From farm to bar. Meet the people behind our cocoa.
Wherever possible, we source our cocoa directly from farmer cooperatives and build on personal trading relationships and long-term partnerships. One of these connects us with the Cheni Community in the Junín region of Peru, where a total of 56 cocoa farmers grow cocoa. We’d love to introduce six of them to you personally. You’ll also get to know the community behind our cocoa and our processing partner Organic Rainforest in Lima, who turns the cocoa beans into cocoa mass with experience and care.
What is Direct Trade?
Fair Trade is a well-known certification system that offers many people guidance. At Lovechock, we follow our own approach with Direct Trade. For us, this means sourcing our cocoa directly from farmer cooperatives wherever possible and building personal, long-term trading relationships.
We place great value on tracing the origin of our cocoa and learning more about the people, their work and the prices they receive for their cocoa beans. Because behind every cocoa bean are people whose work we want to get to know and appreciate.
The journey of the cocoa bean
From the cocoa tree to your chocolate bar: discover five steps of cocoa production and meet some of the people involved.
The people behind our cocoa
Behind our cocoa are people with experience, knowledge and a passion for growing cocoa. In the Cheni Community in Peru, a total of 56 cocoa farmers grow cocoa. Here, we introduce six of them to you personally.
Meet Inés Prado, Olivia Ruiz, Nelson Tejada, Ramon Nuñez, Angel Huaman and Rafael Pindayo, and learn more about their everyday lives, their work and their very personal stories.
"For us, farming organically is a matter of course."
This quote comes from our collaboration with the people on the ground. Their personal experiences and stories offer insight into cocoa farming and life in the Cheni Community.
The heart of our partnership
The Cheni Community in the Junín region of Peru is an important partner for Lovechock. A total of 56 cocoa farmers belong to this community and bring their knowledge and experience to growing cocoa. Through our collaboration, we want to trace the origin of our cocoa, get to know the people behind the cocoa beans and nurture long-term trading relationships.
We value personal exchange, transparent agreements and mutual trust. Every year, we also provide a budget for projects, and the community decides for itself how it is used. That way, their own wishes and needs can flow into our shared collaboration.
From bean to cocoa mass
Processing raw cocoa takes experience, craftsmanship and a great deal of care. For our cocoa from the Cheni Community, we work with Organic Rainforest in Lima, Peru. There, the cocoa beans are processed into cocoa mass. Several steps are especially important:
- Careful hand selection of the cocoa beans
- Controlled fermentation
- Gentle drying
- Grinding the cocoa beans into cocoa mass
Because the processing takes place in the country of origin, important steps already happen in Peru, before the cocoa mass travels to Europe for further chocolate making.
This way, we get to know not only the people who grow the cocoa, but also those who help process it.
Our Chocolate Factory
Once finished, the cacao mass is shipped to Europe, directly to our chocolate making facility. Here we make all our delicious chocolates - mixing the recipes, forming the chocolate and packing it. The production takes place under temperature-controlled conditions to achieve the best quality.
