????一塊售價(jià)將近300美元的巧克力應(yīng)該怎么吃呢？對(duì)于傳說(shuō)中的To’ak巧克力來(lái)說(shuō)，該公司聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人杰瑞·托特表示，應(yīng)該搭配上好的威士忌、干邑白蘭地或朗姆酒。他極力推薦的是派比·范溫克威士忌、法拉賓XO、或劍魚(yú)號(hào)21年特藏陳年朗姆酒。

????杰瑞·托特原本是一名華爾街投資銀行家，后來(lái)轉(zhuǎn)行成為一名巧克力大亨兼環(huán)保人士，這似乎是一條不可能出現(xiàn)的職業(yè)發(fā)展軌跡，不過(guò)托特本人卻表示，他并沒(méi)有白白浪費(fèi)他在康奈爾大學(xué)(Cornell University)獲得的經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)學(xué)位。

????托特此前在一個(gè)熱帶雨林保護(hù)組織工作時(shí)，曾經(jīng)在厄瓜多爾馬納比省的普拉塔河谷待過(guò)一陣子。再往前追溯，托特還曾在華爾街奮斗過(guò)一段日子，不過(guò)很快他發(fā)現(xiàn)那不是自己喜歡的生活方式。于是他啟程前往南美的厄瓜多爾，在那里遇到了他后來(lái)的女朋友，她幫助托特在厄瓜多爾成立了一個(gè)熱帶雨林保護(hù)組織。托特回憶道：“我們?cè)诙蚬隙酄栄睾＝⒘?000英畝雨林保護(hù)區(qū)，然后與當(dāng)?shù)剞r(nóng)民一道退耕還林，種植適合在蔭地生長(zhǎng)的可可樹(shù)。”

????托特和他的女友也開(kāi)始在自己的試驗(yàn)田里種植可可樹(shù)，后來(lái)他們發(fā)現(xiàn)這里的老可可樹(shù)長(zhǎng)得很快?！拔覀冮_(kāi)始收割可可豆，然后進(jìn)行發(fā)酵、脫水、烘烤，生產(chǎn)自己的巧克力，很快我們意識(shí)到，這種巧克力與我們之前吃過(guò)的所謂‘巧克力’相比，完全就像來(lái)自另一個(gè)星球。后來(lái)我們才發(fā)現(xiàn)，這個(gè)省的可可豆歷來(lái)被視為全世界最寶貴的品種。這就好像一個(gè)釀酒師一覺(jué)醒來(lái)，別人告訴他原來(lái)他這輩子一直住在勃艮第的金丘一樣?！?/p>

????當(dāng)托特和他的朋友卡爾·施威策開(kāi)始尋找最適合制作巧克力的可可豆時(shí)，他們特地留意了這些可可豆生長(zhǎng)的土壤和氣候?？煽啥沟娘L(fēng)味會(huì)隨著種植地的不同而產(chǎn)生差異，就好像不同產(chǎn)地的葡萄會(huì)釀出不同口味的紅酒一樣。

????不過(guò)托特當(dāng)時(shí)并不知道，厄瓜多爾曾經(jīng)爆發(fā)過(guò)一場(chǎng)名叫“叢枝病”的病害，將本地的原生可可樹(shù)種摧毀殆盡。目前厄瓜多爾境內(nèi)的大多數(shù)可可樹(shù)，都是與外來(lái)樹(shù)種雜交的。厄瓜多爾的原生樹(shù)種只在少數(shù)地區(qū)零星散布，而且它們一般都位于該國(guó)的偏遠(yuǎn)地區(qū)，其中有些最珍貴的原生樹(shù)種分布在該國(guó)最著名的阿銳巴可可樹(shù)種植區(qū)。

????托特和施威策動(dòng)身去尋找理想的產(chǎn)區(qū)，最終他們把將目光投向多勒河和巴巴奧約河流域。他們得到一位當(dāng)?shù)嘏笥训膸椭?，他叫塞爾維奧·帕查德，既是馬納比地區(qū)第四代可可樹(shù)種植者，也是該地區(qū)的農(nóng)業(yè)專家。帕查德經(jīng)常在該地區(qū)進(jìn)行探索，這種經(jīng)歷使他能夠找到那些遠(yuǎn)離公路的偏僻山谷。

????最終，他們深入到一片丘陵地帶，那里還存活著極少數(shù)原生的阿銳巴可可樹(shù)，其中有些樹(shù)已經(jīng)生長(zhǎng)了100多年了。他們終于找到了自己需要的樹(shù)種。

????How does one enjoy a nearly $300 bar of chocolate? In the case of To’ak Chocolate, one pairs it with a really good glass of whiskey, cognac or rum, says co-founder Jerry Toth, who recommends a Pappy Van Winkle, Frapin XO or El Dorado 21 year as options.

????The former Wall Street investment banker turned environmental conservationist-chocolatier had an unlikely career trajectory, but Toth says he’s putting his economics degree from Cornell to good use.

????While working at rainforest conservation organization Toth found himself in the valley of Piedra de Plata in the Ecuadorian province of Manabí. He left Wall Street after realizing pretty quickly that wasn’t the lifestyle for him. He relocated to South America where he met a woman from Ecuador who would become his girlfriend and soon help him launch a rainforest conservation organization in her home country. “We developed a 1,000 acre forest preserve in coastal Ecuador and started working with nearby farmers to reforest their cattle pastures with shade-grown cacao trees,” says Toth.

????Toth and his girlfriend also started growing cacao trees on their own experimental agroforestry plot, where they found groves of old cacao trees growing wild. “We started to harvest the fruit and ferment, dry and roast the beans and make our own chocolate, and immediately we recognized that this chocolate was in a different universe from anything else we had ever tasted that bore the name ‘chocolate,’” Toth says. “Only later did we find out that the cacao beans in this province of Ecuador have historically been considered the most prized variety in the world. It was like a wine maker one day waking up and someone telling him that he’s been living in the C?te d’Or, Burgundy his whole life.”

????When Toth and his friend Carl Schweizer set out to find the best cacao beans to create their chocolate bar, they paid particular attention to the soil and climate in which the beans were grown. The flavor characteristics of cacao vary by location—think of it as similar to the characteristics of the different grape varieties used to produce wine.

????What Toth didn’t know was that an outbreak of “Witch’s Broom” disease all but decimated the source of Ecuador’s national treasure: the heirloom cacao tree. Most of the trees currently growing in the country are hybrids, bred with foreign varieties of cacao. Only scattered remnants of heirloom cacao trees are left, and those are usually found in remote pockets of the country, with the most cherished among them residing in the famous Arriba cacao growing region.

????Toth and Schweizer set out to find the ideal appellation, which turned their attention upriver, toward the watersheds of the Daule and Babahoyo Rivers. They enlisted the help of a local friend, ServioPachard, a fourth generation Manabi cacao grower. His great-grandfather was one of the first men to settle the hinterlands of Managi, and Pachard’s own explorations of the region as an agroforestry specialist provided him access to isolated valleys beyond the reach of roads

????The expedition led them deep into the low-lying mountains where only a handful of Nacional Arriba cacao trees remained, some of which are more than 100 years of age. They found their source.