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. 

Unbeknownst to many people, the Haitian cacao is highly ranked on the international cacao market (International Cacao Awards 2017, 2015, and more). Realizing this, Corinne decided in 2015 to produce delicious and high quality chocolates in Haiti, made only with Haitian cacao. She wanted a product that Haitians, could enjoy and be proud of. She also wished for every chocolate connoisseur and lover worldwide to savor and fall in love with these delicious chocolate treats.
Most importantly, she wanted to use single origin craft chocolate to help engineer a new future for Haiti.
Join us as she shares her story!
 

An overview of the process of locating and working at new cacao origins around the world. At each new location, what are the critical factors for developing a successful origin and bringing it into the specialty cacao market? Insights into situations as diverse as wild harvesting cacao in the Brazilian Amazon and organizing a fermentation co-operative in the highland cloud forests of Sulawesi. 

Workshop description comming soon...

There are various initiatives and efforts currently underway across Colombia to develop a fine flavor cacao industry. Since this is a new origin for craft chocolate we are diving into the details of the social and environmental impact, as well as the flavor profiles being expressed as a result of the genetics and terroir. Join us to learn about this new origin that is sure to start appearing in craft chocolate!

We will explore the transformation of the Brazilian chocolate market, traditionally oriented to mass confections, but increasingly opening windows to a growing number of premium and craft chocolate brands. We will also cover initiatives that are accelerating the quality learning curve for farmers and craft chocolate makers such as the Cocoa Innovation Center, as well as the Geographic Indication project for the South of Bahia. We highlight the benefits of traditional Cabruca, harvesting under the rain forest canopy, which allows for biodiversity conservation and is now seen as an opportunity to developed unique flavor patterns. 

The stories we tell about our food are some of the most important, pervasive, and oldest, as demonstrated by the countless mythical origin stories for culturally sacred foods, of which chocolate is one. Stories are central processes we use to give our lives meaning, and they can often have practical applications as they help us make decision for how best to nourish or heal our bodies.

These stories are increasingly becoming part of how foods like chocolate are marketed. The inside of the wrapper on your chocolate bar may tell you a story of the farmer who sourced the cacao that went into your bar, the social issues at the cacao's origins, the endangered species that will be protected by a portion of this bar's profits, or the craft chocolatier who is rediscovering or innovating the techniques for making artisan chocolate. More often than not, these stories are being told about the people at origin, rather than by those people; their voices are rarely heard, even if their images may appear on a wrapper.

Historias de Cacao/Cacao Stories, a Real Food Stories project focused on cacao and chocolate in Nicaragua, aims to change this by collecting stories from people in Nicaragua involved in various aspects of the chocolate and cacao industry, from farmers producing some of the fines cacao in the country, to cooperative producers struggling to find a market; From the middle men selling bulk cacao in the rural backwaters, to the major exporters drying and processing cacao for the international market; From the indigenous groups using cacao to fight for land rights, to the coffee plantations owners switching to cacao in the face of climate change; And from the small producer of traditional Nicaraguan cacao drinks, to the fine chocolate start up. Historias de Cacao/Cacao Stories is an emerging digital archive of first person short stories that together create a mosaic of Nicaraguan Cacao, helping those outside of Nicaragua connect more directly with this fine chocolate origin.

This presentation will be a multimedia interactive presentation: a mix of video (the stories recorded as part of the project), speaker presentation (with pictures) and audience questions. The aim is both to introduce the project itself, and provide an opportunity to more directly experience the stories of cacao/chocolate in Nicaragua. You will walk away with not only a more direct sense of some of what is happening in Nicaragua--the Nicaraguan cacao/chocolate story--but a more critical lens for how to evaluate the food stories they experience on a daily basis.

This project, a partnership between Aaron Dickinson Sachs and John Drew, was made possible by grant funding from Adelphi University and Saint Mary's College of California.

From our 1,019 acre bird sanctuary in the northern mountains of the Dominican Republic, Zorzal Cacao produces fine flavored, organic cacao while creating conservation solutions across hemispheres. This presentation will focus on how fine flavored cacao, produced from selected clones and custom fermentation techniques, and conservation mechanisms are used to conserve over 20,000 acres of threatened biodiversity.

Emily Stone of Uncommon Cacao and Roy Fraatz of Cacao Verapaz in Guatemala will discuss the efforts underway since 2013 to develop the Guatemalan fine flavor cacao industry. Introductions will be made to 5 different unique origins within Guatemala, educating consumers and chocolate makers alike about both the challenges and the exciting potential of this new, high-impact specialty cacao origin.

ACOPAGRO is a farmer-owned cooperative with 2,100 members, located in the San Martin region of Peru. Join ACOPAGRO cooperative representatives as they share several of the key factors that have allowed their organization to grow exponentially and extend significant services and benefits to their farmer members. One of the success factors they will share is their tremendous investment in cacao quality.  The presentation will include a tasting of several chocolates made with beans from specific farmer members/regions with unique flavor profiles. 

90% of the world's cacao is produced by smallholder farming families -- and most of these families are living in poverty at under $2 per day. We will discuss the importance of farmgate pricing and farmer revenue in the specialty chocolate supply chain. Without transparent trading models, it is impossible for chocolate makers to know how much farmers are actually earning through their expensive specialty cacao purchase, especially if the cacao is coming from smallholder farmers. We hope to open consumers and chocolate makers eyes to the power of their purchasing and demonstrate the importance, however risky, of disclosing farmgate pricing in the supply chain.

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.