Choсolate and Cocoa
We are represent a small company that produces chocolate from cacao beans growing on natural, wild plantation in the province of Esmeraldas in the north-west of Ecuador. Plantations are tropical forests untouched by civilization, where being fed by the moisture of the same-name river Esmeraldas and sheltered from the winds by Andes, cacao beans of Criollo and Trinitario varieties, so called Fino de Aroma or Ecuador national cacao beans, ripen. The variety of cacao beans Fino de Aroma accounts for no more that 5%of the total World volume of cacao beans.
Our value is that we know the whole way of the birth of the products - from a blossoming flower on the cocoa tree to a logo on the packaging of the finished product.
Cocoa beans for our products are harvested twice a year, in spring and autumn. Each harvest lasts several months and requires careful and hard work. The first step is to gently twist the stems of those pods that can be reached by hand, while others need to be cut with a knife attached to a long handle. This operation requires nicety, as you need to be very careful not to damage the buds and flowers of the next harvest. Like a hundred years ago, the pods are opened with a machete - a traditional and very harsh way, the pulps with cocoa beans are extracted and put into boxes. There is a process of fermentation for 5-6 days - the beans change the chemical composition, color and taste: instead of bitterness, a taste of real chocolate develop. Then the cocoa beans are dried in the sun for a week, are sent to production in large jute bags.
Cooled cocoa beans are fed to the crushing and screening machine, where beans are crushed into cacao nibs with the separation of the cacao null and the seed. The obtained fractions of nebs are used for various types of chocolate. There are only large nibs (size 6-8 mm) in our premium chocolate, the rest of the nibs are sent to the preparation of cacao mass - liquid chocolate. It is made by grinding cocoa nibs in eight-roller and combined mills.
Ready products are being transported from the factory in Ecuador to Europe by sea tanks , placing products lots in containers -refrigerators to preserve products quality and deliver them in best condition to the end consumer.
