Kerriodoxa elegans, Chrysalidocarpus & others in El Salvador

[Josue Diaz]

Every time I visit our chocolate farm in El Salvador, I try to take seedlings with me to plant there. I also have sourced non-palm plants locally (Couroupita guianensis,  Delonix regia, a number of different Handroanthus, Ceiba, Mahogany...but the selection of palms locally is pretty slim.  We are in the process of planning a new home construction (and the rest of the acreage is cultivated) so I don't have a lot of confidence with planting much yet - I don't want to end up having things ripped out or damaged when it comes time to build - but I have planted a couple of things over the last few years which seem to be doing ok with no irrigation. The dry season here can be brutal. I hope to start brining in some really exotic species once the house is built and we have irrigation in place. This is a really wonderful property and I have a lot of space to play around with. 

 

 

This is some of our heirloom cacao. Tested by USDA and confirmed criollo (of the 10 or so identified genotypes, criollo is the least common but occurs naturally in Central America. We found this particular variety growing wild in a nearby canyon and have cloned a whole lot with it. I like the maroon color on the new flush.

 

First are these kerriodoxa - I planted two and both are going great! they are under a giant Ficus inspida (I believe).

Then we have a duo of Chrysalidocarpus leptocheilos. Really excited about his one, as I have not seen these here anywhere. 

This, I believe, is Livistona saribus 

 

A bismarckia nobilis

And a few Ravenala as well. 

[Silas_Sancona]

Great shots Josue.. Will double check but your hunch on F. insipida  may be ..

Compared to other Cacao sps / varieties, how does the one you found and are working with there compare to the more well known ones?

Noticing any advantages it might have over the others dealing w/ stress factors like drought / heat or pest / disease issues?

Agree, Maroon new flush looks quite appealing.

[Josue Diaz]

23 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Great shots Josue.. Will double check but your hunch on F. insipida  may be ..

Compared to other Cacao sps / varieties, how does the one you found and are working with there compare to the more well known ones?

Noticing any advantages it might have over the others dealing w/ stress factors like drought / heat or pest / disease issues?

Agree, Maroon new flush looks quite appealing.

Criollo is generally known for having low anthocyanins - the chemicals within the seed that make the bean appear bright violet when cut open, and also give the resulting chocolate a more bitter (I would say complex) flavor. Criollo can be entirely devoid of anthocyanins, so the seeds are entirely white or VERY slightly lavender when cut open. The resulting chocolate is very mild - almost tasting like milk chocolate even when made into 70 & 80% chocolate bars. A lot of other factors affect flavor - elevation, varietals, sun exposure, soil composition (all summed up by the term terroir) as well as post-harvest procedures - most importantly your fermentation process. If you're growing for the commodity market, none of those really matter, and your fermentation standards are pretty low. Price is low also. We are growing for the craft market, in which pre and post harvest factors all make or break your product. We do have some lots planted with well-known and documented hybrids (most are of Amazonian origin), but every cacao grower from here to Central Africa is growing the same. We want to grow local, wild varietals with special attention to post-harvest processes. Nobody will have the same flavor profile as ours because terroir is meant to be unique. 

 

Another reason we planted lots of single-variety is because in the mixed lots, we have varieties with large seeds, varieties with small seeds, and varieties with medium sized seeds. When it comes time to ferment, the large beans take longer to properly ferment, while the small beans ferment much quicker. You can see the issues that arise if your batch isn't uniformly fermented - commodity market? no problem! but craft market? it's a big issue. A cacao with overfermented and underfermented beans in one batch. And each time you ferment, you will have a unique blend of bean sizes depending on which trees you picked from that day. A craft maker won't buy your product if it's different every time. They want consistency - so that their resulting single-origin bars taste the same every time. 

 

The wild criollos we're cultivating - there are 3 different ones - are all immediately native to the area (within 1 mile radius of the farm). They evolved with the soils - and although the pods are naturally small, the cacao they produce is not in the market - so we chose to bring these specific varieties to market and produce  a unique and high quality product, not exactly quantity. 

