Cocoa tea!
Cocoa tea has zero calories and tastes great!
This is the most amazing hidden secret that I had no idea about and now want to share information about this yummy tea with you.
I’m sure it’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of chocolate, who isn’t!
While in South America, in Cusco, Peru, we stopped by the Choco Museo (Chocolate museum), which was an incredible experience.
I decided to head back to the museum for a chocolate education and cooking class. With loads of information about the beans, the processing and my discovery of Cocao Tea, this was the greatest food event on my trip.
Cocao Tea has NO fat or calories – where has this tea been hiding!
It contains Theobromine, which is a natural mood booster and less caffeine than decaf coffee or green tea.
Just add the smallest about of your choice of sweetener, it smells like chocolate and tastes amazing! I add some Stevia leaves or I quite enjoy it without any sugar.
I have found a great place to purchase cocoa tea for a reasonable price online - www.brightchocolate.com.au
The Process
The cocao pod is a fruit, has a leathery rind filled with a sweet pulp. Inside the pulp is 30 to 50 large seeds that are pretty soft with a pale purple brownish colour.
These are grown throughout South America and the variety we tried were from the Amazon. The trees grow in the tropical rainy hot areas, 20° of latitude from the equator.
Within the fermentation process, these beans change to a brown colour and the pulp dries up. The skin will separate after roasting by winnowing.
These pods grow directly on the trunk of the tree instead of the ends of branches. When they have harvested the pods, they open them to remove the pulp and cocao seeds.
The seeds and pulp are then rapped in banana leaves or something similar, placed in piles in bins or crates for several days.
The seeds sweet and the pulp liquefies when it is fermented and leeks out leaving the seeds.
Then the cocoa seeds are laid out to dry in the sun, while constantly raking them to dry all.
The raw cocoa bean can then be distributed for sale from this stage.
The beans are then roasted in a terracotta pot and you can start to smell the amazing flavour of chocolate we know and love.
There is a shell or husk around the bean, this is separated and put aside. Inside this husk, the bean is then used to either make chocolate or crushed to use as Cocoa nibs.
To make the chocolate the essentially keep mixing them in a machine for 48 hours and it melts down to produce dark chocolate.
Sugar and milk is added for milk chocolate.
Alternatively, the bean can be processed in a way it separates the cocao powder and cocoa butter.
The husks that were put aside, are what’s used for Cocoa tea.
