There are many wonderful things to be learned when you live on this planet. As a farm to table person, cooking and preparing fresh foods and beverages is one of them. Today we are going to look at a drink common to the Samoan Islands, Coco Samoa. In this easy 7 step process you will learn how to make this delicious beverage.
First you need some coca fruit. Ripe fruit is red or orange in color. These are picked from a tree. The part of the fruit we will be using are the seeds.
2) After scooping the seeds out of the fruit you can enjoy the milky coating of the seeds by sucking on them and then spitting the seeds out into a bowl. This is the traditional way of preparing them. This is a tasty step, but it is optional.
3) After you have separated your seeds from the fruit and any internal membrane. You may rinse them. This step is also optional and most likely only used if you have sucked on the seeds themselves. This is not a traditional step in the process.
4) Place your seeds on a baking tray or in a pan for toasting. We use a gas flame and a pan to brown them. Seeds are ready when the hulls have turned solid. For a bolder, more coffee like flavor, you can burn the husks. This step will require your pan to be cleaned so make sure you use an old pan that you don’t mind boiling off for cleaning. Teflon or other similar surface is not recommended.
Roast seeds until the skins are hardened and blackened.
5) After seeds are roasted to a hard outside coat, let them cool for several minutes and then husk the shells, separating the beans. These beans should be a nice dark brown color. Beans that have been blackened will have a more robust, coffee like flavor.
6) The next step is to grind the beans. Using a coffee grinder or other food processing machine makes quick and easy work of this step.
7) After your beans are sufficiently ground you can brew them in a variety of ways. Adding them to boiling water, using a french press or simply putting the grounds in a cup and adding hot water. Add sugar to taste and enjoy!
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