WEBVTT - The Gospel of Chocolate 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:19.439 How did you sleep? First nights are always at the heart. 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:25.360 That's good, that's a truthful answer. It's an early February 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:28.960 morning on the banks of the Jervois River in Brazil, 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:33.040 not far from the Peruvian border. I'm with Louise Abram 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.920 and her dad Andre, and we're here on a simple mission, really, 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.320 just try and save the most fragrant chocolate on earth 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.000 from total extinction. We just arrived last night, after a 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.720 full day of travel by planes and small boat, and 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:49.320 after a rough night in a basic hut. We're moving 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:51.640 a little slow as we take stock of the situation. 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:54.400 The story of this mission goes back a few years. 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:57.720 Luisa had just dialed in her technique for producing great 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.120 chocolate from wild cacao beans when a nonprofit called s 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:03.840 O s Amazonia that works to protect the Amazon It's 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.800 people came to her with a plea. They had just 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:09.640 found cocao growing along the banks of the Jeroa River 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:12.520 in a pristine area where the people had almost no 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:16.600 source of income. Would she considered working with them? No 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:19.319 one had ever tried making chocolate with this cacao, so 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:23.600 of course she couldn't resist. She flew north clear across 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:27.080 Brazil and checked out the trees. The pods were tiny 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:31.880 with deep ridges, the seeds inside were really smaller, and 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.120 when I saw it, I was just like, I think 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:40.080 we found something different here. Because it was just so unique. 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:42.840 They collected samples and rushed them off to the U. 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.679 S d A for analysis, and scientists couldn't get back 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:48.280 to them fast enough. They were like, oh, this is 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.600 a new thing, you know, like you guys really found different, 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.880 not just a new thing, but a wildly new thing 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:59.960 in geography, genetics, and flavor was on a different plane 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.760 it every other cacao here in this forgotten tributary of 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:08.239 the Amazon, they had struck gold. It was just so 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:14.560 mesmerized by it. I wanted to show every word this 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:20.360 Judaha is something else. It's it's a floral bouquet. I 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:22.400 don't love it. One of the first to get his 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.480 taste foods on it was chocolate critic Mark Christian. It 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:30.720 was sort of like, yeah, bring this on, okay, Now 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.639 we're finding things, you know, We're find stuff. This is 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:37.280 what it's about, you know, rediscovery. And if Mark was entranced, 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:42.200 Matt Capuda was downright obsessed. It almost had this note 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:48.440 of perfume, things like annis sassafras, like almost jasmine blossom, 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:51.799 but also like tropical fruit notes like in one year, 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.320 I got samples from over four chocolate companies and I 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:56.760 have to evaluate them. You get kind of jaded. And 0:02:56.800 --> 0:03:00.840 then to taste something like Louisa's judua that is just 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:06.200 completely singular, and it was just it was intoxicating in 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:12.960 a way. But the Jiuis River was so remote and 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:15.200 there were so few people to do the work that 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:18.640 was almost impossible to get the beans picked, fermented, and shipped. 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:22.639 But fortunately for Louisa, Matt Caputo became a champion of 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.480 the bar, buying the meager supply and building a cult 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.600 following for it in the US as a librarian of 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.720 disappearing in exotic flavors. This was exactly the kind of 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:38.360 masterpiece Matt wanted to keep alive. Then came epic flooding 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:40.920 on the Jeruis River. The people were just scrambling for 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.280 survival and there was no way to harvest. And as 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.640 if that wasn't bad enough, then COVID struck and the 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:52.640 specialty chocolate market tanked. Louise's dream was now on life support. 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:57.120 The family had to make a decision, and in pat 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:00.840 received a long email from Louise's father Andre. Their chocolate 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.320 sales were taking a beating. They were leveraged with some 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:08.920 loans and had big time financial struggles fighting for survival. 