Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Rawket Raw Tejate - another Chocosol Experience

I loved this pic mainly because of the red painted bowls to the left, which are the same bowls they use to serve hot chocolate drinks at Chocosol. (I use ceramic bowls at home - there is something very special and almost ceremonious about drinking hot chocolate out of special bowls)
This is a pic of traditional Tejate, which is indigenous to Oaxaca, Mexico.

I didn't bring my camera today, Kaiya had it, she's working on an art project with it. (pic from here) Too bad because even though I was only there for a couple hours this morning, it was a totally happening place. Scott & Maria were in full-action making their Raw coconut cakes. (totally amazing! - I got a little cup of 'to die for' icing before I left, I love it so much, I eat the icing last when I eat their cakes!) Mathieu was there, Micheal was there and Ruben showed up shortly after me with a selection of great music cd's and his drums, which after making the Tehate he sat in the corner and played on to the music.

Well, it was a special day at Chocosol because, thanks esp. to my newly Raw friend.. we needed a 100% raw hot chocolate to help overcome a coffee addiction.. and also just because its an amazing thing to have. Tejate is my favorite of the hot choc flavours and Michael said that he thought it could be done.. and so.. today- Rawket Raw Tehate was born! : ) (I am totally honoured!)

To the right is Mamey seed. Mamey is a close relation to the Sapote fruit. I was surprised how large the seeds were. And the flavour ..I was trying to distinguish it, then realized its like an amaretto-almond flavour. Michael told me that we can only sense about 500 different flavour variations with our tongues and there are over 20,000, and probably way, way more flavours out there. So we relate flavours to each other.

But we had a dilemma today ..whether to roast the seed for the flavour or not. I decided to -lightly- roast the seeds and Rosita de cacao, just as little as possible.. because its a very small portion of the ingredients and big on the flavour. Next time we are going to plan ahead and dehydrate the seeds and husks of the flowers for 24 hours and the flowers themselves for 12 hours. so it's pure, pure raw..Yes!

We used raw cacao and agave.. and it turned out amazing!

This is a pic of the rosita de cacao. I grinded these and the Mamey seeds by hand- twice, fine grind.. and then mixed it with the Raw Cacao - which was an amazing flavour -I got a lesson on fermented Cacao beans, muy interesante! Then we ground this all together 2 more times till it was a silky smooth texture. Next we sweetened this most deliciously flavoured luscious chocolate with agave.. and then it was ready to put into molds.

I was only there for about 2 hours, till noon. Next week I am planning on going back Wed. am to make my raw chocolate cookies.

& on the way home..I got to see one of my favorite musicians - King Achilla Orru -playing at Bloor and Yonge. Yes!! Seriously High-vibe music. Soul food. ..& I talked to him, hes coming out with a new cd in a few months.. Which is great, I have almost worn out the old one I have of his!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey kid

this is almost right, but the rosita de cacao, is not the flower from the cacao tree.....it is from another tree whose ethnobotanical history associates it with chocolate for the last thousand years or so.

Other than that your article is great.....and the teJate was a huge success at the Guelph Organic Conference.

un abrazo Rawket Grrrl

xo

Robin 'Keiko' Gregory said...

Hey mysterious goat boy.. I am so glad to hear the TeJate (notice spelling - and that I corrected all the rest of them!!! I have taken note! ; ) ..glad to hear the Tejate was a great success.. hope you have some left for me!! I could use another kilo. & agave.
but I will c u tomorrow!! Yay!! xox, Keiko the kid

Robin 'Keiko' Gregory said...

ps & changed fleur to rosita.. wrong language, oops, muchas gracias. xo

JamesMarcos said...

Robin, I've a comment about using the Mamey Sapote seedsn- Never use them RAW, they contain such high levels of Prussiac acid (read Cyanide) that just by eating one seed you will poison yourself and anyone else who drinks your Tejate! I am not kidding - I've been researching the spices and flowers historically used in chocolate for a long time & I am an herbalist.

The prussiac acid is what gives the flavor of bitter almonds, same with any of the other seeds of several fruits we know - apples, cherries, apricots, etc...

Btw, how are you making the Tejate if you are using raw maize?

Robin 'Keiko' Gregory said...

It is actually only the chocolate which is raw, not the sapote seeds, and there is no maize used in this. It is just chocolate flavored like TeJate.