0:12

How did you sleep? First

0:16

nights are always at the heart.

0:20

That's good, that's a truthful answer. It's

0:24

an early February morning on the

0:26

banks of the Jervois River in

0:28

Brazil, not far from the Peruvian

0:30

border. I'm with Louise Abram

0:33

and her dad Andre, and we're here on

0:35

a simple mission, really, just try

0:38

and save the most fragrant chocolate on earth

0:40

from total extinction. We just

0:42

arrived last night, after a full day of travel

0:44

by planes and small boat, and after

0:47

a rough night in a basic hut. We're

0:49

moving a little slow as we take stock of the situation.

0:52

The story of this mission goes back a few years. Luisa

0:55

had just dialed in her technique for producing

0:57

great chocolate from wild cacao beans

1:00

when a nonprofit called s O s Amazonia

1:02

that works to protect the Amazon It's people came

1:04

to her with a plea. They had just

1:06

found cocao growing along the banks of the Jeroa

1:09

River in a pristine area where

1:11

the people had almost no source of income. Would

1:14

she considered working with them?

1:16

No one had ever tried making chocolate with this cacao,

1:19

so of course she couldn't resist. She

1:22

flew north clear across Brazil and

1:24

checked out the trees. The pods were

1:26

tiny with deep ridges, the

1:29

seeds inside were really smaller,

1:31

and when I saw it, I was just

1:33

like, I think we found something

1:36

different here. Because it

1:38

was just so unique. They collected

1:41

samples and rushed them off to the U. S d A for

1:43

analysis, and scientists couldn't get

1:45

back to them fast enough. They were like,

1:47

oh, this is a new thing, you know, like

1:49

you guys really found different, not

1:52

just a new thing, but a wildly new

1:54

thing in geography, genetics,

1:57

and flavor was on a

1:59

different plane it every other cacao

2:02

here in this forgotten tributary of the Amazon,

2:04

they had struck gold. It was

2:06

just so mesmerized

2:09

by it. I wanted to show every

2:11

word this

2:14

Judaha is something else. It's it's

2:17

a floral bouquet.

2:20

I don't love it. One of the first to get

2:22

his taste foods on it was chocolate critic Mark

2:24

Christian. It was sort of like, yeah,

2:27

bring this on, okay,

2:30

Now we're finding things, you know, We're

2:32

find stuff. This is what it's about, you know, rediscovery.

2:35

And if Mark was entranced, Matt Capuda

2:38

was downright obsessed. It almost

2:41

had this note of perfume, things

2:44

like annis sassafras,

2:46

like almost jasmine blossom, but also

2:49

like tropical fruit notes like in

2:51

one year, I got samples from over four chocolate

2:53

companies and I have to evaluate them. You get

2:55

kind of jaded. And then to taste something

2:57

like Louisa's judua

3:00

that is just completely

3:02

singular, and it was just it was

3:05

intoxicating in a way. But

3:11

the Jiuis River was so remote and there

3:13

were so few people to do the work that

3:15

was almost impossible to get the beans picked,

3:17

fermented, and shipped. But

3:19

fortunately for Louisa, Matt Caputo

3:21

became a champion of the bar, buying

3:23

the meager supply and building a cult following

3:26

for it in the US as a librarian

3:28

of disappearing in exotic flavors. This

3:30

was exactly the kind of masterpiece Matt wanted

3:32

to keep alive. Then

3:35

came epic

3:38

flooding on the Jeruis River. The people

3:40

were just scrambling for survival and

3:42

there was no way to harvest. And as

3:44

if that wasn't bad enough, then COVID

3:46

struck and the specialty chocolate market

3:49

tanked. Louise's dream

3:51

was now on life support. The

3:53

family had to make a decision, and in

3:56

pat received a long email from Louise's father

3:59

Andre. Their chocolate sales

4:01

were taking a beating. They

4:03

were leveraged with some loans and had

4:06

big time financial struggles fighting

4:08

for survival. They had to drop any project

4:10

that was losing money, and that meant

4:12

they had to give up on Gera. It

4:15

was just too expensive, too hard, and

4:18

so they had to let their biggest

4:20

cheerleader down. My heart

4:22

just sank and I felt like I got punched

4:24

in the gut. They felt like, these

4:27

goals that we have, no matter how

4:29

hard we push, we there's just too many pressures

4:32

that we can't control, and we're doomed to fail. What

4:34

are we going to do? We're just a deli insult like we're

4:36

going to change the whole food system, you know. It

4:38

feels like we're tilting at windmills. Louise's

4:41

little venture seemed destined to fail,

4:44

and yet here I am

4:47

two years later, in the heart of the Amazon,

4:49

watching her take the fight to those windmills.