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:11.520 They had to drop any project that was losing money, 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:14.520 and that meant they had to give up on Gera. 0:04:15.240 --> 0:04:19.640 It was just too expensive, too hard, and so they 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.920 had to let their biggest cheerleader down. My heart just 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:25.320 sank and I felt like I got punched in the gut. 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.440 They felt like, these goals that we have, no matter 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.000 how hard we push, we there's just too many pressures 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.240 that we can't control, and we're doomed to fail. What 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:35.919 are we going to do? We're just a deli insult 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.000 like we're going to change the whole food system, you know. 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:42.400 It feels like we're tilting at windmills. Louise's little venture 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:47.280 seemed destined to fail, and yet here I am two 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.360 years later, in the heart of the Amazon, watching her 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:52.880 take the fight to those windmills. What are your other 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.600 plans for the day, Well, I have a cup of 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:00.040 coffee from the little porch of our hut. Would in 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:02.280 our coffee and peer out at the world before us 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.479 a sliver of ground between the river and the swamp. 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.560 Pigs and chickens weave between banana trees and wander under huts, 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.800 harassed by an old dog a few yards away. The 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:16.680 river swollen with storm water, a milk chocolate monster churning 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:21.159 with gigantic trees and root balls and drising every day, 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.200 and that means we only have a few days to 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.599 pull off a miracle. Louisa is here to show face 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:31.520 established connections, teach a fermentation workshop, and convince the homesteaders 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:33.840 that wild Coco could be a great part of their future, 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:38.200 because there's another version of their future that's full of 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:42.279 chainsaws and cattle ranches, which is true throughout the Amazon, 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:45.440 and Louisa is trying to do her small part to 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.000 head that off. The good news there are four two 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.120 freshly picked pods waiting for us to use in the workshop. 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:55.520 The family spent all day picking yesterday, so they're at 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.560 least curious. But the bad news is that we have 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:00.840 to get the beans for menut and dry before water 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:04.799 swamps everything. It's going to be a high wire act 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:09.320 in this part of the Amazon. The accommodations tend to 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.520 be spartan, We're staying at the homestead of a guy 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:18.000 named Zay. He's a strong, wiry guy in his forties 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.760 and shorts and bare feet like most rebering Yo's, as 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.120 river dwellers are called in Brazil. He has no electricity 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:28.960 or out house. The only drinking water is whatever gets 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:32.000 caught off the roof, and the only bathing is to 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:34.839 stand in the muddy swamp behind the lot and scoop 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.920 pots some water over your head. Say warns us that 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.880 anytime you're standing in the swamp, watch out for portaque 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:46.120 giant electric eels. That's not encouraging, but he also says 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.320 that when the moon is full, a goddess rises out 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.760 of the river and the river dolphins dance around her. 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:56.320 So I chalk it up to Amazonian superstitions until Okay, 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.760 they apparently just caught an electric eel. So he's taking 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:04.160 me down to the river. Let stick look at it. 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.400 I'd actually heard that there were electric geels in the Amazon, 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:10.280 but for some reason in my head I pictured tiny 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:15.320 things like maybe a foot long. Instead. Oh my god, 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:21.320 it's a river minster. I am so not swimming in 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.280 the river anymore. Holy Moly, he's got a tape measure out. 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.480 It's like a seven foot sandworm, as thick as a 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:30.960 ship cable, a huge mountain. Andre and Louisa are right 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:37.120 on my heels. This is so huge. Have you ever 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:49.920 seen one like this? This is huge? Ter forget the 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:54.000 piranhas the crocodiles piannacondas, because eight points to the beast 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:56.520 and says this is the most dangerous animal in the 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.720 small It's even shocked by the when did it feel 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:04.160 like costin Greek? Yeah, you can make a good but 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:10.640 then the white point. Yeah, if you don't take a 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.160 person out of the water, the poor k going on 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:15.920 top over the chest and specificly chest, Gonna give you 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:24.480 another another electric chocolate? Really finished? God? Yeah? So apparently 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.600 these eels like to pile on your chest like linebackers 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:32.240 electric linebackers, and they like to hunt in packs. So 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.480 whatever we managed to get accomplished this week, it's not 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:40.720 going to include bathing from Kaleidoscope and I Hard podcasts. 