Rev. Hooman

03/10/2025

🎥 Behind-the-Scenes / Community

Behind the scenes at the lab: cracking + winnowing day! 💥 The beans go in whole, and come out as pure cacao nibs — crunchy, flavorful, and ready for the next step on their way to becoming chocolate. 🍫👩🏽‍🍳

01/10/2025

✨ The Art of Chocolate Making ✨

Sorting cacao means removing tiny particles, undersized beans, and any that are already cracked. 🍫

Roasting is where the magic happens—it can either elevate or ruin the flavor of your chocolate. 🔥

And don’t forget the final step: cooling properly. This reduces moisture and prevents your chocolate from seizing. ❄️

Crafting great chocolate is all about patience and precision.

26/08/2025

16/08/2025

Check out the saplings! Also repotted the teen trees into taller pots. From tiny sprout to mighty tree, every chocolate bar begins as a baby cacao plant 🌱➡️🌳➡️🍫

🌱 Baby Stage (Seedling)
• A cacao bean is planted and sprouts tiny leaves.
• At this stage, it’s fragile and needs shade, warmth, and moisture.
• The young plant is protected under larger trees, like a baby being nurtured by its family.

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🌿 Childhood (Sapling)
• After about 1–2 years, the cacao plant grows taller and stronger.
• Its roots deepen, and it develops broader leaves to capture more sunlight.
• Farmers often prune and guide it to ensure healthy growth.

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🌳 Teenage Years (Young Tree)
• Around 3–5 years old, the cacao tree begins producing its first flowers.
• Some of these flowers eventually turn into cacao pods (the fruit!).
• Just like a teen, it’s not fully mature yet, but it’s starting to show its potential.

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🌴 Adulthood (Mature Tree)
• By 5–8 years, the tree becomes a full producer, yielding colorful pods filled with cacao beans.
• It can grow up to 20–25 feet tall and live for decades.
• Each pod is like a treasure chest — the beginning of chocolate as we know it! 🍫✨

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08/06/2025

A cacao seed rises from the soil like a sacred gesture, drawn upward by the force of life itself. In the first image, we see its emergence—still encased, yet already awakening. Then, lifted by the strength of its stem, the seed stands upright, beginning to crack open. In the third frame, it unfolds its cotyledons—false leaves that part like hands in prayer, revealing the soft green promise within. Finally, in the last image, the seed has become a seedling, its first true leaves reaching skyward, ready to photosynthesize, grow, and remember its ancient purpose.

17/05/2025

The cacao journey continues! 🌱✨
After soaking these cacao seeds for two days, they began to sprout! Once the root (radicle) starts emerging, we plant them root-side down at the top of the soil. Eventually, the root will push up, causing the cacao seed to split open, revealing the cotyledons (often called the false leaves) as they reach for the sun.

Exciting to see these little seeds beginning their transformation! ”**

12/05/2025

The journey from seed to chocolate starts here. 🌱🍫
These are the layers of the cacao seed, carefully prepared for germination. The shiny inner seed you see is the real hero behind your favorite chocolate treats! After fermentation, winnowing, and grinding, this little powerhouse becomes the rich, velvety chocolate we love.

Nature’s magic at its finest!

14/09/2024

This San Pedro was really stretched out, so I had to cut it off and to my surprise a couple of pups came out!

04/08/2024

🌱 Exciting News! 🌱

This marks the beginning of what I hope will be the first cocoa farm in San Francisco! 🌟 It will take at least 3 to 4 years for these trees to grow strong enough to support the heavy cocoa pods, as they need to reach at least 8 feet in height. The journey ahead is long, but the dream of producing our own cocoa right here in SF is worth every moment! 🍫🌳

23/04/2024

I REALLY wish all you guys would have been at Saturday night’s 420 celebration to ecstatic dance to some AMAZING new tracks that came out! Thank you Asiya Mansurova for holding space under the starry night!

I got the privilege of entertaining a conscious group of loving and creative souls who gathered on the evening of 4/20 2024 together to celebrate life and love under the stars. Conscious alchohol-free