It's about Cacao

Somewhere after Buon Ma Thout I guess, December 31st 2010

At this time the road already turned broader. There were shops and houses along both sides of the road. Obviously we were entering another town. Tin, our tour guide, turned his head behind and asked, "May I stop over there awhile? I need to give something to my uncle."

"Oh, your uncle lives over there? Sure, sure! Never mind."

It was a... barber shop, I supposed. From inside the car I saw Tin talking with a man. That must be his uncle. And then Tin went out walked to my window.

"Come on, I have something to show you."

I got off the car feeling curious. What does he want to show us? These are all shops here.

Tin entered his uncle's shop again and we followed until the back of the shop. Outside there were trees. Big trees. No land boundary could be seen.

"Here is a cacao tree," Tin said.

 

Wow! I had always think that a cacao tree was about the size of a coffee tree. No, it's taller and broader.

Tin plucked one cacao fruit.

"My uncle says this is for you," Tin said.

"Wow! Thank you!"

Tin broke the cacao fruit with his hand. I expected to see something brown, but on the contrary the inside was plain white. The inside consisted of white big seeds covered with sticky white meat like durian meat but of course doesn't smell like durian at all.

Tin picked off one seed and broke it with his fingers. Crackkk!

Inside it were small brown soft beans. Those are the cacao beans!

Tin said that the brown seeds aren't edible, if eaten without being processed. But the white meat around the big seed is edible. Tin handed me the whole cacao fruit to me. I sucked the white seeds in the car along the way. It tasted very much like soursop (sirsak)". As suggested by the name "soursop", this cacao seed was also sour. But not as sour as orange or lemon. I liked it.