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At the Cacao Collection centers in Quevedo
On the 3rd day, we visited several collection centers around Quevedo. These centers are where farmers in the area drop off their beans and collect their money. Usually the beans are already fermented and dried, but if the farmer doesn’t have the equipment or wants money quickly, he can drop off the fresh baba. These…
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Samuel’s Cacao Farm, Quevedo, Ecuador
On day 2 of our trip, we had an early breakfast and then caught the bus to Quevedo, a city in the Los Rios region of Ecuador, and one of the top cocoa bean exporting centers in the country. After a long but picturesque 6 hour drive narrated by our excellent guide, Pablo, we arrived…
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Sapecho, a cacao town in the Alto Beni region of Bolivia.
For several years Kerstin’s Chocolates has been working with Edmonton-based charity Change for Children that helps fund projects around the world to improve the lives of children. I became interested in them because of the work they do in countries and communities where cacao is grown. Over the years, we’ve donated money and chocolate to…
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A voyage across Cuba to find cacao.
For those of you who have been following my adventures around the world for the last 8 months, you know that I have been to Europe, Africa, Asia and Mexico in search of chocolate knowledge. Despite going to all of these places, I feel like my holy grail has still eluded me. I had tasted…
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Visiting Don Isidro’s Cacao Farm in Huehuetan, Chiapas
A young boy climbs a cacao tree to pick a ripe pod for us! On Saturday we met a cacao farmer down here in Soconusco, Chiapas, named Don Isidro. He took us to meet his family and have dinner with them. The day started by meeting him at a highway gas station. Since we…
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One night in Paris…
On route to visit my hometown in Germany, we stayed one night in Paris to catch up on some sleep and to try to overcome our jet lag. Our hotel was situated near the Gar de L’Est where we would catch our train to Mannheim the following day. We decided to do some sight seeing…
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Kick Starting some great chocolate.
We are backing a project on KickStarter that we really like called “A Edible History of Chocolate“. They are almost there but they need more people in the next 4 days to jump in. If you are interested in tasting some cutting edge chocolate from Mexico by way of Hawaii, sign up! Here is a…
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Chocolate and Child Labor
Image by Anduze traveller via Flickr here has been some recent activity relating to the problem of child labor on cacao plantations, and I thought it would be interesting to look at some of it. Here is a story about the cocoa industries’ goals: Global Chocolate and Cocoa Industry Reaffirms Long-Term Commitment to Responsible Cocoa…
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