I had never seen a cacao pod before late 2007 when my business partner and I were sourcing tropical fruits for clients in a remote canyon in Northern Peru. I opened my first cacao pod and 40% of the beans were white. I sent leaf samples to the USDA/Research Service for testing and was stunned by their findings:
''Cacao Pod with 40% white bean Pure Nacional are an unprecedented Discovery,” said Dr. Lyndel Meinhardt, lead researcher for the USDA/Research Service. “Either Mother Nature or some ancient tribute placed those trees in the Marañón Canyon centuries ago.''
We have been doing business in Peru since 2002. However, as a 4th generation entrepreneur, the ''unprecedented discovery'' of a pure cacao variety thought to be extinct for 100 years immediately caught my attention.
But it was the farmers and their families who have most changed my view of life and cacao. Being in the Canyon is like stepping back a century in time. Mud and straw brick homes, women cooking over open wood fires, little or no electrical power, no paved roads and families living at subsistence levels. I realize we could make a difference in their lives and build a successful business for them and for us.
Today, 9 years later, we purchase wet cacao beans from more than 400 small farmers at a 50% premium over the market prices. We ferment and dry them at our facility we built in the Canyon and provide cacao beans and chocolate to those who love chocolate in 20 countries.
In the hot, rainy jungle, farmers nurture the small cacao trees with love and dedication, treating them as a members of their family year after year. They do so with kindness and respect for this National Treasure of Peru that Mother Nature, or perhaps some ancient tribe, placed there centuries ago. And so will their children's children for centuries to come.
Dan W. Pearson
President
Marañón Chocolate