4:52

What are your other plans for the day, Well,

4:54

I have a cup

4:56

of coffee from the little

4:58

porch of our hut. Would in our coffee

5:00

and peer out at the world before us a

5:03

sliver of ground between the river and the swamp.

5:06

Pigs and chickens weave between banana trees

5:08

and wander under huts, harassed by

5:10

an old dog a few yards

5:12

away. The river swollen with storm water,

5:14

a milk chocolate monster churning with gigantic

5:17

trees and root balls and drising

5:20

every day, and that means we only

5:22

have a few days to pull off a miracle.

5:25

Louisa is here to show face established

5:27

connections, teach a fermentation workshop,

5:30

and convince the homesteaders that wild Coco could

5:32

be a great part of their future, because

5:35

there's another version of their future that's

5:37

full of chainsaws and cattle ranches,

5:40

which is true throughout the Amazon, and

5:42

Louisa is trying to do her small part

5:45

to head that off. The good

5:47

news there are four two freshly

5:49

picked pods waiting for us to use in the workshop.

5:52

The family spent all day picking yesterday,

5:55

so they're at least curious. But the

5:57

bad news is that we have to get the beans for

5:59

menut and dry before water swamps

6:01

everything. It's going to be

6:03

a high wire act in

6:06

this part of the Amazon. The accommodations

6:08

tend to be spartan, We're

6:11

staying at the homestead of a guy named Zay. He's

6:16

a strong, wiry guy in his forties and shorts

6:18

and bare feet like most rebering

6:21

Yo's, as river dwellers are called in Brazil.

6:23

He has no electricity or out house.

6:26

The only drinking water is whatever gets

6:29

caught off the roof, and the only bathing

6:31

is to stand in the muddy swamp behind the lot

6:34

and scoop pots some water over your head. Say

6:37

warns us that anytime you're standing in the swamp,

6:39

watch out for portaque giant

6:42

electric eels. That's not

6:44

encouraging, but he also says that

6:46

when the moon is full, a goddess rises out

6:48

of the river and the river dolphins dance around

6:50

her. So I chalk it up to Amazonian

6:53

superstitions until Okay,

6:56

they apparently just caught an electric eel.

6:59

So he's taking me down to the

7:01

river. Let stick

7:03

look at it. I'd actually heard

7:05

that there were electric geels in the Amazon, but

7:07

for some reason in my head I pictured

7:09

tiny things like maybe a foot

7:12

long. Instead. Oh

7:14

my god, it's a river minster. I

7:20

am so not swimming in the river anymore.

7:22

Holy Moly, he's got a tape measure out. It's

7:25

like a seven foot sandworm, as thick

7:27

as a ship cable, a huge mountain.

7:29

Andre and Louisa are right on my heels.

7:35

This is so huge. Have you ever

7:37

seen one like this? This

7:40

is huge?

7:48

Ter forget the piranhas

7:50

the crocodiles piannacondas, because

7:53

eight points to the beast and says this is

7:55

the most dangerous animal in the small It's

7:57

even shocked by the when did it feel

7:59

like costin Greek? Yeah, you can make a good but

8:04

then the white point. Yeah,

8:09

if you don't take a person out

8:11

of the water, the poor k going on top

8:13

over the chest and specificly chest, Gonna

8:15

give you another another electric chocolate? Really

8:18

finished? God? Yeah?

8:23

So apparently these eels like to pile on

8:25

your chest like linebackers electric

8:28

linebackers, and they like to hunt in packs.

8:32

So whatever we managed to get accomplished

8:34

this week, it's not going to include bathing

8:38

from Kaleidoscope and I Hard podcasts. This

8:41

is Obsessions wild Chocolate. I'm

8:43

rowing Jake's chapter

8:46

six, The Gospel Chocolate.

9:14

One by one, we hear the pucka pucka of tiny

9:16

outboards approaching, and soon we're joined

9:19

by about a dozen reburying yves. Louisa

9:21

is psyched. She and Andre sent money in

9:23

advance to pay for harvesting and for the construction

9:26

of a new fermentation shed. The

9:28

reburying yeves have been living off the grid for generations.

