1.5-2 Week Non-Fiction Unit on Chocolate
Day 1
Read the article titled
NPR: The Salt – In Peru A Hunt for Chocolate Like You’ve Never Tasted
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/10/10/141153396/in-peru-a-hunt-for-chocolate-like-youve-nevertasted-it?sc=nl&cc=es-20111016
Have students answer basic comprehension questions about the article without using the research pieces
from the text. As they read have them also annotate the text. (see the attached sample notations & reading
questions on page 4)
Following the piece and the question/answer have students discuss among each other what other Chocolate
topics they would like to learn about after reading this article.
Have students share their responses in class
Day 2
Introduce the final project – A glossy magazine article ( or more than one – depending on group size) that
synthesizes all of the research and the chocolate experience for a magazine titled Chocolate
Have students use the brainstormed list from Day 1 to organize the ideas into basic “groups” of knowledge
Have students choose a group in which they are most interested in the topic
Group students according to topics and distribute article lists (see attached)
BEFORE reading the articles have students scan the articles and decide what they expect/desire to learn
(give them ½ sheet of paper that states: By the end of this unit we expect to learn about_________)
Have students break up the articles into appropriate “chunks”; depending on number of articles – students
may choose to individually read the articles or collectively read them but for different expectations (most
will probably just split the work up amongst the group members)
Begin reading - Allow students 2-3 days to complete the reading and take notes on their own
Day 3 (* can be moved depending on reading and school schedule)
Students will partake in a chocolate tasting
Goal of tasting
Allow students to apply some of the information they learned (for example – the group studying the
process might be able to share information about how chocolate is made; others might share
information about health benefits of dark chocolate; and others might share cultural or economical
details) related to their research.
Allow students to take notes on the process of chocolate tasting, recognize the differences in types,
flavors, etc. that may play a role in their final writing pieces
Provide students first-hand knowledge about their research topic
Encourage students to finish the difficult reading passages in order to connect their personal
experience with the texts
Day 4-5
Reading, note taking, group work summarizing what is important and meeting group expectations/revising
group expectations based on new knowledge
Days 6-9
Writing magazine articles in the lab
Day 10
Presentation of articles
GROUP 1 Origins (Reading should be broken up and summarized individually)
The Exploratorium – The Sweet Lure of Chocolate – The History of Chocolate
http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/exploring_chocolate/index.html
Chocolate’s Frothy Path
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2134488.stm
http://www.allchocolate.com/understanding/where_chocolate_comes_from/
VIEW How to make chocolate from tree to bar
http://www.npr.org/programs/wesat/features/2008/june/chocolate/slideshow/
Chocolate History and Process
http://travellady.com/articles/article-sweet.html
Hershey’s How It’s Made
http://www.hersheys.com/ads-and-videos.aspx
This group should study the following concepts:
What is the history of chocolate?
What are different types of beans?
Where do different beans come from?
How does location change flavor? Give specific examples?
Identify and explain the difference between Cacao and Cocoa.
Explain how chocolate is made.
Explore and identify what life is like on a cacao farm.
Feel free to add additional research/information/questions based upon your interests and information you
find
GROUP 2 - A Chocolate Economy (Reading should be broken up and summarized individually)
Potomac Artisan Chocolates
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/13/146821976/diy-willy-wonka-turns-home-into-chocolatefactory
Potomac Chocolate Video from NPR
http://vimeo.com/41566805
Estonia’s Fake Chocolate
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/05/24/153588793/estonias-fake-chocolate-born-of-necessityreborn-in-nostalgia
Chocolate and the Economy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16033229
A New Chocolate Product
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124087403
Drug Lords Vs. Chocolate – From Coca or Cacao in Peru
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1957708,00.html
A Bit of a History Lesson and The Chocolate Lure
http://travellady.com/articles/article-sweet.html
Certified Chocolate (Labor)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=162253778
This group should study the following concepts:
-
What role does Chocolate have in our economy?
How is this role ever evolving?
How is chocolate an anomaly with regards to the recession?
