Your contribution protects
the roots of cacao.

To identify, preserve and propagate endangered fine flavor heirloom cacao; to ensure cacao quality and diversity for future generations and to recognize the farmers who grow it. We want HCP Heirloom Cacao designation to allow farmers to sell their cocoa for premium or higher prices and help them achieve the same or even greater income than they would by selling ordinary or bulk cacao in volume.

Endowment: If you choose to donate to the HCP’s Endowment Fund, you choose to contribute to the long-term sustainability of the organization. The fund is designed to last forever. It provides a reliable, predictable source of funding year after year.

Think of it like a permanent tree: The principal is the seed you plant. You don't eat the seed. The income is the fruit the tree produces every year. You eat the fruit, and as long as the tree (principal) stays healthy, it will produce fruit (income) for generations to come.

General Donation: Unrestricted, general donations are allocated to the HCP’s area of greatest need, typically covering essential but hard-to-fund costs like core program management with farmers, printing materials, translations of documents, and any activity related to the mission of the HCP. This flexibility allows the HCP to operate smoothly, fill unexpected budget gaps, and quickly respond to emergencies.

Flavor cacao can be grown anywhere cacao is grown, which is in what is known as the 20-20 zone (20 degrees north and south of the Equator). Gary Guittard’s theory is that when the Meso-Americans and then later the Europeans discovered and started cultivating chocolate, they took the beans that they liked the best which usually were the most flavorful and planted those in their colonies around the world. So in probability any cacao trees planted outside of the Upper Amazon region may have originally been good to fine flavor.

Over the last century or so, things have changed, with yield and disease resistance being more important than flavor. Old traditional plantings were ripped out — or hybridized — to produce higher yield, especially in Africa but there are pockets of flavor remaining in all growing regions around the world including African countries like Madagascar and Tanzania.  Even the least established cacao-growing areas like Hawaii and Australia, which are disease free at this point, understand the importance of planting fine flavor cacao.

It is the same and in some ways more complex than asking what determines the quality of wine. If it’s around flavor of the beans see the question on genetics for the start of an answer and below for more detail.

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In the initial analysis, the criteria are more about what flavors should NOT be present. Off-flavors include:

Moldy/musty flavor from the presence of mold in the beans

Smoky flavor reminiscent of smoke-cured bacon from contamination by wood smoke during drying or storage

Acid taste through excessive acidity developing during fermentation that generally inhibits the chocolate flavour from developing

Excessive bitterness and astringency caused by poor fermentation or poor flavor cacao beans

Absorption of flavours from other products such as rubber, oil-based paints, etc. during storage and transport

Natural cocoa liquor is a balance of flavors that include:

Nuttiness – can be sweet (like a cashew) or bitter (burnt almond).

Acidity that keeps the flavor from being flat (just as a squeeze of lemon enlivens fruits and vegetables).

Fruitiness can be as bright as a citrus flavor or as mellow as “brown fruit,” an industry term for flavors such as raisin or dried cherry.

Floral flavors – usually close to jasmine or roses.

Bitterness or astringency balanced with sugar and spices – the mark of a great chocolate manufacturer

You will hear many people in the fine flavor chocolate industry use some version of this line: 90% of what you read on a package is propaganda – don’t believe the hype. Ideally consumers should know the percentage and the breakdown of that liquor to cocoa butter (few break down their percentages that way except for products made for pastry chefs). But consumers should not look for anything specific so much as they should learn what they love and appreciate the sheer complexity of chocolate in all its forms just like they have with wine or other craft products. Get away from percentages as deciding factors and terms like fair trade and organic and choose first on flavor and really TASTE the chocolate. Expand your yummy universe and understand more about where that chocolate you are eating comes from and who made it and then appreciate that cocoa beans are perhaps the most undervalued food in the world and be willing to pay a more for all of it, especially the ones you love the most.