9:31

Say his parents came here from eastern Brazil

9:34

during one of the rubber booms, tapping

9:36

wild rubber trees for the latex sap. Once

9:39

the rubber busts followed, they stayed living

9:41

off the land. They grow their own food,

9:44

build their own shacks, and make a little

9:46

cash by fishing and gathering murumuru,

9:48

a local palm nut that's rich in kisomnic oils.

9:51

They like to keep things Simplecao

9:54

would be a lot more responsibility with the fermenting

9:56

and drying, and so far they're

9:58

not convinced it's worth the effort. Yes,

10:00

they picked and delivered these pods yesterday,

10:03

and yes a few have shown up for the workshop

10:05

to meet Louisa, but they're skeptical.

10:08

And let's be honest, there's one real

10:10

reason why these families that put their daily lives

10:12

on hold, why they spent the day before

10:14

slogging through the wet jungle picking pods.

10:17

Why there's a brand new shed in the middle of Day's

10:19

compound, piled with little

10:21

golden footballs, and that reason

10:24

is cash in. When

10:27

floods and COVID forced everyone to pull back,

10:29

Louisa and Andre took a different approach.

10:32

We almost gave up, almost,

10:35

But then Matt was

10:38

the one that was

10:40

like, no, you can't totalize.

10:42

Just too good, it's just just special, Like

10:45

I'm just going to help you, guys,

10:48

just please don't give

10:50

up. So the whole reason

10:52

that we kept on coming back, it was

10:54

because of him.

10:58

Yes we're here. Because Matt Capooda fell

11:00

so deeply in love with Louise's Gerwabar

11:03

that they couldn't let it go. It was my favorite

11:05

bar. And I thought to myself, like, you

11:07

know what, what if we prepaid

11:10

them for the next harvest? Now it was

11:12

a crazy suggestion. Even if the cash

11:14

came through, the timeline was against

11:16

them, and Andrea is like, what are you talking about?

11:18

It will take like two years for you to get chocolate.

11:21

Just to be clear, the number of times that

11:23

a retailer offers to prepay a chocolate

11:25

maker two years in advance is

11:28

uh, let me see here. Uh.

11:31

Never. Usually producers

11:33

have to chase retailers for months to get paid.

11:36

It was the kind of risk sharing Vulker Lahman it

11:38

soft for years and never found it

11:41

was such a crazy offer. Andre didn't

11:43

know what to think. He just kind of dismissed

11:45

it, like, that's not a possibility. I'm like, no, no, no no, what if

11:47

we were patient? What would it take? And

11:50

he was. He basically came back with like, well,

11:52

it would take seven thousand dollars. And I said

11:54

to myself, like, well, Carpudos

11:57

isn't that big of a company. But at the same

11:59

time, seven thousand dollars to say,

12:01

one of the world's great foods and

12:03

MCDA, Amazon more resilient. That just

12:06

couldn't get the idea out of his head. And

12:08

I was definitely did some soul searching

12:10

as to whether it was a good idea to send,

12:13

you know, a good chunk of money

12:16

out the door. And I but I talked to my

12:18

wife about it and said, you know, if it's

12:20

at these times when

12:23

you really see what you

12:25

stand for. We love these people,

12:27

we believe in our mission, and we had an

12:29

opportunity and if we didn't take

12:31

it, even if it was going to be a loss, if we didn't

12:33

take it, then we're we

12:36

don't practice what we preach. Matt

12:43

also did something else you won't find in your business

12:45

textbook. He said, I

12:48

want you to charge to be more for every bar.

12:51

That's right, raise my prices and

12:53

then turn around and pay the people

12:55

more. Louis and Andre crunch

12:57

the numbers and decided that if they really to

13:00

get there burinos on board, they

13:02

were going to have to pay eight dollars

13:04

for a kilo of dry coco, twice

13:06

as much as any other cocaw on the planet,

13:09

and five times where an African farmer

13:11

gets. And with Matt's help, they

13:13

actually had the opportunity to do that. So

13:16

they did, and with that move,

13:18

Louisa and Andre and Matt flipped

13:20

Big Chocolate's playbook on its head. Instead

13:23

of selling cheap chocolate to unknown

13:25

customers and grinding farmers

13:27

into poverty to make the numbers work, they

13:30

decided to pay their partners well and

13:32

count on consumers to care enough

13:35

to buy it. Will that work?