What role does small business have in the chocolate economy?
Is the role of chocolate only positive or is there a negative impact of our chocolate obsession?
Feel free to add additional research/information/questions based upon your interests and information you
find
GROUP 3 Chocolate Culture in South America and Africa (Reading should be broken up and
summarized individually)
Outside Online Magazine – Heart of Dark Chocolate (a Narrative) (9/13/2010)
http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/south-america/bolivia/Heart-of-Dark-Chocolate.html
Aztecs and Chocolate
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/14/146867490/for-the-mazatec-chocolate-not-just-about-candy
Mayans and Chocolate
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/08/03/158090959/experts-find-ancient-mayans-may-haveused-chocolate-as-condiment
Chocolate Nations Cocoa West Africa Review
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/29/chocolate-nations-cocoa-west-africa-review
Website: The Exploratorium – The Sweet Lure of Chocolate – The History of Chocolate
http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/exploring_chocolate/index.html
Website: Slave Free Chocolate
http://slavefreechocolate.org/
A Bit of a History Lesson and The Chocolate Lure
http://travellady.com/articles/article-sweet.html
USDA - Reference Document on Peruvian Chocolate
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep11/cacao0911.htm
-
This group should study and report upon the following concepts:
What role does South American culture and history have to play in our understanding of chocolate?
Explain how modern day chocolate came to exist?
What role does Africa have in the chocolate industry today?
How does Chocolate shape a community?
Feel free to add additional research/information/questions based upon your interests and information you
find
GROUP 4 Chocolate and The Interaction with the Human Body (Reading should be broken up and
summarized individually)
Chocolate and Intelligence:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/10/12/162733830/the-secret-to-genius-it-might-be-morechocolate
A Chocolate Experiment in a Science Magazine (Psychology)
http://www.sitemaker.umich.edu/eob/files/obrienellsworth2012.pdf
Chocolate and Depression
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/04/chocolate_as_mood_food.html
Chocolate and Weightloss
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/03/26/149407484/does-a-chocolate-habit-help-keep-you-lean
Study of Chocolate and Favor
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/14/146874769/why-the-best-chocolate-is-the-one-you-eatlast
Chocolate and Blood Pressure
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/08/14/158761362/daily-dose-of-dark-chocolate-may-helplower-blood-pressure
The Chocolate Website
http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/exploring_chocolate/choc_7.html (listen to the audio on my
laptop)
Chocolate’s Potential Health Benefits
http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=8326
-
This group should study and report upon the following concepts:
How is chocolate beneficial to humans?
What impact does chocolate have on our moods?
What is the connection between the human brain and chocolate?
Feel free to add additional research/information/questions based upon your interests and information you
find
Additional Texts:
Hosting a Chocolate Tasting Party
http://www.lindtusa.com/info-exec/display/hosting_a_tasting_part
Chocolate Tasting Placemats
http://www.savorchocolate.com/SavorToolDocs/placemats.pdf
In Peru, A Hunt For Chocolate Like
You've Never Tasted It
09:36 am October 10, 2011
by MARIA GODOY
Martin Mejia/AP
Farmers dry cacao beans in Uchiza, Peru, a file photo from 2008. Researchers
are exploring the wild cacao bounty of Peru's Amazon Basin, part of an effort to
jump-start the country's premium cacao industry.
Christopher Columbus first encountered the cacao bean
on his final voyage to the New World some 500 years
ago. It took a while for Europeans to embrace the taste
— one 16th-century Spanish missionary called the
chocolate that indigenous people drank "loathsome."
But by the 17th century, chocolate met sugar, and it
became a hit the world over — it's now a $93 billion a
year global industry, according to market research firm
Mintel.
Centuries and countless foil-wrapped bars later, it turns
out we've barely begun to sample the many flavors that
nature has to offer to satisfy our chocolate cravings.
Scientists from the USDA's Agricultural Research
Service recently reported discovering three previously
unknown varieties of wild cacao in the Amazon
rainforest of Peru.