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:46.600 This is Obsessions wild Chocolate. I'm rowing Jake's chapter six, 0:08:47.160 --> 0:09:16.000 The Gospel Chocolate. One by one, we hear the pucka 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.200 pucka of tiny outboards approaching, and soon we're joined by 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:22.920 about a dozen reburying yves. Louisa is psyched. She and 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.400 Andre sent money in advance to pay for harvesting and 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:28.720 for the construction of a new fermentation shed. The reburying 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.880 yeves have been living off the grid for generations. Say 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.480 his parents came here from eastern Brazil during one of 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.880 the rubber booms, tapping wild rubber trees for the latex sap. 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.040 Once the rubber busts followed, they stayed living off the land. 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.400 They grow their own food, build their own shacks, and 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.880 make a little cash by fishing and gathering murumuru, a 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.240 local palm nut that's rich in kisomnic oils. They like 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.640 to keep things Simplecao would be a lot more responsibility 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.560 with the fermenting and drying, and so far they're not 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.800 convinced it's worth the effort. Yes, they picked and delivered 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:04.760 these pods yesterday, and yes a few have shown up 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:08.560 for the workshop to meet Louisa, but they're skeptical. And 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.679 let's be honest, there's one real reason why these families 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:14.040 that put their daily lives on hold, why they spent 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.000 the day before slogging through the wet jungle picking pods. 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:19.360 Why there's a brand new shed in the middle of 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:24.160 Day's compound, piled with little golden footballs, and that reason 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:29.000 is cash in. When floods and COVID forced everyone to 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:32.720 pull back, Louisa and Andre took a different approach. We 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:38.480 almost gave up, almost, But then Matt was the one 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:43.480 that was like, no, you can't totalize. Just too good, 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:48.040 it's just just special, Like I'm just going to help you, guys, 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:52.839 just please don't give up. So the whole reason that 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:58.080 we kept on coming back, it was because of him. 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.120 Yes we're here. Because Matt Capooda fell so deeply in 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:04.360 love with Louise's Gerwabar that they couldn't let it go. 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:07.679 It was my favorite bar. And I thought to myself, like, 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.560 you know what, what if we prepaid them for the 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:14.120 next harvest? Now it was a crazy suggestion. Even if 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:17.679 the cash came through, the timeline was against them, and 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:19.199 Andrea is like, what are you talking about? It will 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.640 take like two years for you to get chocolate. Just 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:24.240 to be clear, the number of times that a retailer 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.800 offers to prepay a chocolate maker two years in advance 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:33.559 is uh, let me see here. Uh. Never. Usually producers 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.400 have to chase retailers for months to get paid. It 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:38.640 was the kind of risk sharing Vulker Lahman it soft 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.199 for years and never found it was such a crazy offer. 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.079 Andre didn't know what to think. He just kind of 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:47.080 dismissed it, like, that's not a possibility. I'm like, no, 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.080 no, no no, what if we were patient? What would it take? 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:52.559 And he was. He basically came back with like, well, 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:56.200 it would take seven thousand dollars. And I said to myself, like, well, 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:59.400 Carpudos isn't that big of a company. But at the 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.000 same time, seven thousand dollars to say, one of the 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:06.160 world's great foods and MCDA, Amazon more resilient. That just 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.000 couldn't get the idea out of his head. And I 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.560 was definitely did some soul searching as to whether it 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.800 was a good idea to send, you know, a good 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:17.480 chunk of money out the door. And I but I 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:19.400 talked to my wife about it and said, you know, 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:24.959 if it's at these times when you really see what 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.679 you stand for. We love these people, we believe in 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:30.800 our mission, and we had an opportunity and if we 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:32.840 didn't take it, even if it was going to be 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:36.040 a loss, if we didn't take it, then we're we 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:44.480 don't practice what we preach. Matt also did something else 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.120 you won't find in your business textbook. He said, I 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:50.320 want you to charge to be more for every bar. 