Rampant lush palm trees, exotic flowers and vines with juicy fruit - already the chocolate factory gate to paradise promises Momotombo states. The promise will be met promptly, because behind the gate waiting for sweet temptations with names like "Bomboli mango" or "Chocolate Naranja"? Gastronomy Nicaraguan handmade from cocoa beans.
The Momotombo volcano was named for the Schokoladenoase in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. He is one of the highest in a chain of volcanoes, which lies between the Managuasee and the Pacific. And he is considered active.
Since about a year, employees are active in the small chocolate factory Momotombo. The association with fire and zähflüssiger Vulkanlava is not wrong. Because it is a viscous mass, in the heart of Manufactory brings to glow: cocoa mass. The greasy, dark brown substance of roasted, peeled and crushed cocoa beans is the raw material for most chocolate products.
In America, the cocoa has been hotly sought after for centuries. He was already at the time of the Mayas and Aztecs gehuldigt. The cacao tree was considered a divine plant, its seeds were so valuable that they even served as a means of payment.
Cocoa beans for detoxification
Carlos man in his Momotombo lives and the veneration for the brown gold continues. "Cocoa is a gift of creation, a magic food," enthuses the 32-year-olds. Every morning he chews a handful of roasted, slightly bitter beans and rinse with a glass of water. "It detoxifies and boosts the metabolism," he assured with a beschwörerischen undertone.
For digestion and fertility of cocoa was a blessing explains the young family man. "When my wife and I wanted young, we have a Kakaobohnenkur done," he says, "Nature has given us with two healthy girls rewarded." Even as a soul comforter is the cocoa, mostly in the form of chocolate, estimated. Because the differentiate Nicas, as the inhabitants of Nicaragua's call, hardly the Europeans.
Reasons for the solace-giving chocolate to handle existed in the history of the country's abundant: The decades-long dictatorship of the Somoza clan and the subsequent civil war in the seventies and eighties, brought the country to the physical and economic abyss. Added to this were the severe earthquake of 1931 and 1972, where both large Managua was destroyed. The poorest of the poor live today in buildings, the last strong earthquake were demolished.
"Managua is the most terrible city in the world," says Carlos man with a tortured smile. There was no Flanierviertel and little public green spaces. He should go jogging on the streets to dodge, since there are hardly any sidewalks there. After the natural disasters in Managua was rebuilt wild manner, without an urban planning approach. Most districts are dismal. "But we Nicas are lovable people," says Mann With his chocolate contribute to the Versüßung of everyday life in the second poorest country of Central America to.
From comic book artist for Chocolatier
Before the man Momotombo opened, he had five months with a jailed colleague. In the home kitchen recipes have been tested and refined. In November 2007 ventured to the self-Chocolatier with his own creations on the market.
His shop in the suburb of San Juan, one of the better districts of Managua, has moved on the first day sweet tooth in droves. Meanwhile, supplies of skilled designers, in his comics Vorleben illustrated, fine restaurants and delis transactions: Among the supplies included with orange panels or pieces of garlic, chocolates with mango, sesame seeds or whiskey.
TRAVEL FOOD trips and meals are two sides of a coin, new adventures countries always go through the stomach. In the series travel dishes SPIEGEL ONLINE devoted to the culinary aspect of travel: Exceptional restaurants, gifted star chefs, bartenders or dexterity Garköche bizarre - the world taste anywhere else. But all the recipes are nachkochbar.Mit benefited combinations although he is not reinvented the wheel, but the handmade nature of the production and the quantity ratios? naturally sweet secret? can taste the ingredients to top form accrues.
One of the most popular products are available only in a store: chocolate caliente? Drinking hot chocolate. The recipe he has from his grandmother. For today's taste buds, it is better that he had none of the traditional Aztec has taken. Because drank the mixture with cold water, cocoa and spices totally unsweetened. From the notion xocolatl what so much as "bitter water" means, was later the word chocolate.
Madeleine grandmother told her grandson to the foam to become Racket: If the drinking chocolate minutes with a whisk beaten frothy will get the full flavor of cocoa. The chocolate caliente in Momotombo will therefore old grandmother custom of hand to put foams. And then several times in large jugs back and forth hergeschüttet. The last flavor attracts the reserves from the brew. "The foam is the best," asserts Carlos man
Cocoa only Ökoanbau
Chocolatier why he was so fast was so successful? "Because our people in the chocolate taste reminiscent of their childhood," says Carlos man, "we only use products that are grown naturally." Flavor enhancers were taboo, which is also the use of additional cocoa butter, as in the chocolate industry is the case.
"In terms of cocoa Nicas we are very demanding," says Carlos man this, we must know that in Nicaragua the chewing of cocoa beans is so normal, like here in the nibbling of peanuts. Even children munch the brown nuggets. The shapes the taste buds and makes them susceptible to poor quality.
ON TO THE MIRROR ONLINEHonduras: Sleeping Beauty of the Caribbean (13.01.2007) Nicaragua: To drink coffee in the Black Forest (17.05.2006) Florida Keys: State süßsauer cake (26.11.2008) travel Dining: The crazy Yank from Dingle (01.10.2008) Cayman Islands: Like a schnapps idea to export success was (08.07.2008) In Germany, it was the kindness of Nicaraguan beans, not least through the cooperation of a famous German chocolate brand with small cocoa farmers known. The cocoa, the man in his chocolate factory processed, comes from certified organic cultivation of the tropical forests in the north and south of the country.
They use the cocoa bean farmers on the advice of shamans and medicine men, even as anti-pill snakes: Because of the bitter substances, the reptiles are discouraged zuzubeißen. "Embodies the element Cocoa earth. This is an energy, the snakes do not need and therefore did not want to record in itself," says Carlos, the man had him an Indian shaman explained.
Factory will grow organically
Whatever it adheres belief, Manns products conjure such an intense chocolate flavor on the tongue, as he shops at the local delicatessen only against similar small change is to get. And even then, only approximate to the enjoyment can reach, the one seized if the chocolate in the region of cocoa beans dissolves in the mouth.
Actually pity that the rest of the world that does not include beneficiaries will be. Because the Momotombo delivers only within Nicaragua. "My operation will grow organically," says Carlos man, "Chocolate is a sensitive product. They would not forgive me if I am too hasty with it would bypass."
For this reason, he recently placed an order from Japan for 50,000 panels rejected. "We are creating a month max 1000," says Mann, whose father family has roots in Dresden. For Germany, but eventually he would make an exception: "If someone is willing to pay high freight costs, send me maybe a few tables over."
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