"It's pretty amazing that this crop that we've been
growing [for hundreds of years] — we still know so little
about it," Lyndel Meinhardt, who led the ARS research
team, tells The Salt.
Where (location) did Christopher
Columbus discover cacao?
What eventually changed the
taste of chocolate from bitter to
sweet?
Cacao trees originated in the Amazon. Mesoamericans
cultivated cacao for thousands of years, and chocolate
was important to both Mayan and Aztec culture. The
Spanish introduced the treat from the Americas to the
Old World — and added the sugar. Eventually, other
European powers wanted in on the action, so they
exported cacao trees to their colonies — which is how
Africa ended up providing much of the cacao we eat in
chocolate today.
Based on the locations chocolate
is grown, what types of climates
are good for growing chocolate?
How did cacao end up in Africa?
But apparently, "some of the fine flavor material wasn't
moved in the beginning," says Meinhardt. So the bulk
beans grown in Africa represent just a small sampling of
the many flavors of cacao. Or as connoisseurs might
argue, it's not the really good stuff.
The world's germplasm banks — collections of genetic
material that the chocolate industry relies on to preserve What are germplasm banks?
cultivars — aren't much help, either. Meinhardt says,
"There's not a lot of diversity in the collections."
Meinhardt and his colleagues from ARS aim to change
that. So they teamed up with Peru's Instituto de Cultivos
Tropicales to document the genetic bounty of wild cacao
in the country's Amazon Basin. The haul from
expeditions in 2008 and 2009 included 342 wild cacao
specimens from 12 watersheds.
Like wine, cacao flavor is influenced by the region where
it's grown. The researchers want to catalog Peru's "cacao
varietals," analyze their DNA and identify the so-called
flavor beans that premium chocolate makers covet. It's
all part of an effort to help jump-start Peru's premium
chocolate industry (and lure former coca farmers to
cacao.)
What did the ARS and the PICT
discover about cacao after they
teamed up together?
Does all cacao taste the same?
The big question, of course, is what these chocolate
discoveries taste like. Sadly for chocoholics, it will be
several years before we get to find out. Cacao is a slowgrowing tree; it takes at least five years for a tree to bear
pods. So it will be a long while yet before the saplings
now growing at a central collection spot in Tarapoto,
Peru, yield enough beans to turn into chocolate.
How long will it take consumers to taste
this new chocolate?
It's possible the taste won't amount to more than a hill of
cocoa beans. Then again, several years ago, the Amazon
yielded up a wild cacao strain in Bolivia that Swiss
chocolate maker Felchlin released in a limited edition
What is Cru Savage?
bar called Cru Sauvage — or Wild Vintage — for about
$60 a pound. Its flavor was apparently so arresting, it
inspired one writer to journey into the heart of the
Amazon in search of the man who helped bring it to
What did chocolate inspire a writer to do?
market.
Peruvian Cacao Collection Trip Yields Treasures
Chocolates are always in demand—from
Valentine’s Day and beyond. In the chocolate
world, the fastest growing segment of the
industry is fine-flavor, high-end chocolates.
Until now, the source of these specialized
confections has been largely limited to small
regions of Venezuela and Ecuador.
A village on the bank
of Rio Pastaza, in
Peru. Two wild cacao
populations were
found and sampled
near the upstream
portion of this river.
(D2286-2)
A stand of very old trees, in an unexpected
location, has yielded a coveted type of cacao
tree. Usually, cacao trees are found along
rivers, but these gems were found at a
higher altitude than normal, and in Peru
instead of Ecuador or Venezuela.
Where does Cacao usually grow?
Collection expeditions in 2008 and 2009
through the Amazon Basin of Peru uncovered
the exceptional find, along with other
distinctive new populations of cacao.
Agricultural Research Service researchers at the
Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory (SPCL) and
the Systematic Mycology and Microbiology Laboratory
(SMML) in Beltsville, Maryland, and Peruvian
collaborators came away with hundreds of new cacao
tree samples from these trips. One of these,
discovered by additional collaborators from Marañon
Chocolate, was Pure Nacional—an old, very rare, and
highly coveted variety that has garnered a great deal
of interest from makers of fine-flavor chocolates.
