I hope it pours
chocolate in the fields,
a rain of plenty
where memories of childhood
return singing through a portal of taste,
and the delicious symmetry of “yum”
inspires mouths and hearts to open wide,
in savoring this life, this longing,
between sweetness and ache.
CHOKOLA: a place to research, explore and discover the world’s finest cacao.
We begin with the cacao bean. By ethically sourcing beans of the highest quality and by crafting small, select batches, we follow the bean to bar process to bring out each bean’s bouquet of unique, nuanced flavors and aromas, released in our single origin chocolate bars.
We roast the beans low and then refine them in a stone grinder with only two simple ingredients: cacao and organic cane sugar. The result: limited small batches of delicious chocolate bars created directly from the bean.
We harness new technology and honor cultural knowledge and ancient traditions from cacao farmers—traditions tracing back some three and a half millennia to Mesoamerica and the ancient Mayans, the first peoples to harvest and cultivate the cacao tree pods, devising a process—still followed today—of fermenting, drying, roasting their cacao beans, then shelling and stone grinding them into paste to make chocolate.
Through a blend of this timeless tradition and modern technology we reveal the unique character of each region’s cacao and celebrate the rich diversity of single origin beans.
Making hand crafted chocolates from the bean and an array of chocolate-based creations is an art and a constant quest for quality.
At Chokolá, experiencing bean-to-bar chocolate is not just a gift; it’s a journey.
Travel with us!
Once upon a time,
in the dream-lit fields of Venezuela, a young girl watched and listened. She felt blessed to be in the company of these women she thought of as Chocolate Witches,” who sang and chanted and prayed to the plant and spirit of Cacao. She found that the witches magic lay in paying loving attention to Cacao; a ritual practice rooted in gratitude, care, and connection.
The young girl watched and listened, ever-curious, ever-inspired, and the young girl grew into a woman—never losing touch with the heart of the young girl ever-curious, ever inspired—who developed her own perpetually changing and growing relationship with Cacao. She keenly understood that the ongoing conversation she was having with Cacao was part of a much larger and more complex conversation, a choral piece that included farmers, soil, climate, packagers, and on and on, in an extensive web of interdependence.
Chocolate, as edible medicine, as treat, as gift, as mouth-jazz and joy-carrier, is the spark for an ultimately collaborative endeavor.
The bean to bar model
helps preserve the integrity of the flavors and essences of the cacao plant, while respecting the many pieces that constitute a harmonic composition. Thoughtfulness and discrimination go into the selection process of cacao beans, always single-origin (sourced from farmers or a contingent of small-holder farming families from a single farm or estate or district of a single country), with a migrant diversity of cacao beans, hailing from Belize, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, and Guatemala, lending their distinct quintessence to Chokola’s carefully prepared micro-batches.
Presently, there are about 800 bean to bar enterprises around the world, artists who are rewriting the story of chocolate-making. It, like the story of the little girl who watched and listened and dreamed cacao-flavored dreams, is a story of renewal, revolution, exploration, and cooperative empowerment.
And, yes, the rumors are true:
You can taste eternity in a single bite of chocolate. Cherish accordingly.