13:38

We got our first inklings after

13:40

the break. Here's

13:57

your chance to be one of those carrying consumers

13:59

who is the pouring the Amazon by eating this super

14:02

rare, super tasty chocolate We've

14:04

teamed up with Louise Abram and Stetler Chocolate

14:07

to create a special tasting box with

14:09

Jerwa River Chocolate and two more of

14:11

Louise's special creations. Go

14:13

to www dot Stetler

14:16

dash Chocolate dot com

14:18

to order a box. Link in the

14:20

show notes. Here's

14:37

a fun fact. There's a tiny fly in

14:39

the Amazon called a plum that everybody

14:42

dreads from dawn to dust. The

14:44

PM feast on all exposed body parts

14:46

and raise red welts that it's like insanity

14:48

itself and the worst spot

14:51

in the entire Amazon for pum. Yes,

14:54

that's right, the Jeri River. Even

14:56

other hardcore Amazonians avoid the

14:58

area because of the bugs. But

15:00

here we are swarms of pam

15:03

shredding our necks and ankles. As we all

15:05

gather in the open sided shed for the pod

15:07

breaking workshop. It still smells

15:09

a fresh lumber. It's basically just

15:11

a platform on stilts with a roof overhead, but

15:14

in the Amazon, roofs and stilts

15:17

are everything. There's a mix

15:19

of men and women sitting around the mountain of cacao pods

15:22

in the middle. It looks like smogs

15:24

treasure pile. We grab wooden

15:26

clubs and start thumping pods. As Louisa

15:28

walks us through it. The pods break open

15:30

with the satisfying pop, and we

15:32

scooped the slimy pulp and beans into buckets.

15:38

Oh. Louisa

15:40

directs a lot of her teaching towards the women who have come,

15:43

and during a break, I asked why, I

15:45

think paid more attention. And

15:49

also here in the Amazon,

15:52

most of the work and most of the income

15:54

comes from the men. So with

15:57

this selection, we can make the

16:00

how harvests more I guess,

16:03

um, what's

16:05

the what's the name? More inclosive. When

16:09

the buckets are full, we poured the beans into hip

16:11

high wooden boxes. The boxes

16:13

have holes in the bottoms of the juice can drain now, and

16:16

local bees have already found it. Zay,

16:19

our host, built these boxes to Louise's

16:21

exact specifications. But he's

16:24

eyeing this whole scene skeptically. He's

16:27

never paid attention to a cow, never

16:29

tasted chocolate until Louisa brought her bars

16:32

for everyone to try. And Andre's

16:34

impression is that he's

16:36

going to need a lot of convincing. I

16:39

didn't feel he he was, you know, troup

16:41

confident that this thing would work, no

16:44

plick put or to be a

16:46

hide. A little

16:49

female fish that

16:51

was like, I don't know, you know this

16:54

thing, we will mess with my you know fish

16:59

going to good

17:02

catches the river. This

17:04

is what they're up against. It's one thing

17:06

to continue a how tradition that has lasted

17:08

for centuries. It's another to build

17:10

one from scratch. Nobody here

17:13

has any romantic attachment to chocolate.

17:15

They just have one very practical question, how

17:18

is this going to improve my life?

17:21

In a few hours, the pods are all broken and

17:23

the boxes are full and starting to ferment

17:25

in the steamy Amazon air. Each

17:28

day Louisa Andre have to come back and

17:30

turn the mass, scooping it into a new

17:32

box and mixing the hot center and the

17:34

cougar edges to the fermentation. Evens

17:36

out. Three of the people at the workshop

17:38

turn out to be from s OS Amazonia, the

17:40

nonprofit that first alerted Louisa to the

17:42

existence of this shiar wakako. They're

17:45

here to learn the techniques and teach them to other communities

17:47

even deeper in the back country, and so

17:49

as just trying to open two more origins

17:53

up prefer But they don't

17:55

they don't know the Cacao Chainou

17:58

the protocols, so they came to

18:01

um learn with us. All

18:04

of the collegues coming up is going to

18:06

come for me. So that's

18:09

not maybe the Queen of Amazon. Oh yeah,

18:11

that's the main goal, I

18:13

guess. The

18:17

s O s Amazonia guys are young, born

18:19

in the Amazon and familiar with its ways, and

18:21

Louisa says she couldn't do this without them,

18:24

and so as really helps a lot of

18:26

people here. Yeah, everywhere

18:30

they go they're like welcomed. So

18:33

it's really good to be with them

18:35

because then whenever

18:39

we're arrive in somewhere like new

18:41

place, they're like, oh, they're

18:43

with us, and that's really

18:45

important here in a region where activists

18:48

are often killed. A few

18:50

months after our visit in this same region,

18:52

a British journalist and the indigenous

18:54

rites activists he's working with will be

18:56

murdered by a legal fisherman. Anything

18:59

goes in the Amazon, and the life expectancy

19:02

isn't high for anyone who challenges the

19:04

illegal loggers, miners, ranchers

19:07

and fishermen. But somehow

19:09

ss Amazonia is making it work.

