Cacao Sourcing in Ecuador

Meet Lourdes Delgado, Chchukululu chocolate maker, author and cacao promoter, amidst cacao trees and colonial-era cacao exhibits at Guayaquil's Parque Historico. She'll share her wisdom about "Arriba" cacao, as well as the products she makes with it.

Later, we'll spend time with Vicente Norero of Camino Verde renown. We'll visit his new cacao processing facility and chocolate factory and taste what he's been up to since he left farm life behind.

Spend the day with Juan Jose Andrade and Jaime Ramirez, partners in Angovi Chocolate, a developing tree-to-bar project. We'll visit Jaime's farm, La Culebra, then Asociacion Miraflores, where Angovi currently sources nacional complex cacao, followed by a visit to Babahoyo Exports, a new venture by Gonzalo Martinetti, one of Ecuador's Gran Cacao families.

We'll visit Casacao, the Martinetti family's large-scale cacao processing and export facility. Then, Luis Leon welcomes us to his family farm with on-site Fresh Costa chocolate factory.

We'll spend much of the day getting acquainted with heirloom-designated cacao at Hacienda Limon by grafting and harvesting, learning from Anita and Samuel von Rutte about their atypical fermentation process, making liquor and then tasting it and various products made from these beautiful beans.

A visit to Fortaleza del Valle, a rapidly growing association, reveals the ambitions of those staking their fortunes on preserving Nacional by paying a premium for it and processing it on site from baba to bar. 

Then we're off to Finca Sarita, Servio Pachard's magical farm, where To'ak's post-harvest processing goes down. We'll check out those facilities and enjoy all the farm has to offer, from swimming to sleeping in tree houses.

In addition to enjoying Finca Sarita, we'll hike up into Piedra de Plata to see Pure Nacional trees, as verified and designated by the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Initiative's genetic testing. The following morning we'll head back to Guayaquil.