Northwest Chocolate Festival 2017

Two thirds of the world’s cocoa comes from the African continent, but historically, Madagascar aside, only a handful of fine chocolate makers used African beans. Does this mean that all African cocoa is doomed for candy bars and commodity chocolate? African cocoa has long been regarded as a boogeyman in the premium cocoa world. We thought that this was not only unfair, but also simply incorrect. We saw an opportunity in Tanzania to work in a remote area to disrupt the existing supply chain and focus on producing a fine quality bean for bean to bar chocolate makers and in the process, bring some real added income gains to smallholder cocoa farmers. By bringing a new business model to Tanzania, we turned an old bar and disco into the first commercially run fermentary in the country, and now produce a bean regarded as amongst the best in the world and have been able to ensure higher incomes going to cocoa farmers. This talk will share how we did it, along with the challenges and successes along the way.