Episode Summary: Guest Volker Lehmann joined Clay to discuss the history, uniqueness, and challenges of Bolivian cacao. Lehmann shared his experiences of discovering wild cacao, buying a hacienda, and exploring Bolivian cacao from Trinidad to La Paz. The speakers discussed the differences between Beniano and Alto Beni cacao, the significance of cacao juice, and the improvements made at Lehmann’s chocolatal, the Hacienda Tranquilidad. They also touched on issues of child labor and shared personal experiences of driving down dangerous roads in Bolivia. The production of Bolivian cacao remains small, but it has received praise for its fino y de aroma cocoa, and there are efforts to increase its visibility in the international markets.
My first introduction to wild cacao – cacao silvestre – was a bar of Felchlin’s Cru Sauvage, which I would have tasted, IIRC, in 2006. I was told the story of how the cacao made it from eastern Bolivia near the border of Brazil via boat and then by road to La Paz before being transported to the port of Arica in Chile (Bolivia is landlocked) before heading to Switzerland for transformation into chocolate.
Instantly, I could tell the beans were special, though there was a lot of their story I was not told.
I contacted Volker Lehmann, the German ex-pat who’d done the work to bring the beans to market. A GTZ-trained agronomist, Volker has also worked with other tropical crops, founding Rainforest Exquisite Products to bring them to market.
My idea was to bring a tour group to Bolivia to visit the Hacienda Tranquilidad, the chocolatal (island) in the Iténez region of the Beni where Volker’s cacao operations are headquartered. That tour did not happen, but Volker invited me to be his guest in January 2010 so I would have a better understanding of the adventure when planning future trips.
Since 2006, wild (and farmed) cacao from the Beni has become fairly popular. But there is some confusion about the differences between the Iténez region and the Alto Beni – not just geographically, but also when it comes to genetics and more.
Understanding the cacao of Bolivia – what it is, what it isn’t, where it grows, and the differences in cacao grown in different parts of the country – is what I’ll be discussing with Volker in this episode.
As always, we will be taking your questions – live!
An aerial view of the Hacienda Tranquilidad courtesy Volker Lehmann.
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Video provided by Volker Lehmann
Below are two galleries from my trips to Bolivia in 2010.
January 2010 Trip Gallery
There is no way to include all of the photos I took and even after making a selection I did not include all of the initial selections and I had to resist the urge to go back and select more.
In Santa Cruz de la Sierra [L]: There is always a salty/tart lager to help combat thirst. [C]: Approaching the center of town. [R]: The bus station in Santa Cruz – we’re taking the overnight bus to Trinidad in the Beni, the stepping-off point for the trip to Hacienda Tranquilidad.
[L]: Arriving at the bus station in Trinidad at about 5:00 am – the station is just waking up. [R]: A cheese empanada and hot chocolate made with water and wild cacao beans for breakfast. One breakfast alternative is patasca, a traditional stew made with the whole head of a cow.
[L]: Heading in for the landing in Baures. [R]: NYC to La Paz to Santa Cruz de la Sierra (jets) to Trinidad (overnight bus) to Baures (small plane, then the pickup truck you see Volker sitting in) ... this sign says we’ve arrived. Finally. [R]: Sunsets at Hacienda Tranquilidad can be quite serene.
[L]: Wild cacao pods (and the seeds/beans inside) can be very small. [C]: Hanging a sack between two trees. [R]: The wet mass is placed in the bag and juice drains into a banana leaf-lined depression scooped out of the forest floor. A scooped-out pod is used to drink the fresh juice. Every drop that does not make it to the collection center is lost revenue ... but some loss is inevitable and why not enjoy it?
[L]: I spent the morning working with a family harvesting ripe pods. Here they are opening the pods and extracting the wet mass. [R]: In some places, burros are used to transport sacks to the collection center. Here the family uses a bike and the person on the bike will go as fast as possible to the collection center while the rest of us walk.
[L]: Fermentation boxes. [C]: Constructing a drying pad. [R]: There are two different types of drying pads in this photo. The fermentation boxes and the drying pads share a common design feature – they are sized to the people working them.
Harvesters arriving at the collection/fermentation center have their work weighed and get paid on the spot.
[L]: Volker talking about his teak planting. [R]: Me standing next to a wild/feral cacao tree that is estimated to be 300 years old.
Returning from Hacienda Tranquilidad we went to Bella Vista via Huacaraje and made a river crossing. Thank goodness for 4WD as the rain was ferocious at times making the road (if you can call it a road) treacherous going.
A view of the Iténez savannah from our small plane and then this rainbow after we touched town signaling our safe return to Trinidad. Rather than taking the overnight bus again, we flew to Santa Cruz.
The map pin in the yellow circle in the upper-right is the town of Baures – the Hacienda Tranquilidad is near there. La Paz is in the yellow circle in the lower-left. The yellow circle around Palos Blancos is in the Alto Beni – you can see it is in the mountains, whereas Baures is in the lowlands. Much of the cacao in the Alto Beni is foreign Trinitario hybrids introduced in the 1960s. The circle around Rurrenabaque is where I spent a few days with Volker in November 2010. To the immediate SW is the Pilon Lajas Park, and is one of the locations where indigenous peoples (taking the indigenous varieties with them) were pushed out of their lowland homes by invading settlers. The trip by river from Baures to Trinidad takes two weeks.
November 2010 Trip Gallery
I returned later in 2010 (my visa was still valid!) as an invited guest to speak at the 2nd International Congress on Fine and Flavor Cocoa in the Andean Region in La Paz. The itinerary had me flying into Santa Cruz, then driving (with Volker as my guide) via Cochabamba to La Paz. After the conference the plan was to head into the South Yungas region via Caranavi, then to Palo Blanco and Rurrenebaque in the Alto Beni, eventually making our way to Trinidad before returning to Santa Cruz. Hopefully before heavy rains would make the roads next to impassable. [Spoiler Alert: That didn’t happen.]
From Santa Cruz we drove to La Paz via Cochabamba. It’s not a long drive but we did spend a night there and visited several of the projects Volker was working on in the area. Despite a desire to reduce coca growing, it (was) an important (and largely legal) part of the local economy, among other things for remedies for altitude sickness.
The elevation of Cochabamba is low, requiring quite a climb to La Paz. The high desert landscape here is quite a change from the lowland forest.
A view of one of the conference sessions in La Paz. There were delegates from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic. I was one of two international invited guest speakers and I was talking about the international markets for specialty cacao and chocolate.
Smaller sessions resulted in collections of ideas for action plans related to specific goals.
On the way out of La Paz after the conference we stopped at the factory of Condor Chocolates where much of the machinery is quite used (universal, colloid mill, pot press, melanger) and/or DIY (melanger, guitar cutter). The view from the parking lot was pretty spectacular.
Did I mention spectacular? This is the road summit out of La Paz as we are about the head north into the South Yungas.
Did I mention we’d be driving down the Bolivian road of death? More spectacular scenery with the roadside alarmingly full of reminders that cars, trucks, and sometimes even buses of people have tumbled down the mountainside. Fortunately, Volker has made the trip many times. So I felt safe? Safer? Safe-ish? Obviously, we made it.
The lovely (?) town of Palo Blanco in the Alto Beni. We overnighted there in very rustic quarters.
On the way into Palo Blanco we stopped at the agronomy research center where there are germplasm collections for cacao and other crops.
Rurrenebaque, near the headwaters of the Rio Beni.
It’s a real shame that Volker doesn’t know how to relax. 🤣 In fact, he’s a great traveling companion and guide.
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