Just before Covid started I was asked to work on a project in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The project is lead by a charity organisation from Switzerland called Cuisines sans Frontiers (Kitchens without Borders). They wanted me to visit their project, so that I could share my 10 years of experience in working with chocolate. Of course, Covid hit and everything was put on hold.
https://www.cuisinesansfrontieres.ch/en/projects/choco-samona
The first week we spend by visiting various projects and farms in Manabi and the Esmeraldas. Highlights here were seeing the amazing National varieties of cacao.
Chocolate maker Jacques surrounded by Cacao trees as far as the eye can see
In the second week we headed for the Amazon. It took two days to get from Quito to Samona, including many dangerous curvy roads and a 7 hour boat ride on the Napo river. I especially enjoyed the boat ride cruising through the Amazonian forest.
The project is along the Napo River in the Samona community in the Amazonian Jungle. They are the indigenous Kichwa people of the region and they grow their own cacao for many generations.
The community is located in the Yasuni National park which is an ecological hot spot. There are some amazing cacao varieties that grow here naturally, some of these are even of the famed porcelain or blanco types. I've stressed it to them how, from our European perspective how unique this is to have that on your doorstep and I'm hoping that they can focus on these varieties.
Usually they use some of the cacao for their own consumption and sell the fruits, the wet or dried cacao beans to the local market. Often the prices that they get for their cacao are not sufficient because they have limited bargaining power as they are so remote. With that in mind focusing on their unique varieties has not much use. To change that and to bring prosperity to the community Cuisines sans Frontiers have started working with them and started Choco Samona.
Since 2018 they have their own chocolate factory in their village and they organise trainings for local people. Dahlia, one of the students this week had to walk 1 1/2 hours through the jungle to come to class every morning.
It was amazing to work with the group, to help them with the operation of machines, the testing of the chocolate and the final part the tempering of the chocolate. Even-though we were in the middle of the Jungle with souring temperatures we were able to make amazing shiny and snappy bars of chocolate. Luckily we had air-condition in the factory.
Being there felt like home, surrounded by lovely people and sharing the passions and joys of chocolate. It was when all of a sudden the internet fell out and I lost contact with my family in Stroud, that we had a worried home front and I felt the remoteness of the rest of the world.
After a week of chocolate making and improving my Spanish and picking up a few Kichwa phrases it was time to jump back on the boat and head back to Quito.
For the rest of my time here I will be visiting other chocolate makers and that will be lengthy conversations about cacao beans, chocolate machines and of course a lot of chocolate tasting.