SPCL research leader Lyndel Meinhardt, SPCL
geneticist Dapeng Zhang, and SMML mycologist Gary
Samuels (now retired) collaborated with the Instituto
de Cultivos Tropicales (ICT), a research center in San
Martin, Peru, to identify the new varieties of cacao.
The researchers are studying 342 cacao specimens
collected from 12 watersheds and categorizing the
DNA of the specimens. The group has identified new
cacao types with unique flavors that are distinctly
Peruvian, which may one day be marketed in the
same way as wine—by geographical provenance.
Where was Fortunato No. 4 discovered?
Fortunato
No. 4
chocolate, a
fine-flavor
product
made from
the Pure
Nacional
type of
cacao
identified in
northern
Peru.
(D2285-1)
What is geographical provenance? What
other crop uses geographical provenance
in its creation?
Start from the Beginning
The cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, produces beans that provide the
raw material to make chocolate. The tree is cultivated in some
tropical countries with the right environmental conditions. The origin
of cacao is the Amazon region of South America. Like many tropical
tree crops, seeds of this plant lose their viability quickly after being
harvested. For this reason, varieties or types of cacao must be
maintained in living germplasm banks.
“The majority of the material in cacao germplasm banks was
collected prior to the 1940s. There are more than 5,000 different
varieties of cacao currently in collections around the world,” says
Meinhardt.
What causes the plants to quickly lose
their viability? How do they maintain
these kinds of crops?
“While this sounds like a large amount, most are breeding lines
derived from a small number of types, so it actually represents a
small fraction of the genetic diversity that still exists in the wild,
especially in the center of origin of this species.”
To address this limitation, expeditions were begun in 2008 to explore
the upper Amazon River area in Peru. The purpose of these trips was
to find and collect wild cacao trees and attempt to establish them in a
living germplasm bank in Tarapoto, Peru, Meinhardt says. These trips
were jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and
INCARGO, Peru’s Ministry of Agriculture.
“In 2008, 7 river systems were explored, and 190 cacao trees were
sampled. Of the initial 190 trees collected, 128 were successfully
reestablished in the germplasm bank. In 2009, 5 more river systems
were explored in 2 expeditions and a total of 152 trees were collected
and reestablished in the germplasm bank in Tarapoto,” explains
Meinhardt. “From the 12 river systems explored, we have identified 3
completely new populations of cacao that were not previously known
to science.” These expeditions collectively represent one of the
largest efforts ever conducted to search for wild cacao.
What is wrong with current bank
collections?
What was the original purpose of this
exploration through Peru?
What is the most significant discovery
from their expedition?
New Flavors and Disease Resistance?
These new populations could be sources of diseases resistance or
could have potential new flavor traits. The fine-flavor chocolate
industry is keenly interested in obtaining new and unique flavor
sources.
“Our results combined with the needs of the fine-flavor chocolate
industry have led to new collaborations that will look at the primary
gene pool of cacao. Together with industry we will attempt to gather
information on the genetic diversity of wild cacao from all of the
countries in South America within the center of diversity,” says
Meinhardt.
Niche chocolates from South America are not new. The varieties
Arriba, from Ecuador, and Porcelana, from Venezuela, are two of the
most famous. Arriba has a strong, complex taste that stays on your
tongue for a long time, while Porcelana features a unique light fruit
flavor. ARS and ICT are helping Peru create its own niche in the
chocolate industry by working with San Martin’s Oro Verde
cooperative and Marañón Chocolate. Peru’s tropical conditions—60
percent of the country is covered in tropical forest—make it ideal for
producing exceptional chocolates.
What benefit could these new populations
provide?
What delineates different types of
chocolates?
