It took some time for us to post this blog about Jonni’s trip to Peru last year. But better late than never. Here is a short story about two of the stops Jonni made during his trip in Piura Peru.
We purchase most of our beans from Cacaotales an allied for Coop Norandino. Coop Norandino is a cooperative with more that 6000 smallholders and owners of the cooperative; producers of cacao, coffee and panela. These communities are located in Piura, Amazonas and San Martin, regions in north of Peru.
Luis Mancini is our main contact from Cacaotales. Luis took Jonni to a trip around the beautiful Piura area. During their trip they visited two cacao farms that are really important for us. Keep reading and you’ll know why these farms are so special.
We use a mixture of beautiful cocoa beans in our oat chocolates. We have named this blend, The Goodio Selection. The blend is made from an award-winning cocoa from Coop Norandino.
The first place Jonni & Luis visited was Platanal Bajo outside of Piura, a community with around 30 families. A young man called Tito is in charge of the fermentation centre in this community. The cacao beans grown by this community are considered as one of the best cacao beans in Peru. The farms, next to Yapatera river, are growing also mangos, passion fruit and bananas. These farms produce a bean called Gran Yapatera, exclusively for us. This gem is the other part of our very own Goodio Selection.
Maybe you can taste a hint of mango in our chocolates?
The second stop of the trip was to Huaval community. This community is a bit larger with around 40 families. Don Palermo is in charge of this community. The other bean for Goodio Selection is called Gran Nativo Blanco. Some of these beans come from the Huaval community, exclusively sourced and ethically traded for Cacaotales.
These farms provide us with some of the cacao beans for our very own Goodio Selection. This is why these farms and Norandino cooperative are so important to us. We appreciate the great work they are doing and enjoy making tasty chocolate from these lovely beans. We are extremely lucky to have a great partnership with Cacaotales and Norandino!
Jonni is already planning his next trip to Peru with Luis, to explore new cacao flavours and to keep in close contact with our sourcing partners. We'll keep you posted.