[Silas_Sancona]

20 minutes ago, Josue Diaz said:

Criollo is generally known for having low anthocyanins - the chemicals within the seed that make the bean appear bright violet when cut open, and also give the resulting chocolate a more bitter (I would say complex) flavor. Criollo can be entirely devoid of anthocyanins, so the seeds are entirely white or VERY slightly lavender when cut open. The resulting chocolate is very mild - almost tasting like milk chocolate even when made into 70 & 80% chocolate bars. A lot of other factors affect flavor - elevation, varietals, sun exposure, soil composition (all summed up by the term terroir) as well as post-harvest procedures - most importantly your fermentation process. If you're growing for the commodity market, none of those really matter, and your fermentation standards are pretty low. Price is low also. We are growing for the craft market, in which pre and post harvest factors all make or break your product. We do have some lots planted with well-known and documented hybrids (most are of Amazonian origin), but every cacao grower from here to Central Africa is growing the same. We want to grow local, wild varietals with special attention to post-harvest processes. Nobody will have the same flavor profile as ours because terroir is meant to be unique. 

 

Another reason we planted lots of single-variety is because in the mixed lots, we have varieties with large seeds, varieties with small seeds, and varieties with medium sized seeds. When it comes time to ferment, the large beans take longer to properly ferment, while the small beans ferment much quicker. You can see the issues that arise if your batch isn't uniformly fermented - commodity market? no problem! but craft market? it's a big issue. A cacao with overfermented and underfermented beans in one batch. And each time you ferment, you will have a unique blend of bean sizes depending on which trees you picked from that day. A craft maker won't buy your product if it's different every time. They want consistency - so that their resulting single-origin bars taste the same every time. 

 

The wild criollos we're cultivating - there are 3 different ones - are all immediately native to the area (within 1 mile radius of the farm). They evolved with the soils - and although the pods are naturally small, the cacao they produce is not in the market - so we chose to bring these specific varieties to market and produce  a unique and high quality product, not exactly quantity. 

  

Was curious because i'd been seeing different info. regarding new / new-er ( ..though i'd imagine they would not be new to any locals who'd been cultivating them on their farms for ..generations.. " under the radar ", so to say ) species being studied / evaluated for their potential as somewhat more adaptable alternatives to the " standard " varieties all the major growers have been cultivating..

Agree 100% w/ quality over quantity.  Will get you further, especially if the resultant product is consistent and has a unique story behind it.

Because they have a lower anthocyanin content  = milder/ less bitter raw product, it sounds like the beans from your varieties would require less additional processing,  and would retain a very unique flavor profile.

Fascinating stuff regardless.. 


 

[Josue Diaz]

4 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

  

Was curious because i'd been seeing different info. regarding new / new-er ( ..though i'd imagine they would not be new to any locals who'd been cultivating them on their farms for ..generations.. " under the radar ", so to say ) species being studied / evaluated for their potential as somewhat more adaptable alternatives to the " standard " varieties all the major growers have been cultivating..

Agree 100% w/ quality over quantity.  Will get you further, especially if the resultant product is consistent and has a unique story behind it.

Because they have a lower anthocyanin content  = milder/ less bitter raw product, it sounds like the beans from your varieties would require less additional processing,  and would retain a very unique flavor profile.

Fascinating stuff regardless.. 


 

yeah, lots of varieties are not in the market - it takes a lot for farmers to reach makers, and vice versa. They're like two VERY distant worlds. The milder product wouldn't require any different processing, actually. Craft makers tend to make, for example, 70% bars or different origins so that you can taste each flavor profile. So a 70% from Peru would be very different from a 70% Madagascar bar, and a 70% from El Salvador. 72% seems to be a standard finished bar. With the criollos, sometimes makers will go up to 80% or 90% since the flavor is mild and is still very appealing. a 90% of a variety with high anthocyanin would be VERY bitter lol. 

 

And of course, if this is commodity cacao, none of this really matters, and you would simply need to produce quantity. The cacao is masked with sugar and flavorings in order to make M&Ms or Snickers bars anyway so you don't get the nuance of the different flavor profiles. Specialty cacao is like specialty coffee, or wine even, though the market is not as developed I think. The US (primarily on the west coast) and Europe have the most developed craft markets for cacao. 

