Colombia

Colombia

The cocoa plantations for our bars are located at the foot of the slopes of 'Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta' National Park, the highest mountain range in this part of Colombia. It is home to a unique biodiversity and is of great value to local communities such as the Arhuaco tribe. This is where the delicious criollo cocoa comes from.

In the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta nature reserve, coffee was originally grown extensively. Women have been running the coffee cooperative CooAgroNevada since the civil war. From 2016, we bought special organic coffee from them. This dependence on coffee was a risk.

The farmers were looking for help to expand their activities. In consultation with Stichting Progreso, the cooperative researched cocoa trees and found that indigenous (high-quality) Criollo cocoa still grows in the backyards of farmers in Colombia's Sierra Nevada region.

They now grow both coffee and cocoa. Both organic. We buy the cocoa for a fair price. This gives the farmers more security. Together with the women farmers' cooperative Cooagronevada, which has more than 5,000 members, we create buffer zones around the rainforest with cocoa trees to make deforestation unnecessary.

The beans of the high-quality Criollo cocoa have a beautiful, rich and complex taste. You'll taste red fruit and a hint of raisin.