The global chocolate commodity market is tarnished by a history of exploitation of cacao farmers and laborers that persists to this day. The TCHO (pronounced chō) chocolate company opposes exploitative business practices by working directly with global partner farmers and scientists to co-create unique flavored chocolates by investing in the sustainability of cacao-producing communities in South America, the Caribbean and Africa.

This article was written by Laura Sweitzer, Director of Sustainability and Strategic Sourcing for TCHO. Prior to joining TCHO, Sweitzer spent 5 years working on coffee quality improvement projects in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. She has extensive real-world experience internationally in farmer capacity building, developing sustainable supply chains and ethical sourcing. This article is an edited version of a talk Laura gave at a Bioneers Conference. [Note: The cacao plant produces a seed or bean that is processed into cocoa which is the main ingredient in chocolate. However, sometimes the words cacao and cocoa are used interchangeably.]

In the global chocolate industry, there are some contradictions in the way business is done. Some companies have a head of sustainability that does outreach in schools, etc, and talks about their goals for the environment and the community. But the job of the person in charge of sourcing is to purchase cocoa as cheaply as possible. At TCHO our assessment of that structure is that the two positions essentially work against each other. Our main lever for achieving our environmental and sustainable livelihood objectives is our contracts. We not only cover the cost of production for cacao farmers, but offer a price that allows them to invest in their crops and processes enabling them to purchase new drying beds, lab equipment, etc.

The thing I love about my position as the director of sustainability and strategic sourcing is when I sign our contracts for cocoa, sugar, etc., I do that within the framework of TCHO’s sustainability goals.

I grew up on a farm in northeastern Indiana. We grew crops–corn and soy–that are considered commodities. The simplest definition I can give of a commodity is one ton of soybeans is treated as interchangeable with another. The price assigned to commodities does not take into consideration the cost to produce them or any other factors. The price is left to international markets and out of the farmer’s hands. Generally, cacao is also treated as a global commodity.

Cacao grows 20 degrees north and south of the equator. We work with cacao grown in Ecuador, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar.

Cacao’s Distinct Flavors

Among TCHO’s products are chocolate from single origin cacao from a cooperative in Ghana, and another from a cooperative in the San Martin region of Peru, as well as a third product that is a blend of the two sources.

TCHO was founded with the intention of offering the distinct flavors intrinsically found in cacao. Different flavors can be found in various genetics of cacao. TCHO began with four single-origin products, each featuring a distinct flavor found in cacao from those regions.

When we started, we did not have the relationships with our supply chain that we have today. The products were launched without fully thinking through the replicability of producing a bar over and over that features a particular flavor. The supply chain, at that time, was not focused on flavor.

As I mentioned, I grew up on a farm that grew soybeans. We didn’t turn the soy into products and taste them first. We sold them specifically based on physical parameters. When TCHO first started, that was also how our supply chain was selling cacao. Even today, most of the world’s cacao is traded solely based on physical characteristics. When we launched a chocolate bar that was supposed to feature fruity notes, we would receive 20 samples and reject 19 until we found ones that tasted fruity. That’s very inefficient.

So an initiative that has been a joy for TCHO is installing mini bean–to-bar chocolate-making labs at cocoa research Institutes as well as in the headquarters of the various cooperatives that we work with.

Economic Justice for Cacao Growers

We provide sensory analysis training so our partner farmers can reach our standard on quality. And when they do, we pay a quality premium over the Fair Trade and the organic premiums. That premium recognizes all of the additional work that’s necessary to produce a flavor-specific cacao consistently. As a result, I’ve not rejected a sample of fruity flavored cacao in over seven years.

Historically the price paid to the cacao farmer is extremely low. The premium TCHO pays recognizes that the commodity market price for cacao is extractive and not sustainable for the farmer. TCHO has also provided premiums for programmatic work. For example, the European Union Deforestation Regulation requires mapping of all cacao farms that sell to EU nations to demonstrate that they are not linked to deforestation. So agronomists, who normally support farmers with crop issues and problems, were spending all their time on mapping. So, we provided a three-year temporary premium for additional agronomy support to farmers.

Working with the same network of people for almost 20 years in mutually beneficial relationships is key to building a strong supply chain for a company located in Berkeley that’s purchasing cacao from farmer-owned cooperatives and roasters in other countries.

Each year we review the prices to our suppliers to keep that discussion at the forefront. Currently the market price of cocoa is at a record high. TCHO still needs cacao that’s organic and Fair Trade with specific flavor profiles. So we continue to pay above-market prices even in a high market.

