Meet the Grower
ASODPAMP
Location: Mono Bravo village, Mache Chindul Ecological Reserve, Esmeraldas province, Ecuador
Varietal: Mono Bravo Arriba
Flavour Notes: Strong cacao with light notes of hazelnut and red fruits.
Description
It started in the summer of 2012 when Philipp, Chief Grower of Original Beans, received a call from a conservationist colleague, Amy Rogers, then Director at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation. Amy lived in a 3-story bamboo house on Mompiche beach in Ecuador and was leading a conservation project to protect the Mache Chindul Bioreserve, located upriver from her beachhouse. The project was nearing its end and no future funding was in sight.
Could one of the purest Arriba cacaos of all Ecuador, grown organically in Mache Chindul, save the project? The answer is yes and the Mono Bravo Arriba cacao is how. Since Amy’s summer call, our Bean Team has spent many months on the ground in Mache Chindul. Inside the Bioreserve we encountered a remote village called Mono Bravo (wild ape), forest people with few possessions, and even fewer opportunities, but all the talents to make much from little.
Harvest Times: July – November (secondary harvest all year)
Harvest Volume: 150 tons
Number of Farmers: 201
Hectares Farmed: 420 hectares
Farming Notes: The moist, dense and lush terroir of the Mache Chindul pacific cloud forest.
Fermentation and Drying Notes: The beans are fermented centralised for 3-5 days in bags on bamboo mats, which are adjusted to climatic conditions by experienced technicians. Afterwards, the cacao is carefully sun dried in constant motion for 5-8 days. Wet beans are bought from farmers in Mono Bravo, which are then checked by fermentation & drying quality control and finally analysed on flavours at a central post harvest centre outside the Mache Chindul reserve.
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