From everyone at Cacao Bahia, we would like to wish you a Happy New Year! We wanted to provide you with a quick 2016 end-of-year summary, recognize a few makers who have launched bars made with our beans in the past few months, and give an update on bean availability.
2016 Summary:
2016 was a challenging year at Fazenda Camboa. The most severe drought in 50+ years had a major impact on production at our farm (and others in the area) from the beginning of the year until September. During this time, our farm did not produce any cacao. Rain returned to the region in September and cacao production picked up in October and has since returned to normal levels. Due to the drought, total production at our farm in 2016 was around 42 metric tons (down from 70 metric tons in 2015). Most of the cacao that has been harvested at our farm since October has been purchased by Amma Chocolate (Brazil's largest bean-to-bar maker). We have shipments to both the US and Europe planned for the first half of 2017 (see more details below).
We were very excited to see chocolate makers around the world release bars made with our beans in 2016! Some of the bars won/were nominated for a variety of Chocolate awards including Pangea Chocolate (a bean-to-bar maker based in Catalonia), whose 76% Brazil bar won a Gold prize at the 2016 International Chocolate Awards European Bar Semi-final Competition (click here to view the list of winners).
We currently have both Trinitario and Forastero beans from the 2015 harvest available at our warehouse in San Diego, CA
We expect to receive our first shipment from the 2017 harvest in May
Europe Bean Availability:
Starting in Q1 2017 (most likely March), we will have Trinitario beans from the 2016 harvest available at our European distributors' warehouse in Rotterdam
For any questions, sample requests, or price quotes, please contact Galen Berkowitz: galen@cacaobahia.com
Galen Berkowitz
Author