19:12

The hope is that with their help, what

19:15

Louise is doing here will start a wild cocow

19:17

movement that can spread clear across the Amazon.

19:20

We break for lunch, then head to the boat for our afternoon

19:23

mission, looking for new recruits

19:26

to produce enough chocolate to make the Jerwabar a

19:28

real thing. Louisa needs more help,

19:30

so we're going to visit each homestead on the river and

19:33

hope she can work her magic. Our

19:37

craft is a long, skinny boat with rows

19:39

of benches like little pews. It

19:41

feels like a theme park ride or the kind

19:43

of thing missionaries would have used back in the day, And

19:46

suddenly occurs to me that Louise and Andre are

19:49

basically Coco missionaries bringing

19:51

the gospel of chocolate to the Amazon. At

19:54

each stop along the river, faces peer

19:56

out of the windows at our mysterious entourage.

19:59

But each time we doc people choose

20:01

to listen were never turned away.

20:04

Everyone collects on the cabin floor and sprawls

20:06

out as Louisa makes her pitch. Yeah

20:08

that was great. Actually, like this

20:10

family has like a lot of

20:12

people, so they have a lot

20:14

of potential to get

20:17

more pods. Yeah, I look

20:19

like they're a bunch of kids there, and yeah,

20:23

it has a nice vibe to it.

20:25

It's amazing. Pretty much everyone

20:27

is on board fourth family and

20:30

that was nice. They so far

20:32

they are the winning family. They got

20:34

three hundred pods in one day

20:37

and they said that if

20:40

they had more time they would have caught

20:43

more. So that's

20:45

a win. And they're pretty excited about cacao.

20:48

As we head back to day's that evening, I can feel

20:50

the hole Jiwa dream becoming real.

20:53

The pickers are all in, but

20:56

now we need the fermentors, someone

20:58

to run the station where everyone will drop off their

21:00

beans and get paid. It's a much bigger

21:02

commitment. And while they agreed to

21:04

build the drawing shed and even

21:06

put us up for a few days, so far

21:09

he's still a firm. Now you're

21:40

turning the box in layers,

21:43

so we don't really like dig

21:46

a hole in the box. We

21:48

try to do it in layers because

21:52

by doing it in this

21:55

way we can make

21:57

sure that we are cooking

22:00

all the layers. Even

22:03

for the next few days. Louisa keeps teaching

22:06

using the special protocol she developed for

22:08

the middle of Nowhere in more developed

22:10

places. Pickow fermentation relies

22:13

on a lot of gadgets, thermometers to measure

22:15

heat, refractometers to see the level

22:17

of sugar in the juice. But in the jungle,

22:20

things break and batteries die. If

22:22

a battery dies, you are four hours

22:24

away by boot from the next city.

22:27

Are you going to go and

22:29

go there just to get the battery? Oh?

22:33

The fermentation, please stop because

22:35

I don't have a battery here.

22:37

You know, like it's it doesn't work like

22:40

that. So um,

22:42

we're like, okay, let's just

22:44

go buy the field smell tasting

22:48

visual and the field

22:51

the warmth. She developed her own

22:53

low tech Amazonian protocol. I

22:56

was like, well, the temperature of your

22:58

body is X.

23:01

If you get in get

23:04

in there and the temperature feels higher,

23:08

it's because the temperature is higher

23:10

than thirty seven celsius. Because

23:13

your your body tempature is thirty seven. If

23:15

the temperature feels lower,

23:17

it's because the metabolism

23:19

of the whole mass is

23:22

going down. And then smelling,

23:25

oh look this alcohol smells

23:28

really volatile. And then vinegar

23:31

you almost want to cry when you when

23:34

you like smell a lot of vinegar. So

23:37

we slowly we

23:39

had a protocol where they

23:42

don't needed any gadgets

23:45

to make a good being. Honestly,

23:50

it's a total game changer for places like

23:52

this Instead of fermentation being

23:54

totally intimidating for people who aren't

23:57

used to high tech gadgetry, the process

23:59

becomes intuitive, it even fun.

