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Ecuadorian Jungle Chocolate: A Tale of Taste and Hope |
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 Beneficiary cultivating cacao
Despite the fact that for the past 40
years Ecuador has been a leading cacao exporter, Ecuador surprisingly
has never been an exporter of chocolate itself. But for the past
3 years now, small farmers in the provinces of Napo and Sucumbíos have
added branding and innovation to bring the world a taste of the Amazon
Jungle.
Yachana Gourmet is the result of a
successful partnership between USAID/Ecuador, the Ecuadorian-Canadian
Fund, IDB and the community. This is also the result of mixing a
strong entrepreneurial spirit with the community’s drive to progress.
This flavorful tale begins when early in
the morning the families start working together in a "minga" to harvest
the cacao fruit, which is sold to Yachana Gourmet later that same
day. After a morning of harvesting, the pods are opened and the
cacao beans, still covered in sweet and fruity pulp, are scooped out
and packed for transport to the banks of the Napo River where Yachana
Gourmet buyers are waiting to purchase the cacao.
Two to three times a week, Yachana
Gourmet canoes travel up and down the river, purchasing cacao from
rural communities. The day's harvest is transported to Yachana
Gourmet's cacao collection center in the rainforest community of Agua
Santa where its transformation into Jungle Chocolate begins.
The beans are deposited in specially
designed wooden boxes where they are carefully fermented. These boxes
are covered with banana leafs to maintain the temperature required for
the fermentation process to take place. Proper fermentation develops
the cacao's rich, chocolate flavor. Next, the Yachana Gourmet
team spreads the beans out on wooden platforms to be slowly sun dried.
They then sort the beans, selecting the best for the important toasting
process that follows. Each batch is toasted until the beans acquire a
rich, nutty flavor characteristic of dark chocolate.
The beans are then transported to
Yachana Gourmet's production facility in Quito, where the production
team coarsely grinds and separates the beans from their husks to create
chocolate "nibs" - little bits of all-natural, flavorful cacao.
Yachana Gourmet's unique, post-harvest
process enhances the flavor of the bean and creates a pure cacao nib,
the primary ingredient used in Yachana Jungle Chocolate. Yachana
Gourmet's production team mixes the nibs with other natural
ingredients, such as macadamia nuts and pineapple. Yachana Jungle
Chocolate is packaged fresh daily and shipped to markets worldwide.
As cacao gets processed and becomes a wonderful bar
of chocolate, the life of the 14,000 people involved in the Yachana
Gourmet chain of production changes. Many of the parents are now
sending the kids to better schools, as the nibs of chocolate and
pineapple have also brought nibs for hope.
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