Cultivating the Chocolate Connection
FARMERS’ KNOW HOW
While modern agriculture often relies on mechanization, on cacao farms it’s all hands, all the time. Anyone who works on a cacao farm must be skilled for this tough labor. These farmers also know what is happening with each individual cacao tree, which produce cocoa, the central ingredient in chocolate. They can go to every tree and know how many pods are going to grow based on the previous harvest.
“It’s like getting to know all your employees but each person has their own idiosyncrasies. Same thing with all the trees on a farm,” says Greg D’Alesandre, the chocolate “sourcerer” for Dandelion Chocolate, headquartered in San Francisco. The knowledge isn’t always transferable because of how different each farm can be.
As Dandelion was forming in 2010, they started experimenting with making bean-to-bar chocolate—more carefully sourced and produced than mass-produced commodity chocolate. Single-origin cacao seemed interesting. But sifting through the beans proved to be a big challenge. Going to visit a cacao farm was rare back then, D’Alesandre says. Typically, manufacturers would have the product sent to them to evaluate, never setting foot on a farm. The industry at large had in many ways erased the agricultural side of chocolate. D’Alesandre started visiting cocoa producers. He went to Venezuela, he went to Belize, he went to the Dominican Republic. Today, Dandelion works with farmers in 16 countries.
“I went to India and all the pods on all the trees were pretty much the same color. In most parts of the world there is a fair amount of differentiation on all the trees. The guys in India didn’t know that this was unusual. They were excited when there was a mutant pod that had a different color!”
—Greg D’Alesandre, Dandelion Chocolate
In working directly with cocoa producers, one of the things D’Alesandre does from the beginning is try to help the farmers solve any agricultural challenges. He acts as a facilitator in the network of cocoa producers. He’ll recognize if farmers in separate parts of the world are having the same issue and help them connect with each other.
“I went to India and all the pods on all the trees were pretty much the same color. In most parts of the world there is a fair amount of differentiation on all the trees. The guys in India didn’t know that this was unusual. They were excited when there was a mutant pod that had a different color!” D’Alesandre passionately recalls.
Most of the world’s cacao is imported from the West African countries of Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Cameroon, from farms that are just trying to turn a profit. There are an estimated 5 to 6 million cacao farmers worldwide who support the livelihoods of nearly 50 million people, directly or indirectly employed in the cocoa supply chain. Yet 3 to 4 million farmers live in perpetual poverty. Cacao beans, which are grown, dried and fermented at the farm, are a commodity crop. That is the side of the industry that prioritizes productivity and disease resistance. The farmers want that too. Yet, they are not being paid living wages and the crop is turned into a bar that costs more than a farmer can afford. Not only that, they are growing an ingredient for a product that they never even get to taste.
The overbreeding for disease resistance and productivity has resulted in loss of flavor. This is the chocolate that is the most consumed. Family-owned Guittard Chocolate Company, based locally in Burlingame, collaborates with research institutes and origin governments to help build sustainable cacao farms and communities while also working to preserve flavor. Guittard representatives serve on blind tasting panels and have leadership roles in recognizing farmers for producing good-tasting beans. The research institutes give farmers feedback on their beans. Farmers are able to send their beans to the research institute and have them made into a bar for them to taste. These are important elements of the industry, recognizing cultivation, mitigating deforestation efforts while incorporating agroforestry and rewarding farmers for the great work they do.
RESTORING LAND TO HEALTH
The portmanteau agroforestry comes from agriculture and forestry, a combination of those two land management practices resulting in biodiverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable benefits.
When former Bay Area resident Seneca Klassen received the lease in 2009 to start his farm on the north shore of Oahu, the land didn’t have any life at all. Imagine acres of nothing—nothing growing above ground and nothing living below the surface. This property had been sugarcane fields, abandoned 13 years before after one final harvest. Barren land isn’t natural; in nature, it is hard to find earth that is completely empty. Klassen defines healthy soil as being able to find at least four different types of life in any six inches of dirt that you dig up. Thus Klassen began his journey into growing cacao trees and digging deep into agroforestry.
Klassen and his Lonohona Estate Chocolate team use a regenerative system that has brought this land to health. He grows a mix of native Hawaiian trees—koa, milo and ko—as well as mahogany, gliricidia, cedro, tropical laurel and neem along with his Theobroma cacao trees.
Cacao grows in very remote parts of the world. Hawaii is the only U.S. state growing cacao and producing chocolate with it. In fact, multiple islands have cocoa farms, including fifth-generation-owned and organically run Lydgate Farms on Kauai. Klassen, who used to own cocoa cafés around the Bay Area, transplanted to Oahu in his growing interest in cacao farming. He co-founded Lonohana Estate Chocolate to create a vertically integrated chocolate company and prove that you can have fantastic chocolate grown and made in a sustainable and fair trade way right here. The name Lonohana is derived from two Hawaiian words: Lono, the Hawaiian god of peace, agriculture, fertility and music; and ohana, meaning one’s extended family.
BUILDING BRIDGES
There is something that happens when you have a small community. You’re able to mobilize and start making an impact.
As a result of meeting the cacao farmers, Dandelion started building direct relationships to supply their chocolate and began naming the sources on their labels.
“By naming not just the businesses and co-ops but the people we work with, we were tying our fates together,” Greg D’Alesandre says. “It means that you’ve built trust—it’s like when you tell the world that you’re dating someone. When we put the names on the bars we make, it means we have a responsibility to each other.” This created confidence in a better market and took cocoa away from being a commodity. These direct relationships made the farmers more willing to take risks to make a better and differentiated product.
“We make a product that is so emotional for consumers. That’s core to what we do throughout our supply chain, whether buying cocoa and working with farmers or selling to a maker. The role that we play in that ecosystem is about relationships, preserving relationships, making sure the type of business we’re running benefits everyone.”
—Amy Guittard, Guittard Chocolate Company
Says Amy Guittard, fifth generation at her family’s company, “We’re uniquely positioned to work on flavor. It’s important to us, important to the industry. We build our business with an eye toward sustainability. Relationships are important, too. We make a product that is so emotional for consumers. That’s core to what we do throughout our supply chain, whether buying cocoa and working with farmers or selling to a maker. The role that we play in that ecosystem is about relationships, preserving relationships, making sure the type of business we’re running benefits everyone.”
There are so many great cocoa beans out there. Focusing on good agricultural practices enables farmers to deliver good flavor. Fostering a better-tasting bean can get them a premium price on their beans. This then goes back into their community. It’s not just investing in the process of cocoa cultivation, it’s making long term sustainable relationships—like family.
VISIT THE CHOCOLATE FACTORIES
Visit the Lonohana factory for a tour of how they make their chocolate from farm to bar.
Located in the trending cultural district of Kaka’ako in Honolulu, the Lonohana Chocolate factory is inside a building that was a theater built in the 1930s. You can find a few homages to the first movie that was shown there as you tour the facilities, Wee Willie Winkie with Shirley Temple. lonohana.com to learn more.
Visit Dandelion
Dandelion has several locations in San Francisco. Their 16th Street factory has tours, classes, a café and a restaurant. dandelionchocolate.com to learn more.
