Welcome to Moka!

One of the great aspects of working in craft chocolate is the people you come across. You...

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One of the great aspects of working in craft chocolate is the people you come across. You...

Print / PDF

One of the great aspects of working in craft chocolate is the people you come across. You meet chefs, engineers, environmental activists, racing car designers, opera singers and, this week, a US based team who moved from meditation, yoga and herb gardening to speciality coffee and craft chocolate.

Moka Origins is the creation of Jeff and Ishan. Unlike many craft chocolate makers who start off in their kitchen crafting bars, Jeff and Ishan started on a farm; and not even a cocoa farm. In their own words, Jeff and Ishan came to craft chocolate via what they modestly describe as “humanitarian community development”. Back in 2007, when they were working in Cameroon for the Himalayan Institute growing medicinal herbs, they realised that the key crops for Cameroon of cocoa and coffee had “completely broken” supply chains which was causing huge suffering and hardship for many farmers.

And over the next seven years Jeff and Ishan worked to solve a host of local challenges, while also acquiring more expertise in cocoa, chocolate and coffee, to address this “opportunity”. By 2014 they had assembled a group of cocoa farmers in the Kumbo region of Cameroon, and then in 2015 they were granted 1200 acres of land by the local Cameroonian government. They named the company Moka, a play on the term Mocha, meaning a combination of chocolate and cocoa, as they also grow, and roast, coffee.

And then the really hard work started. The land they’d been granted had no running water, no roads and no electricity. So in addition to finding the best spots to start growing cacao, the team had to build the infrastructure needed; including building wells, an internal road network, solar infrastructure, a river irrigation system and a tree nursery.

In 2017 to complete their ‘tree to bar’ loop, and to turbo charge both their coffee and chocolate initiatives, they built their own factory back at Honesdale, Pennsylvania. And if you are nearby do drop by and say “hi”! For more details, check out our ChocolaTourism page (and indeed, Jeff also runs trips to Africa to visit the farmers in person).

Their bars are also awesome in flavour. Sadly covid, combined with political and social uncertainties, mean that Moka has not been able to import any beans from Cameroon over the last few months; so we don’t (yet!) have their Cameroon beans/bars. But we do have the bars crafted from beans they source from Tanzania, where they work with the like-minded Simran and Brian of Kokoa Kamili. Similarly, please try Moka’s Ugandan bars that are crafted from Jeff Steinberg’s Latitude beans. And if you are subscriber, you should also have received their interpretation of the ABOCFA co-operative’s Ghanaian beans last month. See below for more details on all these bars.

As Dr Kristy Leissle, our ‘go to’ Ghana (and indeed, overall cocoa) expert noted when describing this bar: “Anyone who thinks that Ghana can’t grow amazing beans should try this bar”. And indeed it’s one of the bars we will be tasting, and discussing, with her, virtually and in person, at a special tasting session (you can book tickets to attend at our London office, or buy the kit to taste along at home). There is also an awesome dark milk produced from these ABOCFA beans, which you’ll find below.

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of their Honesdale factory, Moka also released some heart warming statistics of what they achieved, including:

Planting over 230,000 trees (from mango and avocado to cacao and banana trees),
Purchasing over 58,000 kilos of beans,
Roasting over 96,000 kilos of coffee beans,
Crafting over 117,000 bars (note: That didn’t include the ones we’ve recently imported),
And supporting over 10,000 farmers and their families to secure a “sustainable living wage” that they can rely on over the long term.

See below for more details on all their bars, and see their page for their incredible story.

As ever, thank you for your support.

Spencer

P.S. Do remember that you can taste Moka’s ABOCFA bar, and five other great bars with Kristy in person or virtually on the 17th June.

P.P.S. For a sneak peak at our plans for Father’s Day, including a box comprising bars made by father’s with their daughters (and sons), check out our new page.

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