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:55.000 That's right, raise my prices and then turn around and 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.400 pay the people more. Louis and Andre crunch the numbers 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.160 and decided that if they really to get there burinos 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:03.679 on board, they were going to have to pay eight 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:07.080 dollars for a kilo of dry coco, twice as much 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.080 as any other cocaw on the planet, and five times 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:13.559 where an African farmer gets. And with Matt's help, they 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.400 actually had the opportunity to do that. So they did, 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.720 and with that move, Louisa and Andre and Matt flipped 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:24.480 Big Chocolate's playbook on its head. Instead of selling cheap 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:28.720 chocolate to unknown customers and grinding farmers into poverty to 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.000 make the numbers work, they decided to pay their partners 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.679 well and count on consumers to care enough to buy it. 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:40.440 Will that work? We got our first inklings after the break. 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:59.520 Here's your chance to be one of those carrying consumers 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.320 who is the pouring the Amazon by eating this super rare, 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:06.000 super tasty chocolate We've teamed up with Louise Abram and 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:09.920 Stetler Chocolate to create a special tasting box with Jerwa 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.720 River Chocolate and two more of Louise's special creations. Go 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:18.679 to www dot Stetler dash Chocolate dot com to order 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:37.880 a box. Link in the show notes. Here's a fun fact. 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.120 There's a tiny fly in the Amazon called a plum 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.840 that everybody dreads from dawn to dust. The PM feast 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.720 on all exposed body parts and raise red welts that 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:51.160 it's like insanity itself and the worst spot in the 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.800 entire Amazon for pum. Yes, that's right, the Jeri River. 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:59.920 Even other hardcore Amazonians avoid the area because of the bugs. 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.240 But here we are swarms of pam shredding our necks 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:06.680 and ankles. As we all gather in the open sided 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.800 shed for the pod breaking workshop. It still smells a 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:13.080 fresh lumber. It's basically just a platform on stilts with 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:17.520 a roof overhead, but in the Amazon, roofs and stilts 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.520 are everything. There's a mix of men and women sitting 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.200 around the mountain of cacao pods in the middle. It 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.640 looks like smogs treasure pile. We grab wooden clubs and 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.720 start thumping pods. As Louisa walks us through it. The 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:33.000 pods break open with the satisfying pop, and we scooped 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:41.160 the slimy pulp and beans into buckets. Oh. Louisa directs 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:42.960 a lot of her teaching towards the women who have come, 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.040 and during a break, I asked why, I think paid 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:52.760 more attention. And also here in the Amazon, most of 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.600 the work and most of the income comes from the men. 0:15:56.480 --> 0:16:01.080 So with this selection, we can make the how harvests 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:07.520 more I guess, um, what's the what's the name? More inclosive. 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.400 When the buckets are full, we poured the beans into 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.320 hip high wooden boxes. The boxes have holes in the 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:16.800 bottoms of the juice can drain now, and local bees 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:20.840 have already found it. Zay, our host, built these boxes 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:25.960 to Louise's exact specifications. But he's eyeing this whole scene skeptically. 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.680 He's never paid attention to a cow, never tasted chocolate 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:33.600 until Louisa brought her bars for everyone to try. And 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:37.360 Andre's impression is that he's going to need a lot 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:41.520 of convincing. I didn't feel he he was, you know, 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:45.160 troup confident that this thing would work, no plick put 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:51.480 or to be a hide. A little female fish that 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:55.040 was like, I don't know, you know this thing, we 0:16:55.040 --> 0:17:02.000 will mess with my you know fish going to good 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:06.040 catches the river. This is what they're up against. It's 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:08.800 one thing to continue a how tradition that has lasted 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.760 for centuries. It's another to build one from scratch. Nobody 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.800 here has any romantic attachment to chocolate. They just have 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:19.560 one very practical question, how is this going to improve 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:22.840 my life? In a few hours, the pods are all 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.679 broken and the boxes are full and starting to ferment 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:29.439 in the steamy Amazon air. Each day Louisa Andre have 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:31.920 to come back and turn the mass, scooping it into 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:34.240 a new box and mixing the hot center and the 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.720 cougar edges to the fermentation. Evens out. Three of the 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:39.439 people at the workshop turn out to be from s 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:42.760 OS Amazonia, the nonprofit that first alerted Louisa to the 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:45.800 existence of this shiar wakako. They're here to learn the 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.399 techniques and teach them to other communities even deeper in 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:51.119 the back country, and so as just trying to open 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:55.680 two more origins up prefer But they don't they don't 0:17:55.720 --> 0:18:00.680 know the Cacao Chainou the protocols, so they came to 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:05.560 um learn with us. All of the collegues coming up 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.800 is going to come for me. So that's not maybe 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:13.040 the Queen of Amazon. Oh yeah, that's the main goal, 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:19.000 I guess. The s O s Amazonia guys are young, 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:21.800 born in the Amazon and familiar with its ways, and 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.840 Louisa says she couldn't do this without them, and so 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:30.400 as really helps a lot of people here. Yeah, everywhere 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:34.639 they go they're like welcomed. So it's really good to 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:40.760 be with them because then whenever we're arrive in somewhere 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.720 like new place, they're like, oh, they're with us, and 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:48.160 that's really important here in a region where activists are 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.480 often killed. A few months after our visit in this 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:55.520 same region, a British journalist and the indigenous rites activists 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.360 he's working with will be murdered by a legal fisherman. 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.560 Anything goes in the Amazon, and the life expectancy isn't 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:07.200 high for anyone who challenges the illegal loggers, miners, ranchers 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:12.080 and fishermen. But somehow ss Amazonia is making it work. 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:15.600 The hope is that with their help, what Louise is 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.040 doing here will start a wild cocow movement that can 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.920 spread clear across the Amazon. We break for lunch, then 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:24.639 head to the boat for our afternoon mission, looking for 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:28.000 new recruits to produce enough chocolate to make the Jerwabar 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:31.199 a real thing. Louisa needs more help, so we're going 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:33.479 to visit each homestead on the river and hope she 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:38.760 can work her magic. Our craft is a long, skinny 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.879 boat with rows of benches like little pews. It feels 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:43.840 like a theme park ride or the kind of thing 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:47.040 missionaries would have used back in the day, And suddenly 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.960 occurs to me that Louise and Andre are basically Coco 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:54.439 missionaries bringing the gospel of chocolate to the Amazon. At 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:56.800 each stop along the river, faces peer out of the 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.400 windows at our mysterious entourage. But each time we doc 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:04.760 people choose to listen were never turned away. Everyone collects 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:07.440 on the cabin floor and sprawls out as Louisa makes 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:10.960 her pitch. Yeah that was great. Actually, like this family 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.639 has like a lot of people, so they have a 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:19.480 lot of potential to get more pods. Yeah, I look 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:23.199 like they're a bunch of kids there, and yeah, it 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:27.280 has a nice vibe to it. It's amazing. Pretty much 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:31.280 everyone is on board fourth family and that was nice. 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:34.760 They so far they are the winning family. They got 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:39.400 three hundred pods in one day and they said that 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.280 if they had more time they would have caught more. 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.640 So that's a win. And they're pretty excited about cacao. 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:50.400 As we head back to day's that evening, I can 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:54.360 feel the hole Jiwa dream becoming real. The pickers are 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:58.639 all in, but now we need the fermentors, someone to 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:00.959 run the station where everyone will drop off their beans 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:04.040 and get paid. It's a much bigger commitment. And while 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:07.080 they agreed to build the drawing shed and even put 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.120 us up for a few days, so far he's still 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:43.920 a firm. Now you're turning the box in layers, so 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:47.720 we don't really like dig a hole in the box. 