Today I did some work in the nursery. I up-potted some durian and marang trees. I harvested some cacao pods from Leslie and Roy’s orchard and I decided to sprout some varieties that we’re not growing here yet. Within Theobroma cacao there is such a varying range of pod colors, pod size, pod thickness, pod texture, bean size, bean count, bean color. Hawaii cacao farmers can choose to grow many selected fine flavor strains gathered from around world. But because of this, there is not really a standard ‘Hawaiian cacao’ yet. This is what makes Hawaii origin chocolate so unique. The diversity is just like the people living here.
Originally posted on 2021-05-25, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.