24:02

One person who's totally uninterested

24:04

is z Andering. Louisa had him

24:06

hanged as the guy to run this momentation center,

24:09

but he often wanders away during

24:11

the workshop. But as it turns

24:13

out, we don't have to look far for a solution.

24:16

Mic On his son is asking lots

24:18

of good questions.

24:23

Mica And is twenty, a handsome kid with an

24:26

earring and stylish haircut. He

24:28

blended seamlessly on streets of any city,

24:30

and you can tell he's got his eye on the larger world.

24:33

But he also loves life on the river. So

24:36

after the workshop we asked him

24:38

what he thinks people

24:40

sash dasha ki.

24:47

Yeah, it's so good, not

24:50

too not too much work. No,

24:52

no, I'm going to defease you. It's

24:58

difficult because it's new, but the movement.

25:01

As as time passes,

25:04

he will He is

25:06

sure that he can handle this

25:10

process. How

25:12

many boxes do you think you can handle? People

25:17

said, Fuzzy

25:20

wash five. That

25:23

would be about KOs of dried

25:25

cacao, enough for a few thousand

25:27

bars. A good start. Later,

25:30

when we're alone, Andre tells me where

25:32

my CON's interest in Cacao comes from.

25:35

He said that maybe there's

25:37

a lot of over fishing. Every

25:40

year there's a migration of the fish upstream

25:43

up river, and he

25:45

said that nowadays they have like a

25:48

thousand boats waiting

25:50

for the fish. Yeah, Michael

25:53

ZiLs, but not not that

25:55

many fish. And so he

25:57

was really really hopeful that Kao could

26:00

will become eventually

26:02

something that would be bigger than fishing here,

26:05

and it was. The

26:08

problem is actually pretty devastating.

26:11

Fish stocks throughout the Amazon are collapsing

26:13

in the face of overfishing and climate change.

26:16

The Amazon is the greatest abundance and diversity

26:18

of freshwater fish in the world and

26:21

that has always been the foundation of rivers

26:23

diet and income. And when it

26:25

goes they often go with him

26:27

and the loggers and ranchers move in. So

26:30

I can see why my con is so laser focused.

26:33

And he said they were gonna work hot for that

26:36

to happen bec

26:38

become a major source of income

26:41

in here, which

26:43

was the very first time that I heard

26:46

someone from from from here so

26:48

enthusiastic, and so I

26:51

think all are responsive about it. Is even bigger. He

26:55

was really, you know, counting

26:57

on us.

27:08

If the community can band together with Louisa

27:10

to preserve this wild cacao, it

27:13

might just help them hang on. But

27:15

for that to even be a possibility, the team

27:17

has to make it to the finish line on this workshop,

27:19

and Louisa, she's starting to flag

27:22

for good reason. It's

27:24

been seven years since we come

27:27

to different communities

27:30

in the Amazon, but it

27:33

has never been so tough for

27:36

me. Um I'm

27:38

pregnant today, is actually

27:41

twelve weeks pregnant, and

27:44

first timemester is just I

27:47

don't know, morning

27:49

sickness, and to

27:52

be here in

27:55

this time of my

27:58

pregnancy has

28:00

been tough. I'm

28:03

not gonna lie, And

28:05

of course I can't say what it's like to be

28:07

fighting back morning sickness while you're getting mauled

28:10

by pium and you're trying to stay positive

28:12

about your cow works job. But I'm

28:14

just going to go out on the limb and guess that it's

28:16

not ideal and that to pull

28:18

it off, you gotta believe. I

28:21

can't help but think back to Louise's Aiahuasca

28:23

awakening, her understanding that the forest

28:25

and the people are one and her commitment

28:28

to total partnership with the Amazon, and

28:31

yet right now the Amazon

28:34

is being a bit of an asshole. The

28:36

rains are pounding, which drops the temperature,

28:38

and that slows down the fermentation, which

28:41

means the beans might not be done by tomorrow

28:43

morning. But we have to leave tomorrow

28:46

because there's no other flight out of Cruzaro for

28:48

days. But if Louise has to

28:50

leave before she can show everyone the final steps,

28:53

that could endanger the whole experiment. And

28:55

more urgently, the river and the swamp

28:58

behind the shack are rising so fast

29:00

that it's not clear we'll have any ground to stand

29:03

on by tomorrow. Still,

29:05

as we huddle in our cabin staring out

29:07

at the rain, Andre says he's

29:10

glad we can't we make this big

29:12

bat that's raising our prices.

