In the bundle you will find the following:

Copán

Single-origin chocolate bar

Our next cacao release comes from the Copán region of Honduras. Copán is home to some excellently preserved examples of Mayan architecture, but like many other isolated parts of Central America, relies heavily on agriculture for income.

Pods are collected from farmers and taken to the processing station, where they are split into grades, and colours of fruit. This lot is composed of only red Trinitario pods, harvested in Southern Copán, fermented in wooden boxes for 120 hours, before drying on raised beds, similar to those used for coffee.

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Copán

Honduras

This effect is one we’ve seen across many countries; cheap West African supply takes over much of the lower quality market, and an underdeveloped speciality cacao market leaves no alternative outlet for high priced, high quality cacao. Many farmers have no choice but to seek alternative income, growing other crops or abandoning farming all together. Here, XOCO have provided a new market, using a similar model to that we see in East Africa for coffee. Many producers simply don’t have the infrastructure to process high quality cacao, so XOCO purchase ripe cacao pods and take care of processing at a central location, not far from the city of San Pedro Sula.