[Josue Diaz]

13 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

  

Was curious because i'd been seeing different info. regarding new / new-er ( ..though i'd imagine they would not be new to any locals who'd been cultivating them on their farms for ..generations.. " under the radar ", so to say ) species being studied / evaluated for their potential as somewhat more adaptable alternatives to the " standard " varieties all the major growers have been cultivating..

Agree 100% w/ quality over quantity.  Will get you further, especially if the resultant product is consistent and has a unique story behind it.

Because they have a lower anthocyanin content  = milder/ less bitter raw product, it sounds like the beans from your varieties would require less additional processing,  and would retain a very unique flavor profile.

Fascinating stuff regardless.. 


 

There are 10 identified genotypes of cacao - all native from about Central Mexico through the Amazon Basin. Off the top of my head, Amelonado, Criollo, Contanama, Curaray, Guiana, Iquitos, Maranon, Nacional, Nanay, and Purus. Criollo is said to be the creme de la creme - highly sought after and hardly any significant production worldwide.  The Spanish took several varieties from both Central and South America into the Caribbean (Islands of Trinidad), where hybrids emerged, and those resulting hybrids were spread throughout the Spanish empire (all throughout Central Africa and to the Philippines.) Most of the cacao grown worldwide originates from these hybrids, selected generation after generation for productivity. Wild varieties have always grown in their native habitats, but hardly any make it to commercial production. A funny turn of events is that even commercial farms both big and small in the Americas cultivate these hybrids. That's why there's alarm about disease or climate change affecting the world's cacao supply  - they are all clones of each other and they account for almost 90% of the worlds' cacao supply. If a disease were to affect all these, the world's supply would be gone almost immediately. Take a look at Citrus Greening which has pretty much eliminated Florida's and Brazil's citrus industries.

There's a small, but persistent movement of small growers who are moving to farm these heirloom, wild varieties instead of the commercial hybrids. So if there's any hope for disease resistance and climate resiliency, it's probably found in the million of wild varietals found in the Americas. 

[Josue Diaz]

4 minutes ago, Josue Diaz said:

The Spanish took several varieties from both Central and South America into the Caribbean (Islands of Trinidad), where hybrids emerged, and those resulting hybrids were spread throughout the Spanish empire (all throughout Central Africa and to the Philippines.)

This is where the term "trinitario" came from. All hybrids are referred to as Trinitarios since they are thought to have originated on the Island of Trinidad. It's not a scientifically recognized genotype like the other 10 are. 

[Silas_Sancona]

17 minutes ago, Josue Diaz said:

 

And of course, if this is commodity cacao, none of this really matters, and you would simply need to produce quantity. The cacao is masked with sugar and flavorings in order to make M&Ms or Snickers bars anyway so you don't get the nuance of the different flavor profiles. Specialty cacao is like specialty coffee, or wine even,

 That is exactly what i was thinking..  The more you have to process something like really bitter beans to make them appealing to the mass market, the more you reduce or remove entirely  it's unique flavor profile / characteristics..

90% Anthocyanin content beans = sooo bitter, lol.. 

Agree 100% that it is / will be  Heirloom crops like what you're focusing on  which would have a better chance of handling a broader range of weather and climate -related stressors vs, crop options which are cloned, which may not be anywhere near as adaptable. 

Aside form Cacao Coffee, ..or Citrus ..Bananas serve as another good example of why someone would want more diversity within their crop options, vs. sticking with some standardized, cloned option(s) ..If that makes any sense.. 

Cultivating of X cloned variety ( -ies w/ similar vulnerabilities ) + One serious, rapidly spreading virus, and / or extended drought, or extreme wet period = goodbye crop ..and income.

..Is why it is good to explore many different options vs. being tied to just a few.

 

[Silas_Sancona]

@Josue Diaz  Not sure if you had seen this but thought it might be something of interest.

https://www.earth.com/news/new-discovery-will-help-climate-proof-chocolate/

Full / detailed article published by Kew:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12225-024-10171-x

[Barry]

Josue, sounds like you have a great plan! Also agree quality over quantity. I was able to visit a Cacao farm in Cuba last October, it was so interesting to learn the process, of which I knew nothing about. Just understanding the growth and process was very interesting to me. We were able to bring samples back, in different stages of the Cacao, including Cocoa butter, which  was cool to learn it is a by product of Cacao. Added some pics below from the farm in Baracoa, Cuba.