Baracoa buying blow

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Baracoa buying blow

This is the fourth segment in a series of our travel adventures in Cuba. If you are planning your own trip to Cuba, please refer to my Cuba Travel Guide. You can find all of my content on Cuba here. The next morning when I woke up I was feeling so much better than the night before, but as luck would have it, Jon was not feeling good. Unfortunately for him, we were headed to Baracoa that day, which was approximately a four hour drive. Luckily, the drive went smooth: we were stopped at police checkpoints twice and once for the bathroom. As we neared Baracoa the road got very twisty and turny and I had to keep my eyes closed… Just in case. When we arrived at our Casa, once again we were greeted by our very friendly hosts. As it turns out, the Casa in Santiago de Cuba had told the taxi driver that I had been sick, and upon arrival, the taxi driver had informed our next hosts in Baracoa. Not that we knew any of this right away. So how did we figure all of this out? Less than 5 minutes after arriving, the Casa host knocked on our door with a cup of piping hot and very strong tea that he told me was for my stomach with hand motions. He was going to be our guide for the next day. Our guide book had recommended him and so we had sent him an email in hopes of managing to get a day tour with him. As luck would have it, he had an opening for us. As we sat down to talk, he told us that while he would be happy to guide us wherever we wanted, he had a couple specialties that he could recommend. The first was a tour of the national park that was nearby. We had heard about the national park and that it was pretty amazing. But his second option was the real reason we were in Baracoa: a chocolate tour. After he gave us our options, we knew exactly what we wanted. Who can pass up chocolate? I kept drinking my liquids and eating a few saltines throughout the night in hopes of feeling better by morning. I woke feeling pretty lousy and needing frequent trips to the bathroom. Ironically with the same taxi driver we had used the previous day from Baracoa no less. Our first stop was a cocoa plantation. He also told us about the destruction that Hurricane Matthew had caused to the region. The hurricane made landfall in October of and had done most of its damage to Baracoa where it had parked itself for 12 hours before moving on. I had no idea that cacao beans started out coming from colorful pods that were larger than both of my hands put together, or that inside of those pods was this strange milky liquid that surrounded seeds the size of quarters where all of the beans hid. We pretty much bought it all. After we left the plantation, we continued driving down the road farther into the countryside where the evidence of Hurricane Matthew was even more visible from all the palm trees laying on their sides. Eventually we stopped again, this time beside a dirt road going out to the ocean. Surprisingly, the majority of the flora in Cuba is not native to Cuba. Much of the original flora disappeared after the colonists started to come and setup. They harvested a lot of the wood and cleared out the land to make space for their sugar plantations and crop fields. After they left is when new plants start to move in. Our dirt road terminated underneath a dilapidated bridge with a little wooden dock that extended out into an estuary where several row boats floated on the incoming tide. A couple moments later he came back out with another man who shuffled out into the water and pulled one of the boats along side the dock. Our rower dipped the oars into the water and we pulled away from the dock, headed up the river. Though elusive to spot, the bird is special to Cuba as its coloring matches the national flag. As the rower was approaching the dock so we could get out, a few rain drops were beginning to fall. We spotted the taxi up on bridge above us, so we hustled up to it as bigger drops began to fall. By the time we made it to the beach, the rain had begun to pour down so we all ran from the taxi to the restaurant. We took a seat at a table and took up our menus. Rainy season had made it to Baracoa. However, it gave us magnificent views and we were also able to spot an endangered snail. But since our early morning flight was quickly approaching or so we thought , we decided to have one last dinner in Baracoa. Our rain jackets came out again and we walked back to town in search of a Cadeca, some dinner, and a bit of Wi-Fi. But, my stomach was angry again so our night on the town was short-lived as I was in too much pain and needing to be close to a bathroom. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The Backroads of Baracoa June 23, Cuba , Travel. Previous post. Next post. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.

Beef Barbacoa – Mexican Pulled Beef

Baracoa buying blow

It was Emmanuel who was both my tour guide and my translator while I was at the Pierre Marcolini factory who explained that the woman who does all the buying for Pierre Marcolini negotiated for over two years in order to get her hands on these beans. I had the most amazing time and am hugely grateful to Pierre Marcolini for inviting me into his factory to correct my misunderstanding that the hazelnut bars at Selfridges had bloomed when, in fact, it was the natural oil from the extremely high quality hazelnuts they use simply coming through. The pods contain white and purple beans due to the cross between Criollo and Forastero. Forastero beans are, unfairly I think, often dismissed by chocolate lovers as an inferior bean. The Baracoa estate is a real gold mine and is defended tooth and nail by Urbano, who is in charge of the itinerant drying and fermentation camps. There are still some pure Criollo strands which were used in the original cross between criollo and forastero. Pierre Marcolini were the first to be allowed to import beans from Cuba since the embargo. The area this chocolate comes from is quite interesting. This territory has almost 30, hectares of heritage forests: two thirds is natural, the rest is planted. It is also an area for bird watching with a huge array of birds that find a home here. So on to the actual taste of the chocolate… Holy freeking cow. There is a delicious dried red cherry flavour that starts this bar one of my favourites and it evolves into so much more while still staying sweet. Honeyed tobacco leaves play on your tongue warming your palette ever so slightly before the acidity mingles with it to alter it into some delightfully delicious dried fruit. I think I just died and went to heaven. I tell you no word of a lie when I say that I loved this bar so much it brought tears to my eyes. No wonder they demanded and got the whole shipment of this bar. The chocolate develops well but in a bit of a mind-blowing way. I had trouble concentrating. Going back for more, that sweet honey flavour there is no added honey comes out in the scent as well as the initial flavour before the intense red cherries that come through right away. The tobacco comes in the middle of the melt as the cherries drop back slightly and there comes the acidity in a little more force. What more can I say but that I will be buying more of these bars for myself. But then we both know how the handling of the beans is as important to the flavour as the beans themselves, so clearly, Marcolini has done a good job in working with great beans. Thx for the info. You have to lay this chocolate down to make it awesome! Mostly About Chocolate Blog. Skip to content. Search GO. March 23, Expert SEO. Judith is passionate about food, wine, and travel. Next Post ». December 20 at pm. Judith Lewis says:. December 26 at pm. This Site Uses Cookies for Analytics If you don't want to be analyticsalised with a cookie from Google, best pop off to another site. Check out my Recipes, Reviews and more! Links on this Blog All links on this blog are editorially given. Do not contact me for link exchanges. Reviews do not guarantee links. I do not add links to articles already written unless I want to, and any requests to do so will be refused and may result in the review being withdrawn. I reserve the right to remove links from reviews at any time for any reason including but not limited to whim. I am not your link bitch, don't try and treat me as such. Grammar Warning: I am clearly aware that my grammar is sub par. Please excuse any typos or miss-spelling of words you may come across when reading this blog. There is no need to write or notify me. Thank You Kindly. Recent Comments Lukas when i think beer - i Joeann Bruche This looks absolutely fabulous. I'm not normally Evelyn Adams Oh, I'm sorry I missed the All Rights Reserved.

Baracoa buying blow