The pods are picked, and now is time for beans to turn alive. Hundreds - thousands, even - of the precious pods are laid out in the sun, and microbial yeasts develop and devour some of the compounds. Yes, my funny little microbes: eat! Complex flavors are starting to develop. Notes of caramel, fruit, garlic. Full-bodied aromas waft through the hills, and little children smell the air and look up to the heavens and wonder: why did god create cocoa, and can I please have a Hershey's? "No, mi amor!" says one mother. Hershey's is for the gringos, for those who don't understand. Don't understand what? That the mystery of the universe is revealed in a fine bean-to-bar chocolate.
