Episode 6: The Gospel of Chocolate
But the same year that Volker walks away from the Amazon, Luisa plunges in. She builds relationships with local peoples on four different rivers, and in 2018 her big break comes: A cacao like no other, from the banks of the Jurua River. It’s the first new family of cacao discovered in decades, and she makes a small batch of the most fragrant chocolate anyone has tasted. The critics go crazy. But the area is so remote and flood-prone that once covid strikes, she can’t afford to keep making it. So Matt Caputo, her U.S. importer, steps in, teaming up with her on an unprecedented partnership to save the Jurua chocolate from extinction. In 2022, Luisa takes Rowan along on her last-ditch effort to convince the people of Jurua to join her on a longshot bid for chocolate greatness…if the floods don’t wash them away first. Gnats, electric eels, and an anaconda also get in their way. Also, it’s unclear if mold and water will ruin the batch. But somehow the chocolate survives. The episode ends with the new bars from Jurua hitting Matt Caputo’s desk. With tears in his eyes, he tastes them at last…