Hard to believe that 6 years had passed since we visited South America. We were in San Francisco at The Craft Chocolate Experience, a meeting of the worlds finest makers all together celebrating cacao when the pandemic began. What followed was life changing and we stopped travelling for longer than the pandemic lasted; we were also caring for my father in his later years, and seeing our children through their school. However, one constant remained for us and that was our commitment to Chocolate Tree and it’s mission. We have continued to buy cacao from the same partners since, and not wavered in our approach to Craft Chocolate. Since then we have converted our production over to fully bean to bar, keeping the factory fired fired up with new machines and brilliant beans. Like the 4 tons of organic cacao beans we bought from Choba Choba in Peru, with help from our friends at Impact Foods. Choba Choba is perhaps the smallest cooperative in the world, their work with agroforestry and their genetic garden preserving the native cacaos is exemplary. They are simply one of the most sustainable cacao producers in the world. Choba Choba means “I help you, you help me” which is at the heart of our relationship with them. I was lucky enough to visit the Huayabamba valley with my son Rowan, and spend time with Eric Garnier along with the amazing producers there…
