Our first two days in Ecuador have been incredible. We spent day 1 touring the capital city, Quito, and it’s rich history. On our first day, we primarily learned about the history of Catholicism in the country by taking a tour of Inglesia de San Francisco, a monastery right in the heart of Old Town Quito. When we had freetime on our first day, we chose to explore the Basilica Cathedral, another impressive Catholic monument in the city. Both were gorgeous, and learning about how tied to religion an entire country can be was super interesting.
We went to Yumbos Chocolate also on our very first day and did our first Ecuadorian chocolate tasting. There were more flavors than I could’ve even imagined, and shockingly I liked almost all of them. The real star, though, was a brownie made with 100% cocoa, it was by far the best brownie I have ever eaten in my life. I didn’t like the bar of 100% cocoa, but the brownie was incredible, all it needed was some vanilla ice cream on the side. At Yumbos, in order to make crunchy chocolates they actually use parts of the cocoa beans instead of other things like nuts so that even those allergic are able to enjoy a textured chocolate! This process of using more of the cocoa bean makes the chocolate bar taste even richer, enhancing the already intense flavors.
On day 2, we went to Bios, the second oldest chocolate maker in all of Ecuador. The company was founded by a Jewish man fleeing Europe right before World War II, with plans to go to Bolivia. Along the way, though, he stopped in Quito and loved it so much, he decided to stay there. Our guide and the head of the company was David, the great grandson of the founder himself. David comes up with all of the different chocolate flavors that his company produces, and then works with a team of 38 women and only about 5 other men to execute his visions. While at the factory, we learned that the difference between white chocolate and dark or milk chocolate is that white chocolate actually does not use the cocoa powder, only cocoa butter, sugar, and milk. Most chocolates, all that aren’t white, use both cocoa powder and cocoa butter, along with other ingredients like sugar and milk, depending on the desired secondary flavoring. David has a special, secret, process to fermenting the cocoa beans that allows him to not only ferment the usual 70% of the batch of cocoa beans, but actually go all the way up to 100% fermentation, which maximizes output and quality of all beans involved. Finally, we were able to make our own molds of chocolate, and learn how to wrap them up like the professionals.
