It started when my friend Debi sent me the following:

A Chocolate Tasting to Save the Orchids!

Please join us this Sunday for a Chocolate Tasting consisted of a talk on the origins and history of chocolates by Master Chocolatier, Mathieu Brees, who, along with his wife Stephanie Brees, is the proprietor of ki´Xocolatl, the fantastic chocolate store in Santa Lucia. Mathieu and Stephanie will be present, with Mathieu giving a talk about the history of chocolate, where the best cacao beans and vanilla are grown, how Belgian chocolate making techniques are used at ki´Xocolatl, and there will be a sampling of the new chocolates he is making.

This will be followed by a discussion of the orchid program at CICY, the Scientific Research Center of Yucatan, under the direction of the charming Englishman Dr. Andrew James.

Could it get any better? Chocolate and Orchids?? Irresistible. Did that last line in the first paragraph just leap out at you like it did at me? ...there will be a sampling... That alone would have gotten me there.

It was a fascinating demonstration and talk in both English and Spanish about chocolate and how it is processed. Mathieu answered a question I've always had about the difference between the common chocolate used here for hot chocolate and the rich, dark ambrosia used for the finest European truffles. So, the answer is that the beans have to ferment and most of the chocolate grown in Mexico is cleaned, washed and sold without fermenting. There are other fine points but that is the main one.

Xocoatl controls the growing, harvesting, fermenting and processing of their chocolate. They have introduced cacao growing here in the Yucatan by using the cenotes, irrigation and micro climates to provide the environment it wants. Most Mexican cacao is grown in the jungles of Chiapas and Tabasco where there is more rainfall and more humidity but there is a fungus that is attacking the beans there and by growing it here in a less favorable climate, they hope to avoid the spread of the fungus.

On the table you can see some cacao pods from their land along with plates of raw, washed beans, fermented beans, roasted beans and coco butter. We all got to taste the sweet, fruity meat that surrounds the beans and smelled and tasted the beans from each stage of production.

Then they passed around the good stuff! His dark chocolate is simply to die for! Unbelievably rich and creamy, it hits all the right spots in your brain and mouth. We also tried his dark chocolate with chili and herbs which I really, really loved. There is a hint of heat, a hint of orange and cardamom and vanilla... incredible!

Luckily they had a table with some of their products for sale. I'm also going to visit their shop at Santa Lucia and their factory where you can watch the whole process through glass. I am so thrilled to have this really exquisite treat available here in Mérida. I have missed living in a cosmopolitan city and this is just one of the things that reinforces my decision to move here.

After chocolate it was time for orchids. Probably they could have just dipped the orchids in the chocolate and I would have been happy. I learned quite a bit about orchids in Yucatan from Dr James presentation, so it's better that I didn't eat the displays.

He is doing research at CICY (Center for Scientific Investigation) to help develop commercial orchid operations as a viable business for the Yucatan. We have the climate for growing popular orchids and there is a market for them here as well as for export. He showed slides of his trials and offered tours by appointment. I'm going to take him up on that one as it is the only time he will sell plants, if you take a tour you can buy a plant.

I'm doing a lot of reading and learning about orchids but I've yet to buy one. The beach is not a good spot for them and I'm waiting for the house to be done before I start collecting. I walk around at the house all the time though and contemplate where I will put which type and how I will mount it. Every time I'm there I'm watching where the sun is and how much light is in different places. Hey, it's better than smoking and eating all the time. It's my new obsession. Clearly I'm the type of person that has to have an addiction so, orchids it is. Except... there is the chocolate.