{"id":2057,"date":"2012-10-25T13:36:50","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T19:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/?p=2057"},"modified":"2012-10-25T13:36:50","modified_gmt":"2012-10-25T19:36:50","slug":"a-visit-to-kallari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/?p=2057","title":{"rendered":"A visit to Kallari"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kallari Chocolate Bars<\/p><\/div>\n

My favorite part of the trip happened at the end of our tour, when we visited the Kallari cooperative in the the Amazonian rain forest.\u00a0 The trip began with a long but beautiful ride into the eastern part of the country.\u00a0 The air got thicker, the roads bumpier and the conversation deeper (it was a 6 hour drive so we discussed chocolate — a lot). I was thrilled to be heading into the heart of cacao country.\u00a0 According to studies tracing the origins of cacao,\u00a0 Theobroma cacao is native to exactly where we were heading, the Amazon basin.<\/p>\n

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Fermentation Bins<\/p><\/div>\n

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We were here to visit\u00a0 a cooperative of indigenous people living in the Napo region of the Amazon called the Kallari cooperative. They harvest, make and market their own chocolate.\u00a0 The Kallari story is a fascinating one.\u00a0 It began in 1997 when a group of Quichwa leaders decided to help local farmers to earn more money for their beans. \u00a0 With the help of \u00a0Judy Logback, an environmentalist and volunteer working in the region, they began selling the beans directly while improving on their fermentation and drying techniques.\u00a0 Several years later, they decided to take it a step further and actually began making their own chocolate.\u00a0 They asked John Steinberg, one of the founders of Sharfenberger chocolate to help them develop their first prototype bar and the first shipment of bars went out in 2008.<\/p>\n

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Beans drying at the collection centre<\/p><\/div>\n

To learn more about Kallari\u2019s journey, and the people involved, check out these two articles.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/11\/05\/dining\/05choc.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.sagemagazine.org\/pdf\/sage4-1.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

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Tasting the Fresh Bean<\/p><\/div>\n

Shortly after arriving at our Amazon lodge, we visited the Kallari headquarters to watch a slide show presentation about the cooperative and to taste some chocolate.\u00a0 Prior to this visit, we had toured the chocolate factory in Quito that manufactures the Kallari bars.\u00a0 When I \u00a0tasted the bars then and I liked them a lot. \u00a0 The chocolate is mellow and fruity with an excellent mouthfeel that signifies good conching techniques and a high cocoa butter content.<\/p>\n

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The opportunity to see this cooperative in action in the region where the cacao is grown,\u00a0 really made me feel connected to the chocolate. \u00a0 As a result, it tasted even better than before.\u00a0 It just goes to show that the story behind a food is very important in increasing your pleasure of it.<\/p>\n

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Nacional Pods<\/p><\/div>\n

On the itinerary for the next day was a visit to a traditional family farm.\u00a0 The Quichwa use a system of agriculture called chakra where different crops are planted alongside each other to promote biodiversity.\u00a0 Next to cacao plants were medicinal plants, vegetable ivory, and tropical fruits, such as coconuts, and plantains.\u00a0 I learned that this system is also a way to preserve a traditional way of life that is threatened more and more by the encroaching western culture and economic pressure.\u00a0 For example, if the Quichwa families didn\u2019t make a secure income from selling their beans, they would probably resort to logging vital Amazonian trees as a way to make money.\u00a0 This destruction of the forest threatens their environment, and hence, their way of life.<\/p>\n

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On the way to the farm<\/p><\/div>\n

The very last stop before heading back into Quito (and our farewell dinner) was a tour of the cocoa collection center.\u00a0 Unlike some of the others we\u2019d seen, this one was clean, well organized and busy.\u00a0 I saw a lot of pride in the people working here just like I had seen in the workers on the farm and in the office the day before.\u00a0 It struck me that Kallari could be a really great model for other cooperatives in other cocoa growing regions. Instead of being at the mercy of multi-national companies who force down the price paid to cooperatives for their beans,\u00a0 the Kallari cooperative retain 100% of their profits from the finished chocolate, the Kallari bars, all of which go directly back to their members.\u00a0 That is a massive achievement and definitely something to be proud about!<\/p>\n

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My favorite part of the trip happened at the end of our tour, when we visited the Kallari cooperative in the the Amazonian rain forest.\u00a0 The trip began with a long but beautiful ride into the eastern part of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[243,297,304,305,306],"class_list":["post-2057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kerstins-news","tag-chocolate-tour","tag-ecuador","tag-kallari","tag-napo","tag-qichwa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2057"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2145,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2057\/revisions\/2145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerstinschocolates.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}