Stone & Giacomotto Cacao
by on 05.24.05
Nathan Stone and Christophe Giacomotto specialize in raw cacao beans — in fact, that's all they sell. Their intention was to provide a source of unadulterated cacao for the home chef, where subtle flavor and texture of cacao beans is desired such as in mole poblano (a mexican dish with a chocolate-based sauce). They import the raw beans and nibs from places like Trinidad, Papua New Guinea and Madagascar.
Their online store is also one of the few places were you can buy raw certified organic cocoa beans at $13.50 per pound. They say the beans are similar to their carenero superior cocoa beans, but are pesticide-free and grown with certified organic practices (by France's EcoCert).
[by Justin Thomas]
English is not my first language and I am thoroughly confused: cacao, cocoa and cacoa? This snippet contains all three spellings...
Now, if cacao is the bean and cocoa is the ground bean, then what is cacoa?
Sorry for the confusion, yes, strictly speaking cacao should be used for the plant and beans, and cocoa for the drink. But in English cocoa is commonly used interchangeably for cacao and that's how it appears in Stone and Giaomotto's product names.