Beloved Somatakers,

Your gut is a magical place (you’re welcome). Even as you read this, lovely bacteria in your large intestine are metabolising (actually fermenting) fiber, producing short-chain fatty acids which regulate inflammation, support immunity, and maintain the intestinal barrier. Your morning cup of Soma Cacao contained 15% of your daily fiber needs, which should be reaching your colon now.

Cacao is, of course, a fermented food, but not in the same way as sauerkraut. When you eat a spoonful of sauerkraut (Alistair rarely bothers using a spoon anymore, and frequently doesn’t even bother to use his hands), you’re consuming billions of living microbes, some of which temporarily colonise the gut, competing with pathogens, producing healthy acids, and interacting positively with the gut barrier. You’re also eating the metabolites those microbes produced while they were eating cabbage, which have a whole host of positive functions in the body. Finally, the microbes have pre-digested the cabbage, making some nutrients more bioavailable, and increasing levels of others (such as B Vitamins and Vitamin K). Studies link consumption of probiotic fermented foods with reduced inflammation, improved microbiome diversity, better gastrointestinal health, disease reduction, and better mental health.

While cacao is a fermented food, it isn’t probiotic. The yeasts and bacteria responsible for fermenting cacao die off during the sun-drying and roasting process, which is why you can store our cacao at room temperature for up to two years (unlike sauerkraut or yogurt, which have to go in the fridge).

But those yeasts and bacteria did leave their mark. Unfermented cacao beans are white and purple (not chocolate-brown), and taste like mangosteen seeds. Fermentation breaks their proteins down into the amino acids which become chocolatey, floral, and fruity flavours. Enzymes break complex carbohydrates down into the reducing sugars which become sweet and spicy flavours.

When amino acids and reducing sugars combine at heat, they undergo a Maillard Reaction, which gives cacao its roasted, buttery, nutty, and caramelly flavour notes. Maillard Reactions are also responsible for the flavour of toasted bread, roasted nuts, seared meats, and coffee.

Fermentation makes the polyphenols in cacao easier to digest. Cacao polyphenols (particularly flavanols, of which cacao contains more than any other food) feed good gut bacteria, reduce inflammation, enhance blood flow to the brain, improve memory, and so on. Fermentation makes other compounds in cacao more digestible, and improves the bioavailability of certain nutrients.

Almost all cacao (even the awful crap they use at Cadbury) is fermented, and has been for more than 5000 years. In Mexico there’s a tradition called ‘cacao lavado’ (washed cacao), where farmers strip the pulp off cacao beans at harvest, and immediately sun-dry them. Cacao lavado, done properly, can make delicious cacao, with a mild citrusy flavour, but it is a tricky process to manage. We estimate that more than 95% of the world’s cacao is fermented. In our early days at Soma, we stocked a ‘raw’ cacao from Bali, which had never been heated above 50 degrees, but even that was fermented. (Those who remember our Balinese cacao fondly will be pleased to hear we are still in touch with our supplier, and we’re always trying to find ways to get one of their cacaos back on our shelves).

The cacaos we sell at Soma are harvested in six countries around the world, and fermented immediately. The pods are opened, the beans and mucilage (the flesh of the cacao fruit, which tastes like lychees) put in wooden boxes for five to seven days, and turned daily. During this time, yeasts and bacteria eat the mucilage, producing heat (up to 50C) which prevents the embryo in the cacao bean from sprouting. This heat also catalyses flavour changes in the bean, as well as enzymes and natural chemical reactions.

After this period of fermentation, the beans are sun-dried, roasted, husked, ground into paste, slivered into slivers, and shipped in Soma bags to you.

Many of our favourite foods taste good because they were fermented - cheese, wine, miso, yoghurt, sourdough toast (Alistair is screaming Sauerkraut at me from the next room, so I shall include it). Soma Cacao is the same - a product of nature, magnificently guided by millenia of human experience.

With ginger powder and a dash of honey,
Rose, Alistair, and the team at Soma Cacao