Meet the Grower
COCABO
Location: Changuinola, Panama
Varietal:Trinitario, Criollo
Flavour notes: Complex, coffee, sweet orange, white florals, honeysuckle
Description
In 1952, small-scale cocoa farmer Maria Gallimore informed her family that a cocoa exporter in Puerto Limón, Costa Rica, had offered to ship their cocoa to the United States at a minimum of fifty sacks of sun-dried cacao. Her son, Ambrose, recognised this as a life-changing opportunity, and became set on forming a society of cacao growers. With the help of Elridge McKnight, another small-scale cacao farmer, Ambrose gained enough support to obtain access to an empty warehouse to store and bag thousands of beans, ready to be shipped to the States. After increasing their numbers to include 19 men and 1 woman, the COCABO cooperative was officially founded in 1952, making it the oldest cooperative existing in Panama.
Located near the Amistad International Park, the largest nature reserve in Central American and a UNESCO World Heritage site, COCABO has strong envionmental focus and offers farmers support to encourage economic and community development through alternatives to traditional economic activities such as logging, leading to deforestation. Today, the cooperative is formed of over 1500 Naso, Ngöbe and Buglé farmers.
Harvest times: Coming soon.
Harvest volumes: 1456 mt
Number of farmers: 1500
Hectares farmed: 4403
Farming notes: Cocoa trees are intercropped with bananas, citrus fruits, pineapples and more
Fermentation and drying notes: As most farms are in isolated areas, fermentation and drying is carried out individually with great care. The beans undergo an 5-7 day ferment and a 5 day drying process which include manual selection, to ensure that only the best quality beans are turned into chocolate.
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