Fruit of the Day: Chocolate

A) No, it is not cheating to call it a fruit (or even a vegetable or a berry depending on the discipline you choose to ask to define it.)
And also part 2) It is not cheating to post about chocolate when I already have. Think of this post as a a prequel.

So--chocolate!
Well, O.K. cacao actually. You see, there is no physical way that with the equipment available to me I can turn

 this   into this



But that doesn't mean cacao is not interesting and sort of delicious in it's own way. Just don't expect "chocolate" and you may be quite pleased with what comes from this strange pod.

Just look at it! Isn't it exotic and weird?

It grows sticking straight out of the side of a tree like creepy alien insect race deposited it there.

Then you bust it open to find all of this  mess:

From previous experience jaunting around the internet, I knew that the next phase in commercial chocolate production was a process of fermenting and drying the slimy stuff off of the cacoa beans.
Here's a nice short summary of the chocolate making process.

In further internet wanderings, I read that the pulp of the fruit is also edible.

Note: "edible" means you won't die if you eat it, not that you should eat it. I need to remember that there is probably a reason that for hundreds of years people have been eating cacoa seeds and you never ever ever hear of people eating any other parts. Yep. There's much to be learned from history.

Alright, it wasn't like, disgusting or anything. But four or five tastes into it, I decided it wasn't that bad of an idea to just spit the thing out. That's when I noticed that the under all that slimy stuff, the un-dried, un-fermented bean is not a rich chocolate-y brown/black like I expected, but...are you ready?...purple!

If you just eat the bean in all its fresh, raw, purple glory, it tastes like a nut and leaves the faintest bitter aftertaste of coffee or chocolate in your mouth. I was very surprised at how different in texture, flavor, and of course color, the fresh cacoa beans are from the dried beans I have played around with before.

For more chocolate adventures: read this old post. (I mean sequel).