When we think about cacao, we almost always associate it with chocolate. The pod is the fruit of the cacao tree. The big seeds inside the pod are the cocoa beans. But the fruit is more than just the outer shell and the inner beans. There's also a pulp that surrounds the beans.

The pulp is thin and it's typically removed and thrown away to get access to the beans which are used to make the luscious chocolate we dream about.

Traditionally there has been no viable economic use for the pulp. Recently that has begun to change as some companies have been looking into using this sweet part of the cacao fruit.

For example, there is a new alcoholic beverage called Solbeso, which claims to be the first to distill the cacao fruit. It doesn't use the beans, but it does take advantage of the pulp which is sweet and begins to ferment quickly.

Thomas Higbee and Thomas Aabo, the founders of Solbeso, were visiting cacao growing farms in Peru when they conceived of the idea of using this otherwise thrown away product. So now Solbeso works with cacao farmers in Ecuador and Peru where they process the fruit on-site before the pulp starts to degrade.

The distillation is also carried out near the farms using Champagne yeast for most of the fermentation process. Then the raw cacao spirit is shipped to Bardstown, Kentucky. There it goes through the final steps and is bottled.

When you think of chocolate cocktails you might think of creme de cocoa or other chocolate flavored liqueurs. Solbeso, on the other hand, is not flavored with chocolate. It is a white spirit with citrus notes of orange and lemon. The chocolate notes we might expect all originate in the bean so that's not present here.

Currently, Solbeso is only available in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles, mainly in bars. The company hopes that bartenders will take a lead role in bringing this new cacao sensation to the market and attract new drinkers.

Photo: "Cacao" by Malcolm Manners is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / cropped from original

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Joanna Maligaya

Staff Writer/Content Developer at Chocolate University Online

Ever since she can remember, Joanna has always considered chocolate as the ultimate food for her soul. She believes in the saying, “9 out of 10 people love chocolate, and the 10th always lies.”

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