Gone with the Wynnsvideo
You’ll Never Look at Chocolate the Same After This
April 6, 2025 · 22 min · 280K views · Malagos Garden Resort
What this video covers
Jason and Nikki Wynn visit Milagos, a family-run heirloom cacao farm in the foothills of Mount Tolomo on Mindanao, Philippines — one of only 19 officially recognized heirloom cacao sites on the planet.7:35 Their guide is Rex, a local sailor whose family has farmed the land since the 1960s; his 85-year-old mother started cacao cultivation in 2003, and Rex left Manila to take over full-time.1:45 The farm sits at elevations from 300 to 750 meters, where slower-growing heirloom trees produce a fruity, multi-tropical flavor profile shaped by surrounding banana, coconut, and other polyculture plantings.6:42 Rex uses regenerative practices: African night crawler vermicompost replaces synthetic fertilizer, and a garlic-tobacco-pepper spray substitutes for chemical pesticides.2:51 The main pest, cacao pod borer, is managed by wrapping individual pods in biodegradable plastic — labor-intensive but chemical-free.10:38 Grafting technique is demonstrated: a cutting from a mature tree is wedged into a younger rootstock, tied, and sealed to prevent infection, producing a clone that fruits faster.5:09 Only 5% of flowers become fruit, pollinated by midges in early morning and late afternoon; pods take five to six months from flower to harvest, yielding roughly 20% of wet weight as usable beans.13:29 Peak harvest runs one to two tons of wet beans per day.15:10 After harvest, beans ferment for a week, then dry in solar dryers before reaching the factory.19:31
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