Cupulate, Chocoaçu or Chocolate from Cupuassu

This fruit is known as 'copoazú' (yet there are many other orthographic versions) in Spanish, and as 'cupuaçu' in Portuguese. I do not know which native language this word comes from. The fruit comes from the Eastern Amazon; it does not grow out the Amazon basin, so it is almost unknown out of its borders, including Europe.

Cupuaçu is a fruit with a special taste that can be felt sweet and sour at the same time. It is a relative of cocoa, which is why some people call it 'big-flowered cocoa'. Unlike cocoa's, the pulp of copoasu is edible and practically none of the fruit is disposable: the peel is used as an aromatic, and from the seeds, which are very bitter, the chocolate is prepared. This time I brought you the recipe.

Source

Making cupulade is not an easy process. Once you have eaten the flesh, you should leave the seeds to dry exposed to the sun for two or three days. What this is about is draining the inside of the kernel. After this procedure, some minutes in the oven are optional; do this only if you want the chocolate to turn out to be less bitter.

Then you can choose to wash the seeds after you have laid them to dry. In my case I did it because I live in a tropical country (Venezuela) and there are many insects that might have come into contact with the seeds during the drying process.

The next step is the crushing of the seeds. This is the moment when you have to decide whether you want to prepare the seed coat or just the food storage. The shell gives bitterness to the brewing, and is therefore ideal for making liqueur.

Now the dough obtained after crushing is pulverized in a mill. Then place the preparation in a pot, add water and sugar and start to heat. Do not forget to stir it up to make the liquid thicker.

Let it rest and when it is colder add milk. The greater the amount of milk, the less bitter the cupulade will be. As long as the mixture is boiling, do not add milk; otherwise it may clot.

Now that our chocoaçu is ready, you can consume it as a drink or pour it into moulds to let it cool for a few hours and eat it in the form of a bar.

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I hope you all have enjoyed it and I would like to offer you more of the gastronomy of the magical Amazon in the time ahead. Nice to meet you!