29:15

Who would be engaged? More people? And did

29:18

Uh? I was really surprised

29:20

that they could build up fermenting

29:23

am fermenting place, a

29:25

place, a ferment total. Uh

29:28

moved the boxes so

29:30

so fast it's like a month. So

29:35

I think Michael understood

29:38

that here's an opportunity. I'm

29:40

not to get up. Let that gonna go through

29:42

much fingers. Let's works,

29:45

Let's have a go. But that

29:47

night the Amazon has a go at

29:49

us. It's a deluge all

29:52

night long. The river tears

29:54

away chunks of the bank. The swamp

29:56

is now a lake lapping at the edge of our

29:58

cabin. It's somebody pulls a six ft

30:00

anaconda out of it, but nobody even

30:03

cares. Sometime after midnight,

30:05

I hear the explosion of one of the

30:07

huge trees in the compound, carrying

30:09

leaps in its breeks. So one queasy,

30:12

eternal second I wait

30:14

to be crushed. Then

30:17

the world explodes with

30:21

the sound of the tree crashing down

30:23

nearby, no direct hit. In

30:27

the morning, an Amazonian giant stretches

30:29

dead across the compound. It

30:31

was a narrow sky and it's

30:34

water water everywhere. The river

30:36

is now as the rivers requaimed all

30:39

the land like, there's just water everywhere.

30:42

Um, there's very dry land

30:44

for little walk on. We're

30:46

supposed to

30:49

head back to turo

30:51

Desul that um,

30:54

but that means a very long

30:56

trip against the blow

30:59

up river, and were

31:01

is just gonna be full of massive trees tearing

31:04

down stream um and doing

31:07

so fast. I'm not sure

31:09

the boat's gonna be able to do it.

31:11

Louisa is concerned too. I'm

31:14

so worried because we're growing on

31:16

the river today. That's

31:19

what I was talking about all night. Um,

31:21

that river is just gonna be scammering

31:25

and we have to go up

31:27

river. I hope the rain

31:29

stops today because if it doesn't,

31:32

we are not flying tomorrow. Honestly,

31:35

it feels grim.

31:38

But then this guy is suddenly part for brief

31:40

window and we take advantage. We

31:43

scramble over the soggy ground the drying racks

31:45

so Louisa can demonstrate the last step in the process,

31:48

scooching through the spread out beans with your feet

31:51

to push them into long rows for better drying

31:55

off. In the Nac just

31:57

scooched through the beans with her feet,

32:00

gucci along the way to make channels

32:02

and ridges

32:07

things.

32:10

But as she rushes through the process, mike

32:12

On has some final questions. Later,

32:15

Louisa gives me the lowdown. He thought

32:17

it was quite easy and doable,

32:20

which is always great. Um.

32:23

He also asked how

32:25

many days

32:27

I thought it would take?

32:32

Okay, how many days?

32:35

I said between ten and twelve

32:37

days. They

32:39

want to take a picture. No,

32:44

that sound you here is not a swarm of bees. It's

32:47

a drone. Louise's team brought it

32:49

along and it's time for the group photo,

32:58

and then we scramble for the boat and push up

33:00

river against the current. Well I

33:02

think we got out, just like the

33:04

last chopper

33:05

out. Yeah,

33:12

Oh my god, your feet, you look like you've

33:14

got Hannah tattoos.

33:17

New tattoo

33:19

who is washing her feet in

33:21

the river as we

33:24

are hanging off in the boat. This is, uh, what's

33:26

over? A new

33:28

moment in extreme pick O. The

33:35

storms return and we huddle under the boats,

33:37

torn to heart, but our pilot is

33:39

faced first into the down war for hours,

33:42

dodging the trees that comes flailing down the current,

33:45

any of them could capsuize us. But

33:48

half a day later we straggle into

33:50

trizero dosool like drowned rats.

33:53

And the day after that we're back

33:55

in sound Paolo and Louisa just

33:57

has to cross her fingers. She's

33:59

gone a even beyond, and so has Matt

34:02

And now it's in the hands of the reburying

34:04

news. They know what to do. We

34:06

just have to hope that their relationship with Louisa is

34:08

now deep enough and that the river cooperates.

34:24

I want to taste of some of this god level chocolate.

