Louisiana garlic butter sauce

This article’s lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Cocoa beans are technically not beans or legumes, but seeds. The cacao tree louisiana garlic butter sauce native to the Amazon rainforest.

As of November 2018, evidence suggests that cacao was first domesticated in equatorial South America, before being domesticated in Central America roughly 1,500 years later. Cocoa was an important commodity in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Chocolate was introduced to Europe by the Spaniards, and became a popular beverage by the mid-17th century. Spaniards also introduced the cacao tree into the West Indies and the Philippines. It was also introduced into the rest of Asia, South Asia and into West Africa by Europeans. The three main varieties of cocoa plant are Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario.

Cocoa beans of the Criollo variety are rarer and considered a delicacy. Criollo is particularly difficult to grow, as they are vulnerable to a variety of environmental threats and produce low yields of cocoa per tree. The flavor of Criollo is described as delicate yet complex, low in classic chocolate flavor, but rich in “secondary” notes of long duration. The most commonly grown bean is Forastero, a large group of wild and cultivated cocoas, most likely native to the Amazon Basin. The African cocoa crop is entirely made up of Forastero. They are significantly hardier and of higher yield than Criollo. The Nacional is a rare variety of cocoa bean found in areas of South America such as Ecuador and Peru.

Trinitario is a natural hybrid of Criollo and Forastero. Trinitario originated in Trinidad after an introduction of Forastero to the local Criollo crop. Nearly all cocoa produced over the past five decades is of the Forastero or lower-grade Trinitario varieties. 30 to 50 large seeds that are fairly soft and a pale lavender to dark brownish purple color.

During harvest, the pods are opened, the seeds are kept, and the empty pods are discarded and the pulp made into juice. The seeds are placed where they can ferment. Due to heat buildup in the fermentation process, cacao beans lose most of the purplish hue and become mostly brown in color, with an adhered skin which includes the dried remains of the fruity pulp. This skin is released easily by winnowing after roasting. Cocoa harvest is not restricted to one period per year and a harvest typically occurs over several months. In fact, in many countries, cocoa can be harvested at any time of the year. Immature cocoa pods have a variety of colours, but most often are green, red, or purple, and as they mature, their colour tends towards yellow or orange, particularly in the creases.

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