The Treasured Theobroma Cacao Tree

The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) is a cauliflory tree. That means the pods grow from all the surfaces, from the trunk and large branches. Where I grew up in the Midwest, I was not used to this style of fruit tree. I was used to trees with apples that just grow at the tips of the branches.

When the cacao tree blooms, the flower is pollinated by a small moth called the coco midge. If the cacao is pollinated, a little pot appears, and if it’s not pollinated, the flower will fall to the ground. There is a lot of diversity in cacao pods even on one farm, and even more so at a regional level. That diversity can affect flavor, as well as resistance to diseases or pests. 

It’s a lot of work to grow and tend the cacao tree to keep it healthy. In the warm, rainy, tropical regions where cacao grows, there are many diseases that can spread from tree to tree. Brazil used to be the world’s largest producer of cacao until they had a major outbreak of a disease called Witches’ broom that devastated hundreds of thousands of hectares of cacao in a relatively short period of time.

That’s just one historic example of how quick diseases that affect cacao trees can spread and how much work it is on behalf of the farmer to address those diseases at the source of the problem and have a resilient farm.

Making Chocolate: It Starts with Fermentation

After the ripe pod is harvested, it is opened and inside are the seeds (also referred to as cocoa beans), which are covered with a fruit pulp.

The seeds are scooped out and, for most cacao (not all), the next step is fermentation. The fermentation process can be done in a few ways. One of the ways is to wrap the cocoa bean in banana leaves or another leaf that’s flavor neutral and occasionally aerate them. Natural yeasts feed on the sugar in the pulp and in five to seven days, depending on your protocol and your climates, the cacao beans will be fermented.

The fermented cocoa beans are then dried. All of it is a laborious process, with each step a huge inflection point for flavor. You can change the acidity based on how you ferment and /or how you dry the beans. There are endless combinations of how the work is done and what results you get. Fast drying in the full sun, or slower drying with cover will have two very different flavors. 

Once the beans are dried, and we approve cocoa that is the right flavor profile, it’s time to roast it. One of the things I’m most proud about TCHO’S model is we do not roast cocoa at our headquarters in Berkeley. 90% of our cocoa is roasted in the same country that it is grown in.

The roasted cocoa bean is ground up and turned into cocoa liquor. Cocoa liquor is the term we use for a cocoa bean that’s been roasted and ground. The fat is solid at room temperature. That’s what allows us to have a chocolate bar.

TCHO’s strategy is to partner with strong functional farmer-owned cooperatives who do this labor, who understand the plant, and who are the leaders for all of the steps in the process.

The cocoa liquor, cocoa butter (the fat from the cocoa bean), and cocoa powder are sent to Berkeley where we produce the finished product. We take the cocoa liquor and cocoa butter and grind them down to a very smooth particle, and that is put in various molds depending if the chocolate is going to chefs or made into bars.

An Inclusive Process Driven by Flavor and Relationship

It’s through dark chocolate and fans of chocolate with high cacao content that we find a shared joy for exploring all the different ways cacao can taste.

We use that enthusiasm for offering cacao not as a commodity, but as a product that acknowledges different flavors. It’s not interchangeable. One container or one bag of cacao is very different from the next. TCHO values those differences and rewards the growers for those differences. We have flavor labs in which everyone in the supply chain is tasting the product. We partner with national research institutes in both Ghana and Ecuador for support and leadership in those countries for what cocoa genetics are being shared as options to plants. We emphasize calibration of taste buds as an ongoing learning process. We calibrate our taste buds with our cacao-producing partners and researchers, but if you don’t taste together for a year or so, we will lose that.

We learned that flavor is cultural. We had a lot of discussions in the beginning where, for example, I would say this tastes like blueberries and maple syrup. And my partner in San Martin, Peru would say, “We don’t have either of those things here.”

So we talk a lot about flavor families that bring common taste references for the region that the particular cooperatives we’re working with are in.

We’ve had the privilege of hosting several larger tasting summits that bring our whole supply chain together. Our partners from Ghana, from the Caribbean, and from South America, all come together sharing flavor references, sharing tips for tasting, and calibrating our pallets and co-developing tools for tasting. Building those systems in cacao with the same individuals who grow cacao has been a really great way for us to build a shared language around flavor. Each month we have a Zoom call and taste together. It’s a fantastic way to keep the relationships strong.