34:27

We got you covered. Kaleidoscope

34:29

has joined forces with Louise Abram and Stetler Chocolate

34:31

to make a special box to go along with this very

34:33

podcast. Now you could sample flavors

34:35

from the banks of the Amazon without having to fight off

34:38

jaguars and anaconda's. Just visit

34:40

www dot Stetler Dash

34:42

Chocolate dot com to order your wild

34:44

Chocolate today check the link in the show

34:46

notes. A

34:59

few months later, get a zoom call from Louisa.

35:01

Hello, Hey, Luisa,

35:04

can you hear your voice? How

35:06

are you? I'm good? How

35:08

how's it going? After so much waiting,

35:11

this was the moment of truth and

35:13

Louisa was calling me with the verdict straight

35:15

from her factory floor. I just

35:17

got into I

35:20

never had so many beans

35:23

in my factory, which is very, very

35:25

exciting. This just was an eighteen.

35:28

We had to klos

35:31

this year. We got

35:34

one point one ton,

35:38

so you double this

35:40

is double that? Yeah, yeah,

35:44

I just opened too of

35:47

the stacks and right

35:50

off the bat, I know that dish is

35:53

my Jubi. They smell

35:55

great. I am

35:58

beyond happy

36:01

and hoping that everyone

36:03

loved it. Honestly,

36:06

I was too Somewhere along the way

36:08

I got invested. I would have been heartbroken

36:11

to see this cacao and those Riverino's

36:13

give way to cattle ranches. And

36:15

if you think we were happy, well

36:18

there I am sitting in my office, the same place where

36:20

I got the email, and Heather marketing

36:22

coordinator walks in puts it on my desk

36:25

and I look up and

36:28

she's got tears in her eyes. Matt

36:31

Caputo was over the moon. His

36:34

crazy seven thousand dollar bet had just paid

36:36

off. I asked Matt to walk me through

36:38

the moment when there's your wah bars first arrived.

36:41

I was like, this is it, and she's

36:43

like, I'm just nodding her head. And

36:46

so I opened it up and I'm

36:48

so nervous that I pop

36:50

it in my mouth and then

36:53

the flavors open up and everything

36:55

that I love about Judua in the

36:57

past is there. I

36:59

just know than ten seconds, this

37:01

is the best chocolate Louisa has

37:03

ever made. This bar doesn't taste like anything

37:06

else anywhere in the world. You

37:08

know we did something where

37:10

we we helped to preserve

37:16

this cacao, and I

37:18

know the other like minded

37:21

people like me are going to

37:23

appreciate this and to join

37:25

us in this fight, and

37:27

the beautiful thing in this fight is, you know, our

37:30

weapons that we use, or sharing

37:34

stories and tastes of things that we love

37:37

and kind of spreading that love,

37:41

chocolate and love. What could

37:43

possibly go better together? Right?

37:48

I forgot chocolate

37:51

and revenge. So we agreed

37:53

to catch catch

37:56

the guys in Flagrante

38:00

Forest. How's that gonna happen?

38:04

Yeah, he said he would need help,

38:08

and then we do an operation and

38:10

we get the people. Yes,

38:13

just when you thought it was safe to go back in Bolivia,

38:15

it's the return of Vulcar next

38:17

week on Obsessions. Wild

38:20

Chocolate. Wild

38:31

Chocolate is a Kaleidoscope production with I

38:33

Heart Podcasts, hosted and reported by

38:35

me Rowan Jacobson and produced by Shane

38:37

McKeith at Nice Marmot Media. Edited

38:40

by Kate Osbourne and my Guest how to Kudor,

38:43

Sound design and mixing by Sound Boring. Original

38:45

music composition by Spencer Stevenson. A k

38:48

a Botany production helped

38:50

from Baheni Shorty from My Heart.

38:52

Our executive producers are Katrina Norvell and

38:54

Nikki Etor. Special thanks to Laura

38:57

Mayor, Gustas Linos Oswalash

38:59

and Aaron Kaffman, Will Pearson,

39:02

codel Burn, Bob Pittman, Daria

39:04

Daniel, and the team at Stetler who are helping

39:06

us make a very special chocolate of our own. That's

39:09

right, We're working with Louisa at others

39:11

to protect the rainforest and make delicious

39:13

Amazonian chocolate. Visit www

39:16

dot Stetler dash Chocolate dot com

39:19

to taste it for yourself. That's www

39:22

dot Stetler dash Chocolate dot

39:24

com. And if you want to hear more of

39:26

this type of content. Nothing is more important

39:28

to the creators here at Kaleidoscope than subscribers,

39:31

ratings, and reviews. Please spread

39:34

the up wherever you listen.