ingredients that you could do, and then you could choose which drink you would like to have with what kind of ingredients in it. And then you kind of make the drink and you taste it. And it’s a really cool thing. And I have to say, my husband has been thanking me for days afterwards because that was his happy place.

Conclusion

If you are a chocolate lover or even just you like chocolate or it could handle it. I don’t like anything chocolate, but I enjoyed the experience. Definitely, this is the place for you to go to. it was not expensive. They could tailor it to what you wanted to do, and it’s just a really cool thing, considering Oaxaca is known for their chocolate.

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