Word: venezuelan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...even as Chávez puts a gloss on the economic outlook, some Chavistas wonder if venality has seeped into his own government - including millions of dollars in alleged payoffs to officials described last year at the Miami trial of a wealthy Venezuelan businessman. (Chávez officials deny the charges.) "Chávez needs to know that we see the tremendous houses and cars these so-called socialists have," says Isabel de Lemus, 70, a shop owner in La Silsa who sits on a revolutionary community council...
Another problem is land invasions by local farmers who chop down cacao to plant faster-yielding banana trees. "They destroy the forest forever," Rosenberg complains, pointing to a hole in one of his plantation's barbed-wire fences. Jorge Redmond, president of Chocolates El Rey, a Venezuelan company that has been processing premium cacao since 1929, says El Rey saw almost 865 acres (350 hectares) decimated recently when 40 families invaded. "A 10-year effort was destroyed in days," he says. "We were able to produce one batch of San Joaquin Private Reserve chocolate before this happened, but we will...
...simple bean of the Venezuelan criollo--source of what many connoisseurs consider chocolate's gold standard--had been on the verge of extinction. But here on the Monterosa plantation near the town of Choroní, a small group of entrepreneurs and laborers has dedicated itself to making sure the bean flourishes once more. Monterosa's owner, Kai Rosenberg, has devoted the past 20 years to resurrecting the criollo strain and its gene base. "After I survived a rampant cancer, I decided I was going to do what I really loved," he says. "I used to be in insurance. Can you imagine...
...century, discovering the pristine and aromatic criollo bean in Venezuela along the way. Until the 19th century, Venezuela produced solely criollo cacao, which satisfied more than half the world's demand for chocolate. But when an infestation came close to wiping out all the cacao in neighboring Trinidad, nervous Venezuelan farmers began crossing the criollo with a lesser but more resilient bean by about 1825. As a result, the criollo was all but lost. It didn't help that Venezuela began to focus on more lucrative resources such as coffee and, in the early 20th century, oil. Today, "for every...
...then scooped out by hand, placed in fermentation boxes and covered with banana leaves for three to four days. "Technology-wise, we haven't left the 18th century," says Rosenberg. "It is a process that cannot be industrialized." Silvino Reyes, who owns another hacienda, La Concepción, agrees: "Although Venezuelan cacao can sell for close to $2,500 per ton, our production level is the same as three centuries ago." That is, about 15,000 tons a year...