Cacao Quotes

“Cacao has great nutritional value, a lot of protein, which strengthens a person, and without sugar it is not fattening.”
― Samael Aun Weor

“Working with chocolate always helps me find the calm centre of my life. It has been with me for so long; nothing here can surprise me. This afternoon I am making pralines, and the little pan of chocolate is almost ready on the burner.
I like to make these pralines by hand. I use a ceramic container over a shallow copper pan: an unwieldy, old-fashioned method, perhaps, but the beans demand special treatment. They have traveled far, and deserve the whole of my attention. Today I am using couverture made from the Criollo bean: its taste is subtle, deceptive; more complex than the stronger flavors of the Forastero; less unpredictable than the hybrid Trinitario. Most of my customers will not know that I am using this rarest of cacao beans; but I prefer it, even though it may be more expensive. The tree is susceptible to disease: the yield is disappointingly low; but the species dates back to the time of the Aztecs, the Olmecs, the Maya. The hybrid Trinitario has all but wiped it out, and yet there are still some suppliers who deal in the ancient currency.
Nowadays I can usually tell where a bean was grown, as well as its species. These come from South America, from a small, organic farm. But for all my skill, I have never seen a flower from the Theobroma cacao tree, which only blooms for a single day, like something in a fairytale. I have seen photographs, of course. In them, the cacao blossom looks something like a passionflower: five-petaled and waxy, but small, like a tomato plant, and without that green and urgent scent. Cacao blossoms are scentless; keeping their spirit inside a pod roughly the shape of a human heart. Today I can feel that heart beating: a quickening inside the copper pan that will soon release a secret.
Half a degree more of heat, and the chocolate will be ready. A filter of steam rises palely from the glossy surface. Half a degree, and the chocolate will be at its most tender and pliant.”
― Joanne Harris, The Strawberry Thief

“Cacao
(Theobroma cacao)


Theobroma cacao, translated from the Greek to mean "food of the gods," is one plant that will never let you down. Through the good times and the bad, in times of high anxiety and too much stress, during relationship problems when it seems that all of the passion is gone, when there is no one around to talk to, or when no one will listen, understand, or believe in you, Theobroma cacao, otherwise known as chocolate, is always there to make you feel better.”
― Margot Berwin, Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire

“Inside the bag are a couple dozen hazelnut cookies and a small plastic bag filled with what looks like mouse droppings. I open the package and drop a couple onto my tongue. They taste a little like chocolate, deeply flavored, thick, and somewhat bitter. But the aftertaste is something entirely different, sweeter, fuller, and much more complex, something you couldn't have predicted from their first gustatory impression.”
― Meredith Mileti, Aftertaste: A Novel in Five Courses

“Stepping across discarded, rotting pod shells toward the cacao trees, she wondered if these were the prized white cacao beans that produced the legendary chocolate that Aztec kings had consumed. Did these trees yield the smoothest, most flavorful, aromatic cocoa that had been the ultimate lingua franca between chocolate aficionados, chefs, and growers around the world?”
― Jan Moran, The Chocolatier

“Celina loved experimenting with new flavors and expanding Stella di Cioccolato. She'd created a spicy chocolate truffle with mild chili peppers and white truffles made from cocoa butter and lemon. But the secret of the gran blanco- the rare white beans- would remain a secret of the Andean people until they wished to share it with the world again.”
― Jan Moran, The Chocolatier

“These are taken from inside the fruit of the cacao tree-- Theobroma cacao. It means 'food of the gods.'" He beamed. "Si, señora"-- he tipped the tiny pods into her other palm-- "in your hand, you hold the equivalent of ambrosia. An ambrosia we turn into nectar.”
― Karen Brooks, The Chocolate Maker's Wife

“The inside of the van was warm, and I could smell the heat of it, mingled with that sweetness I could not quite identify; a sweetness like a childhood I only ever knew from books, a scent of vanilla and spices and cream, of bedclothes dried in the sunshine. And beneath it, a more complex scent of autumn leaves and petrichor, of forests that never see daylight, of sunken ships and pirate gold and fireworks and woodsmoke.
'What is that?' I said, looking back at the pile of boxes at the back of the van.
Guy smiled. 'What do you think?'
'I can't quite place what it is,' I said. 'But it smells almost familiar. Is it some kind of spice?'
'Not quite.' He paused, almost reverently. 'These are roasted Porcelana beans, from Peru; a sub variant of the Criollo bean, maybe the best-- and the rarest-- cacao beans in existence.'
'Cacao,' I said. 'You mean---?'
'Chocolate.”
― Joanne Harris, Vianne