Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Guatemala is known for a lot of things. Coffee, avocados, but more than anything else, it should be known for chocolate. This is a place called, Chocolá. It's known for rain and fertile soil, which means it's an ideal place to grow cacao, the main ingredient in chocolate. The ancient Maya grew it there 2,500 years ago, and people are still growing it there today. (Spanish) My name is Victor Alfredo Diaz Can. My work is growing cacao. I grew up here in Chocolá, working the land. We ferment the cacao, and we get it to a point that's ready to be sold or to be put in the chocolate workshops. The time that it takes from seed to production is very long. We take seeds from the pods, we categorize them and wait for five years. So, after the cacao is grown, it's off to the chocolatiers. Brenda is a fourth generation chocolatier. She makes her chocolate the same way her great-grandmother used to back in the day. And now she's teaching her children to do the same. (Spanish) My name is Brenda Elizabeth Oliva Sicán, and I make artisanal chocolate. The most important point in the chocolate-making process is the roasting. It's best to roast cacao with a wood-fire, not fire with a gas stove or an oven. It's not the same thing. The flavor the wood gives the cacao bean when you roast it is distinct. Many people come here looking for something different, and that's what we want to do: give those people something that they don't find in their country that we can offer them here. This is Fernando. He's a newer chocolatier, taking a more modern approach to Guatemala's chocolate renaissance. (Spanish) This is the room where the cacao paste becomes chocolate in these machines. It's a slow process that requires patience. We make 1 metric ton a month, or 12 tons a year, in this room. Guatemalan chocolate is so delicious because of the cacao. Making chocolate is my life these days. It's what I dedicate most of my time to. With chocolate, the possibilities have no end. We believe that it's important to keep this tradition alive because that's our history, and the cacao that we grow in Guatemala, as we know, is the only one of its kind in the world. Chocolate is passion. Chocolate makes people happy. Chocolate is Guatemalan.
B1 US GreatBigStory chocolate cacao guatemala brenda narrator Creating Guatemala’s Food of the Gods 4052 150 Evangeline posted on 2021/04/12 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary