Wild Bali Sustainable Cacao
Bali Cacao is one of the last remaining under-commercialized, under-manipulated origins of cacao on earth. Historically, cacao found its way onto the verdant slopes of Bali via the Isle of Java. Java was the site of some of the very first planting of cacao outside of its native origin in southern Mexico and over the centuries cacao fruits, seeds and trees were traded or carried into Bali. In Bali, cacao found both the perfect ecosystem; diverse, shady, damp and cool, as well as the perfect guardian; the Balinese practice natural food forest agriculture and the cacao was allowed to thrive wild and free without breeding for production capacity or other traits. Typical cacao in Bali grows under a canopy of coconuts, mango, mangosteens and durian and grows alongside coffee, bananas and papaya with vines of vanilla climbing up the trunk…A truly beautiful natural system and a truly unique and powerful wild mix of cacao genetics.
Cacao Powder is formed after expelling the butter from the slow-ground cacao bean paste. The remaining “cake” that is left over once the butter is removed is a precious and concentrated superfood retaining about 25% of its original fat content. The “cake” is cold-milled to a powder and then is either sieved fine for use as a drinking chocolate, or graded and packed as a coarser cacao powder more suitable for breads, pies, cookies and cakes.
After many endless tries to create a low fat powder (10/12%), it has been found to be impossible to get below the 25% level through cold-pressing.
Because our cacao powder is cold-pressed and truly raw, it is not like your traditional cacao powder that you’re used to. Raw cacao powder, well, tastes like a raw cacao bean. It is only through the introduction of heat that the cacao bean develops the flavor components that we associate with chocolate. In order for chocolate flavors to develop, the temperature generally needs to reach at least 250˚F (121˚C); and even at this temperature, the chocolate flavor will be somewhat “green”. For raw foodists, you know the difference between the taste of a raw bean or nib and that of a standard high cacao content chocolate bar. Raw beans and nibs don’t taste like typical chocolate! It’s not the easiest flavor to describe, yet they taste like sour nuts with overtones of the terrain of the land they are grown in.
The technology used to cold-press the raw cacao paste into a truly raw cacao powder, as far as we know, is the only equipment that can produce an authentic, truly raw cacao powder where the temperature does not exceed 118˚F(47˚C). In fact, it rarely exceeds 115˚F (46˚C) during the process. This is the same process is used for the creation of our truly raw cacao butter, since the processes are one in the same.
What is the end result? In our opinion it’s an exceptionally unique product. It is a powder unlike any other powders being sold as raw. The flavor does not have the chocolatey flavor that can only be created through high temperatures. Instead, it is a green, slightly astringent, slightly sour powder with notes of clove, vanilla and nutmeg. The texture is a little “chunkier” than non-raw powders because of the higher fat content and lack of hard processing we put it through. It’s truly incredible, very unique and one of a kind - exactly what it should be for the raw food community.
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