Dark chocolate!

Today, I was involved in two production steps in the tobacco processing: the shifting of a Pilon (Troja, as it is called in the Dominican Republic) from the first fermentation to the second.

And I had to pluck tobacco leaves from the string and sort out the bad leaves.

While I was rearranging the fermented tobacco, the seductive smell of dark chocolate was constantly in my nose.

On the way home I had to go to the next supermarket and buy dark chocolate, the appetite was huge. What fermented wrapper from Ecuador can do...

By the constant touching of the tobacco leaves my feeling for the condition of this plant begins to grow. In every sense. Slowly I start to understand when the leaf is sensitive and when not, how hard I can touch it or not.

Rosalba, she explains with so much patience how to pluck the leaves from the cord

This is exciting...and my love for this plant gets deeper and more passionate every day. -Just like to this wonderful country and the people here.

...and as always, first I am very very slow.