Recipe Ideas

You’ve heard the bitter-sweet history of chocolate, the ins and outs of its offerings to humankind over the centuries and across hemispheres. Now come taste the ingenious marriage of dynamic ingredients that creates Chocamaca. This hearty yet delicate confection brings together the blue-green algae and the warm gold of camu camu and bitter orange, the purple streaked cream of maca roots and the nutty tan of kiwicha, the sea green of fucus and the yellow-green of sugar cane, and the dark brown barks of jatoba, catuaba, suma, canela and muira puama with the dark coffee brown of cacao and vanilla beans.

Rather than swim through the sea of superlatives describing the powers of the herbs that join with chocolate to make up Chocamaca, let us simply offer you some simple recipes that will allow you to highlight and extend your use of Chocamaca balls.

Chestnut Cream (Serves 4)

1 cup dried chestnuts
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons almond butter
2 tablespoons kuzu
6 Chocamaca balls

• Lightly toast dried chestnuts in a cast iron skillet.
• Add chestnuts to water in heavy pot, bring to a boil, cover and simmer 1 hour or until tender.
• Add sea salt and simmer another 5 minutes.
• Purée in food mill or blender.
• Stir in almond butter.
• Dilute kuzu in 1/2 cup cold water.
• Pour diluted kuzu into already simmering chestnut almond cream.
• Stir continually until mixture has thickened into a silky pudding.
• Spoon into serving dish or individual cups.
• Allow to cool. Decorate with ChocaMaca™ balls cut cleanly into half spheres.
• Serve with hot or cold Treasure or Matte Teas.

2 pints fresh apricots or 1 pint dried apricots, soaked
2 cups apricot or apple juice
2 teaspoons agar agar powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 vanilla bean split lengthwise
10-15 drops liquid stevia
1 lemon: juice and finely grated zest (only the yellow part)
1 cup quinoa cooked in 3 cups water
6 ChocaMaca™ balls

• Simmer apricots, agar agar, sea salt, stevia, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla bean in juice for 15 minutes.
• Remove vanilla bean.
• Purée quinoa and apricot lemon mixture together.
• Pour into mold and let set until firm.
• Unmold and decorate with Chocamaca balls cut cleanly into half spheres.
• Serve with hot or cold Treasure and MatteTeas.