Witches’ Broom Watch
During the 2008 collection trip to Peru, Meinhardt also recorded the
incidence of the devastating witches’ broom disease (WBD) in wild
cacao trees in the upper Amazon region. The scientists studied areas
along the Aypena, Charupa, Nucuray, Pastaza, Ungumayo,
Ungurahui, and Urituyacu Rivers and determined the overall severity
of WBD infection based on the percentage of symptoms on flower
cushions, flushes (new stem growth), and fruits.
A team of scientists, including ARS’s Zhang, Meinhardt, and Samuels
and ICT plant pathologist Enrique Arevalo, found that 14.7 percent of
flower cushions and 13.7 percent of trunks were infected, and 9.1
What is WBD? How does that impact the
cacoa?
percent of the trees along the Aypena River were infected. The other
river areas had similar results.
The incidence of WBD observed during the survey suggests that there
is a high level of WBD resistance in these wild Peruvian cacao
populations. The scientists are now studying the samples to
determine which are best suited for both unique flavor and WBD
resistance. WBD can cause yield losses of 75 percent in susceptible
varieties.
What do the new types of cacao
discovered during their expedition show
scientists?
Friendly Fungi
In addition to collecting cacao germplasm, the team isolated other
fungi from disease-free leaves and trunks of the wild cacao trees.
This large collection of “endophytic” fungi—fungi that occur in
disease-free tissues of all plants—may provide protection against
diseases such as WBD either by stimulating the immune system of
the plants or through direct parasitism or antibiotic effects against
pathogens. Samuels found that several fungal species previously
unknown to science were found in the cacao tissues. The potential for
biological control using these endophytic fungi is being evaluated at
Beltsville by SPCL scientists Bryan Bailey and Ron Collins.
How are fungus discoveries significant to
the cacao trees?
The genome for WBD has been sequenced, and it may hold clues for
developing control measures to reduce its impact in the future. This
was reported in the journal Biomed Central Genomics in 2008.
While scientists have the genomes of some cacao populations in hand
and are working diligently to improve production and disease
resistance, improvements can sometimes lead to unintended
consequences, like a change in flavor, according to Meinhardt.
“There are a lot of great chocolate sources; the task is to find them
and preserve them before they are lost,” says Meinhardt. “Mother
Nature has done a great job of creating these exceptional cacao
trees.”—By Sharon Durham, Agricultural Research Service
Information Staff.
This research is part of Plant Genetic Resources, Genomics,
and Genetic Improvement (#301), Plant Diseases (#303), and
Crop Protection and Quarantine (#304), three ARS national
programs described at www.nps.ars.usda.gov.
Lyndel Meinhardt is with the USDA-ARS Sustainable Perennial
Crops Laboratory, 10300 Baltimore Ave., Beltsville, MD 20705;
(301) 504-1995.
"Peruvian Cacao Collection Trip Yields Treasures" was published
in the September 2011 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
What is one of the fears the scientists have
with regards to their research and creation
of disease resistant cacao?
Drug Lords vs. Chocolate: From Coca
to Cacao in Peru
LUCIEN CHAUVIN / TARAPOTO Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010
Cacao farmer Eduardo Gonzalez checks his plants in
the jungle town of Lamas in Tarapoto, Peru
Mariana Bazo / Reuters / Corbis
The certificate was only one of several that emerged from
the prestigious Salon du Chocolat in Paris, the annual
summit of the world's master chocolatiers. But it may be
enough to start a revolution in Peru. In October 2009,
chocolate produced from the cacao beans of a small
agricultural cooperative deep in one of the country's rain
forests was named the most aromatic in the world by the
Salon. "We used to be known for making cocaine paste, but
now we are known for chocolate," says Elena Rios, 52,
secretary of the Tocache Agroindustrial Cooperative. Rios
herself gave up growing coca leaves 10 years ago, opting to
take part in a program to replace her plants with cacao.
"There were only 12 of us when we started; now we have
hundreds. Our success is contagious. No one wants to grow
coca in Tocache. Everyone is thinking about chocolate."
Why might the certificate that the
Tocache Agroinustrial Cooperative
received begin a revolution in
Peru?
