Disentangling Flavor from Quality | #PSC 237

No cacao is born good or bad quality. Because the quality of cacao is rarely decided on genetics, but mostly on fermentation. Let me give you some examples to bring this concept home 👇 When cacao importers receive a sample of cacao beans, the first thing they do is not a DNA test, but they cut the beans in half to look whether fermentation was done properly. 🇩🇴 In the Dominican Republic, they have hispaniola cacao or sanchez cacao. But these are not varieties. They are fermentation methods. Sanchez cacao is dried immediately after drying, while Hispaniola goes through a proper fermentation first (while genetically they are all some variations of Trinitario, so fairly similar). 🇺🇬 If you want to buy cacao in Uganda, again you don’t choose a variety. You either ask for “some some” cacao, which is a mixed bag of properly and not properly fermented beans, or you ask for specialty quality where all of the beans are properly fermented. 🇨🇴 In Colombia, the main difference between cacao fino de aroma and cacao comùn is theoretically flavor complexity. But where do you achieve flavor complexity? During fermentation! So it’s implied that fino de aroma is well fermented and comùn is not. Consider that many places (regions, cooperatives or even single estates) that were not famous for specialty cacao before and now they are, they didn’t re-plant new cacao trees with more special genetics. They simply learnt how to ferment better, building more modern fermentation structures and getting training on fermentation protocols. Lastly, many cacaos that were absolutely not considered prestigious, rare or special geneti-wise have ended up winning GOLD awards in international cacao competitions. I like to think that genetics crates nuances and fermentation creates quality. Without proper fermentation, you can have all the potential nuances you want, but you can’t express them. So what I want you to bring home is that there is no country or region in the world that has “bad cacao”. It only has farmers who do not know, do not care, or are not financially incentivized to ferment their cacao beans properly 🫘 | 12 comments on LinkedIn

You’ve been eating chocolate. But have you ever questioned the story behind it? 🍫 Two chocolate bars can look almost identical. Yet, behind them could be two completely different worlds. One might tell a story of origin, careful fermentation, skilled processing, and farmers whose work shapes the final flavour. The other might tell a story of industrial efficiency, blended ingredients, and a supply chain where the people who grew the cocoa are almost invisible. And here’s what makes it fascinating: Chocolate doesn’t begin in a factory. It begins with a farmer most consumers will never meet. Between the cocoa pod and the chocolate bar lies an entire world of decisions: 🌱 How the cocoa is grown. 🌍 Where it comes from. 🫘 How the beans are fermented and dried. 🏭 How they’re processed. 📦 How the ingredients are sourced. 💰 And who captures the greatest value along the way. Yet, when we talk about chocolate, we often focus almost entirely on the finished product. We discuss taste, branding, packaging, and price. But rarely do we ask deeper questions about the origin behind the bar. Who grew the cocoa? What happened to it after harvest? How much value was created at origin, and how much was captured further down the chain? These questions matter, particularly in West Africa, where cocoa production plays a major role in the global chocolate industry. Perhaps the real story of chocolate isn’t just about what we eat. It’s about the people, systems, and economics behind what we eat. And once you begin to understand that story, you never look at a chocolate bar quite the same way again. Let me ask you something: When you buy chocolate, do you think about its origin, or only its taste? #Chocolate #Cocoa #SupplyChains #WestAfrica #OriginIntelligence

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