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:53.320 We try to do it in layers because by doing 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:58.800 it in this way we can make sure that we 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:04.840 are cooking all the layers. Even for the next few days. 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:08.440 Louisa keeps teaching using the special protocol she developed for 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:12.639 the middle of Nowhere in more developed places. Pickow fermentation 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:15.720 relies on a lot of gadgets, thermometers to measure heat, 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:18.520 refractometers to see the level of sugar in the juice. 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.800 But in the jungle, things break and batteries die. If 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:25.840 a battery dies, you are four hours away by boot 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:29.920 from the next city. Are you going to go and 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:34.520 go there just to get the battery? Oh? The fermentation, 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:38.199 please stop because I don't have a battery here. You know, 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:43.960 like it's it doesn't work like that. So um, we're like, okay, 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:49.280 let's just go buy the field smell tasting visual and 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:54.320 the field the warmth. She developed her own low tech 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:58.400 Amazonian protocol. I was like, well, the temperature of your 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:04.680 body is X. If you get in get in there 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:10.280 and the temperature feels higher, it's because the temperature is 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:14.280 higher than thirty seven celsius. Because your your body tempature 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:18.320 is thirty seven. If the temperature feels lower, it's because 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:24.479 the metabolism of the whole mass is going down. And 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:29.840 then smelling, oh look this alcohol smells really volatile. And 0:23:29.880 --> 0:23:34.080 then vinegar you almost want to cry when you when 0:23:34.119 --> 0:23:39.040 you like smell a lot of vinegar. So we slowly 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:44.760 we had a protocol where they don't needed any gadgets 0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:51.640 to make a good being. Honestly, it's a total game 0:23:51.720 --> 0:23:55.320 changer for places like this Instead of fermentation being totally 0:23:55.320 --> 0:23:58.399 intimidating for people who aren't used to high tech gadgetry, 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:03.119 the process becomes intuitive, it even fun. One person who's 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:07.199 totally uninterested is z Andering. Louisa had him hanged as 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:10.440 the guy to run this momentation center, but he often 0:24:10.480 --> 0:24:13.840 wanders away during the workshop. But as it turns out, 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:16.360 we don't have to look far for a solution. Mic 0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:24.120 On his son is asking lots of good questions. Mica 0:24:24.160 --> 0:24:26.440 And is twenty, a handsome kid with an earring and 0:24:26.520 --> 0:24:30.280 stylish haircut. He blended seamlessly on streets of any city, 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:31.920 and you can tell he's got his eye on the 0:24:32.000 --> 0:24:35.120 larger world. But he also loves life on the river. 0:24:35.840 --> 0:24:40.000 So after the workshop we asked him what he thinks 0:24:40.040 --> 0:24:50.359 people sash dasha ki. Yeah, it's so good, not too 0:24:50.480 --> 0:24:53.800 not too much work. No, no, I'm going to defease you. 0:24:58.400 --> 0:25:02.040 It's difficult because it's new, but the movement. As as 0:25:02.720 --> 0:25:07.120 time passes, he will He is sure that he can 0:25:07.320 --> 0:25:13.760 handle this process. How many boxes do you think you 0:25:13.800 --> 0:25:23.439 can handle? People said, Fuzzy wash five. That would be 0:25:23.440 --> 0:25:28.240 about KOs of dried cacao, enough for a few thousand bars. 0:25:28.600 --> 0:25:32.280 A good start. Later, when we're alone, Andre tells me 0:25:32.320 --> 0:25:35.680 where my CON's interest in Cacao comes from. He said 0:25:35.680 --> 0:25:40.320 that maybe there's a lot of over fishing. Every year 0:25:40.320 --> 0:25:45.320 there's a migration of the fish upstream up river, and 0:25:45.600 --> 0:25:49.640 he said that nowadays they have like a thousand boats 0:25:50.119 --> 0:25:54.879 waiting for the fish. Yeah, Michael ZiLs, but not not 0:25:55.040 --> 0:25:58.520 that many fish. And so he was really really hopeful 0:25:58.560 --> 0:26:03.560 that Kao could will become eventually something that would be 0:26:03.600 --> 0:26:09.119 bigger than fishing here, and it was. The problem is 0:26:09.160 --> 0:26:13.520 actually pretty devastating. Fish stocks throughout the Amazon are collapsing 0:26:13.720 --> 0:26:16.959 in the face of overfishing and climate change. The Amazon 0:26:17.040 --> 0:26:19.760 is the greatest abundance and diversity of freshwater fish in 0:26:19.760 --> 0:26:22.520 the world and that has always been the foundation of 0:26:22.680 --> 0:26:26.639 rivers diet and income. And when it goes they often 0:26:26.680 --> 0:26:29.680 go with him and the loggers and ranchers move in. 0:26:30.520 --> 0:26:32.960 So I can see why my con is so laser focused. 0:26:33.600 --> 0:26:36.280 And he said they were gonna work hot for that 0:26:36.440 --> 0:26:41.280 to happen bec become a major source of income in here, 0:26:43.240 --> 0:26:46.520 which was the very first time that I heard someone 0:26:46.640 --> 0:26:51.320 from from from here so enthusiastic, and so I think 0:26:51.320 --> 0:26:55.440 all are responsive about it. Is even bigger. He was really, 0:26:55.520 --> 0:27:09.720 you know, counting on us. If the community can band 0:27:09.720 --> 0:27:13.160 together with Louisa to preserve this wild cacao, it might 0:27:13.200 --> 0:27:15.760 just help them hang on. But for that to even 0:27:15.760 --> 0:27:18.040 be a possibility, the team has to make it to 0:27:18.080 --> 0:27:21.560 the finish line on this workshop, and Louisa, she's starting 0:27:21.560 --> 0:27:25.960 to flag for good reason. It's been seven years since 0:27:26.040 --> 0:27:33.119