Indeed, such is the local excitement that Peru's San Martin
department, where Tocache is located, wants to put itself
on the map as the chocolate capital of the world. Located in
the lush tropics where the Andes mountain range gives way
to the northern Amazon rain forest, San Martin has a
Prior to chocolate, what dangerous
wilder reputation from its recent past: for years it was a
issues did Tocache face?
bastion for the rebels of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary
Movement and the much more violent Maoist fighters of
the Shining Path. Hand in hand with subversion came drug
trafficking, with the surrounding countryside perfect
terrain for coca, from which cocaine is processed. (See
pictures of what the world eats.)
While the two subversive groups have been defeated, San
Martin still has some coca — about 800 acres (374
hectares), according to the latest U.N. survey on coca crops
— but that is minuscule compared to what it used to
cultivate. Coffee and cacao (chocolate) farms have taken
hold instead. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC) talks about a "San Martin model" as a success
story for replacing coca with legal crops. Chocolate is
leading the way.
"We are working to identify Peru with chocolate, the way
Colombia is identified with coffee. We have the world's
best beans," says Blanca Panizo, who works for the
Alternative
What is the San Martin model?
How is it something that other
areas along the Amazon should
emulate?
Development Program, a U.S. Agency for International
Development–backed initiative promoting crops to replace
coca. San Martin's top cacao producers hosted a tasting fair What US agency is financially
in Tarapoto, the department's largest city, in mid-January backing the crop initiative? Why?
for a U.S. delegation including Deputy Secretary of State
James Steinberg, who was in town for a day. Steinberg
walked away with bags of rich, dark chocolate, telling
growers that his two daughters loved chocolate.
More important, Steinberg told them the U.S. would
remain on their side in the long process of replacing coca
with legal crops. He said alternative development
programs "must involve the communities, giving them
ownership and the ability to shape programs. The strategy
in San Martin has a lot of promise." (See the Swiss no-melt,
low-calorie chocolate.)
Peru is the world's second largest coca producer after
Colombia, with nearly 139,000 acres (56,250 hectares)
covered by the crop, according to the UNODC. While land
dedicated to coca has declined noticeably in San Martin, it
has increased nationwide throughout the last decade.
Eradication brigades eliminated around 25,000 acres
(10,117 hectares) last year. A similar amount is targeted for
2010.
Nevertheless, cacao exports were up over 400% in the past
decade, and production this year will be around 35,000
metric tons, putting Peru close to the top 10 biggest
producers. The U.S. program invested more than $110
million in alternative development plans in Peru in the
past decade. The program involves nearly half of the
150,000 acres (60,703 hectares) of cacao planted in the
country. The goal is to expand not only in San Martin but
throughout the country's tropics. About 60% of Peru's
territory is jungle.
If the plan works, there will be chocolate for all tastes. The
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is working with a
local research center in San Martin, the Institute for
Tropical Crops (ITC), to identify new varieties of cacao
beans. The institute is studying 342 specimens collected
from 12 watersheds. "We are working on categorizing the
DNA of cacao," says ITC director Enrique Arevalo. The
work will eventually lead to the creation of a Peru-specific
chocolate that could be marketed the way countries sell
wine. Hiderico Bocangel, general manager of San Martin's
Oro Verde cooperative, says Peru is already creating a
How much has the US invested in
Peru? How much land do they
hope to develop with cacao?
niche in the chocolate world. "We have the perfect
conditions here to produce exceptional chocolate," he says.
There is, of course, stiff competition. Neighboring Ecuador
already has a jump on Peru, pushing for its "national" or
arriba bean to be granted geographic indication — or
certified origin — just like French Champagne. There are
five chocolatiers in Ecuador marketing chocolate based on
origin and organic production. They have USDA organic
certificates and can be found in supermarket chains in the
U.S. Peruvian chocolate producers have not gotten that far.
"Our job is to get the word out," says Bocangel. "This visit
[by the Steinberg delegation] is important for us to do
that."
Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1957708
,00.html#ixzz1b4X9EDTF
What is Ecuador known for in the
chocolate industry?