20°Nord 20°Sud – Kekeli Nujeje, Togo, Dark 74%

About the bar

This 74% dark bar from 20°Nord 20°Sud has a really lovely length, with notes of soft fruit and a slight hint of coconut.

About the maker

When Mélanie Paulau was introduced to the world of chocolate as a child, she never thought she would become one of the few bean-to-bar chocolate makers in France – she found chocolate too fatty and too sweet, with no interest to her taste buds. But when Mélanie stumbled upon the Bean To Bar Craft Chocolate movement, she discovered that chocolate could taste of more than just pure sugar, and have real values! Since, Mélanie has been paving the way for other French craft chocolate makers, working at her bean-to-bar chocolate factory located in Vendée, with an all-women workforce. Passionate about their work, Mélanie and her colleague Marion constantly strive to create chocolate products that are both delicious and adventurous.

The beans

The beans in this bar are sourced from Togo, and are grown in a region spanning 57,000 km between Ghana and Benin. The area, Mount Agou Plateaux, stretches along Togo’s main river, Mono. The climate here is ideal for cultivating cacao, with average temperatures of 26 degrees celsius, and rainfall which exceeds 1000 mm each year. Cocoa is Togo’s third biggest export product, and the cacao produced at Togo Kekeli is expertly processed to highlight the beans nature buttermilk and chocolate mousse notes.

These beans are farmed by Abra from her 100 hectares cocoa farm, near Mount Agou. Abra is the founder and director of Kekeli cooperative, of which 290 smallholder farmers are associated member and co-owner. The farmers have between 0.5 to 3 hectares of cacao on their land. Around 100 associated farmers bring their wet beans for central fermentation, with others applying controlled heap fermentation on their own farm. The dried beans are collected and screened and packed by Kekeli cooperative.

Allergens*

No allergens listed by maker.

Ingredients

Cocoa beans (74%), cane sugar (26%)

*Allergen advice: We directly import, and purchase, all products from independent makers and have these shipped by our partner warehouse (which is not certified allergen-free), and so we cannot guarantee that any product will be allergen-free. Even where an allergen is not listed, products may have been produced, shipped, or stored in facilities which handle allergens.

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