McGuire – 70% Kokoa Kamili Tanzania

“One of the very first origins we worked with was Kokoa Kamili. We immediately fell in love with the warm citrus notes that come from this chocolate. We also love the story behind this origin. The Kokoa Kamili fermentary, located in the Kilimanjaro valley, purchases wet cacao beans from almost 3000 smallholder farmers, most of whom farm between 0.5-2 acres of cocoa. Prior to the founding of Kokoa Kamili the only cacao companies in the country were focused on buying large volumes of commodity cocoa for cheap, cheap, cheap. The result: Tanzania had one of the lowest GDP per capita rates in the world for rural cacao farmers. In Kokoa Kamili’s first year alone their farmers received the highest prices in Tanzania for their cocoa.  Kokoa Kamili pays a premium – well above the market rate – to farmers for their ‘wet’ cocoa, and conducts its own fermentation and drying. By taking over the fermentation and drying process, Kokoa Kamili can produce more consistent, higher quality cocoa beans. This method gives farmers a reduced workload, along with greater compensation, and the farmers are paid immediately after the cooperative receives its wet beans. On the front of this bar you will find an image of our storefront. Having worked with this cacao bean origin since the beginning of our journey we thought it was appropriate to highlight just how close we feel to it.  In 2016 when we started making chocolate be bought 10lb of 10 different cacao origins so that we could get exposure to the wide and diversified world of cacao beans. Kokoa Kamili was among those first 10 that we experimented with and is the only one that we still work with all these years later.”

Ingredients: Cacao beans*, Cane sugar*, Cocoa butter*.  *Certified organic

Damaged bar: the bar has been broken in places but otherwise in great condition.