The Venezuelan major league player was photographed during a tour he took at the Chuao cocoa farm in Aragua.
Venezuelan professional baseball player José Altuve was surprised by locals and visitors during a tour he took at the Chuao cocoa farm earlier this year.
Through a series of photos taken by their followers and published on social networks, the major leaguers can be seen participating in the process of collecting cocoa from the drying room of this farm and tasting the chocolate made with this famous variety, the only one with a denomination of origin and traceability.
Hacienda Chuao, founded in 1660 in the coastal town of Chuao, in Aragua, is the oldest still operating company in Venezuela.
One of the best cocoas in the world is produced in this valley populated by native black descendants of slaves for almost 400 years.
The 200 hectares of this cocoa plantation, which are distributed in a rectangular strip from north to south from the beach to the foothills, from 200 to 400 meters above sea level where it enters the Henri Pittier National Park, is owned by the local community, but are currently worked by the Chuao Peasant Company.
This society, made up of more than 100 farmers, is in charge of the cocoa trees and the final product for sale. It carries out the work of collecting, drying and fermenting the grains of this fruit and makes the butter and cocoa beans in an artisanal way.
For more than 400 years, Hacienda Chuao has been continuously productive, preserving its traditional form of production with infrastructure inherited from the colony, such as the old drying floor, its irrigation system and the same species of trees used to give shade to plantations.
The best cocoa in the world, Chuao
For centuries, the cocoa produced in the wetlands of the Valle de wow, in the state of Aragua, has remained one of the favorites of chocolatiers around the world.
Its organoleptic characteristics, aroma and flavor qualities resulting from the agroclimatic condition of this area, very close to the coast, and the ancestral type of post-harvest, make it ideal for the production of the finest chocolates.
Among its characteristics, these Chuao seeds have a moderate intensity of cocoa flavor of 4 on a scale of 0 to 10, with clean citric acidity of tropical fruits, and the sweetness of black fruits such as prunes (due to the process carried out in the shade) with a low level of astringency.
As for their aroma, these have a high level of fragrance that differentiates them from many others with floral essences such as orange, tangerines and fruity notes such as prunes. And about its texture, these have a creamy, soft and velvety sensation..
Its an ancestral way of cultivation and post-harvest means that only approximately 25 tons are produced per year, making it a rare and scarce fruit for the chocolate market.
