What is Bioversity and what exactly do you do? Bioversity is part of an international network of research centres specialised in agriculture and development. We study how the agricultural biodiversity of useful plants and trees can help improve the living conditions of small producers. Cocoa is one of our primary concerns. We coordinate the Cacao Net(a network…
This year I spent six months in the Alto Huayabamba. My mission was to precisely study the various cocoa trees growing on the fincas (plots) of Choba Choba cocoa producers to create a detailed catalogue of the different cocoa varieties in the valley. Early on, we thought there were between forty and fifty different cocoa trees…
Would you like to dive into the lush Peruvian jungle? Live with the farmers that produce your favorite chocolate and learn everything you wanted to know about cacao? Then join our origin trips to the Alto Huayabamba Valley! Monika, a big fan of Choba Choba and supporter of our Revolution, traveled to the origins of…
In October 2017 we took our Chocolate Revolution to the next level! Weary of the industry‘s dull chocolates that all taste alike because they are created with only a few cacao varieties among the hundreds that exist in the world… we decided to bring new colors into this monotony and reveal the treasures slumbering in the…
Back in November 2017 Ben, his wife Franziska and son Gabriel decided to support the launch of our Nativo Project. Through our crowdfunding campaign on Wemakeit they booked our trip to the Alto Huayabamba and became thus some of our very first chocolate fans to visit the Choba Choba farmers and co-founders in Peru! They…
Its inner virtues A good pure chocolate bar that is proud of its cocoa is exclusively made of cocoa beans and raw cane sugar. Cocoa butter is of course allowed, but it’s the only vegetable fat that should be used – any other, such as palm oil, should be strictly avoided! Also soya lecithin, flavourings…
These 1067 cacao enthusiasts and chocolate changemakers have laid the cornerstone of the Nativo Project in autumn 2017 by supporting our crowdfunding campaign. Thanks to them Choba Choba can now begin its work of preservation and investiagtion of Alto Huayabamba’s native and rare cacao varieties in order to make fine chocolates out of them in…
In view of the starting Nativo Project, Choba Choba recently visited the Universidad Agraria de la Selva (UNAS) in Lima, Peru. The two parties initiated a research partnership to conserve and re-produce the ‘nativos’, ancient and indigenous cocoa species that grow in the wild. They also decided to cooperate on other agronomy topics such as organic methods to fight the Plague…
On 13 October, our cocoa farmers organised a lively inauguration ceremony for the newly built post-harvest Centre in Pucalpillo, Peru. The Centre will host all fermentation and drying activities, two key steps in the creation of an excellent chocolate. Many of the different aromas we find in a fine chocolate bar are actually created as…
Don’t worry, we didn’t go nuts, nor missed our biology class! We deliberately asked Béla Bartha, the director of the Swiss foundation ProSpecieRara, a few naive questions onbiodiversity. Here he explains again very clearly why it is indispensable for us humans… Biodiversity: Isn‘t it in the end all about the survival of the fittest? So…