Our Farm & Craft Process

Our cacao trees grow under a natural canopy of shade trees, receiving filtered sunlight that encourages slow, steady bean development. Each tree is grafted from carefully selected mother trees to preserve desirable genetic traits. We practice no-till farming, allowing the forest floor to maintain its natural structure and microbial life.

Trees are pruned twice yearly to promote air circulation and encourage new flower production. Natural compost made from farm waste is applied to maintain soil fertility without any chemical inputs.

Harvesting is done entirely by hand. Our skilled farm workers inspect each pod daily, selecting only those at perfect ripeness — identified by color change (green to yellow/red), a slight softening of the shell, and a distinct sweet aroma. Unripe pods are left on the tree to mature further.

Each pod is carefully cut from the tree with a specialized machete, taking care not to damage the flower cushion where future blooms will emerge. Picked pods are collected in woven baskets and transported to the processing area within 2 hours to prevent quality degradation.

Pods are carefully cracked open with wooden mallets, revealing the sugar-rich pulp and 30–50 beans inside. The beans, still coated in their sweet, aromatic pulp, are immediately separated from the pod husk. The pulp is essential — it contains the microorganisms that will drive the fermentation process.

Beans are sorted by size and quality, with defective or moldy beans removed at this stage. The extracted beans are then transferred to fermentation boxes, where the most critical flavor-development stage begins.

Perhaps the most crucial step in creating great chocolate. Our beans ferment in specially crafted wooden boxes with drainage holes, stacked in a controlled fermentation house. During the first 48 hours, wild yeasts consume the sugar in the pulp, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide, generating heat that kills the germ inside each bean.

On days 3–5, lactic acid bacteria convert sugars to lactic acid. Then acetic acid bacteria oxidize the alcohol into acetic acid, which penetrates the bean. The beans are turned (mixed) every 24 hours to ensure even fermentation. By day 7, up to 80% of the chocolate flavor precursors have been developed.

Fermented beans are spread thinly on raised wooden drying beds under the Ecuadorian sun. The beds are positioned to maximize airflow, and beans are raked regularly to ensure uniform drying. This gentle, slow drying process preserves the delicate flavor compounds developed during fermentation.

We never use artificial dryers or high heat, which can cook the beans and destroy their nuanced flavors. The beans are dried to 7.5% moisture content — the sweet spot for preservation without flavor loss. During drying, the beans develop their characteristic brown color and a slight vinegar aroma that signals proper fermentation.

Dried beans are roasted in small batches using a custom-designed drum roaster that allows precise temperature control. Each cacao variety receives its own roasting profile — Arriba Nacional might be roasted at 125°C for 35 minutes, while Purús might need 135°C for 25 minutes to unlock its full flavor potential.

Roasting triggers the Maillard reaction, creating hundreds of new flavor compounds. It also loosens the brittle shell for easy removal and reduces any remaining moisture. Our master roaster, Elena Vargas, has developed an intuitive sense for when each batch reaches perfection — a skill honed over 15 years.

Roasted beans pass through a winnowing machine that cracks and separates the nibs from the brittle shells. Clean nibs — the edible heart of the cacao bean — are then fed into a granite stone grinder where friction generates enough heat to melt the cocoa butter within, creating a smooth, liquid chocolate liquor.

The grinding process can last 12–24 hours, gradually refining the particle size from 50 microns down to below 20 microns — below the threshold of human taste bud detection, ensuring a silky-smooth final texture with no gritty mouthfeel.

The chocolate liquor enters our custom conching machine for an extended 72-hour process. This continuous mixing, heating, and aerating action further refines the chocolate, driving off unwanted volatile acids and distributing cocoa butter evenly throughout. The result is a complex, rounded flavor with a luxurious mouthfeel.

After conching, the chocolate is carefully tempered — slowly heated and cooled through specific temperature curves to create stable cocoa butter crystals. Proper tempering gives our chocolate its signature snap, glossy sheen, and melt-at-body-temperature quality. This is where science meets art, and where our chocolate truly comes alive.

Tempered chocolate is poured into polished polycarbonate molds and vibrated to release air bubbles, creating perfectly smooth surfaces. The bars are cooled in a temperature-controlled tunnel, then hand-inspected for visual perfection — any bar without a mirror-like finish is melted down and reworked.

Each bar is individually wrapped in our signature foil and sealed in biodegradable packaging. A unique batch number is printed on every bar for full traceability — you can track exactly which harvest, which field, and which cacao variety created your chocolate.