To'ak Chocolate facts for kids
To'ak Chocolate (say "Toe-Ahk") is a special chocolate company from Ecuador. It was started in 2013 by Jerry Toth, Carl Schweizer, and Denise Valencia. This company makes its chocolate from a very rare type of cocoa bean called Nacional. In 2017, the news channel CNBC called To'ak Chocolate's Heirloom Nacional bar "the world's most expensive chocolate bar."
Making To'ak Chocolate Bars
To'ak makes its chocolate bars using the Nacional type of cocoa bean. Some experts once thought this special bean was gone forever.
Each chocolate bar is made carefully by hand. The process includes fermenting the cocoa beans. The bars are made almost entirely from Nacional cocoa beans. They have just a tiny bit of added cane sugar. A single roasted cacao bean is placed in the middle of each bar. This shows where the chocolate comes from. The company also ages some of its chocolate bars. They put them in wooden barrels or old spirit casks.
Growing Cacao to Help Forests
To'ak Chocolate works with a group called TMA (Third Millennium Alliance). TMA is an organization that helps protect rainforests. Together, they run a special project in Ecuador's coastal area. This project is called "regenerative cacao." It helps farming communities near the Jama-Coaque Ecological Reserve. The main goal of this program is to stop deforestation. This means they want to regrow the Pacific Equatorial Forest.
TMA helps local farmers get started. They give them money, young cacao trees, and tools for watering plants. Farmers also get financial rewards. This encourages them to turn deforested land back into healthy forests. The program gets money from "carbon offset revenue." This money helps farmers for the first five years. This is before the cacao trees grow enough to produce beans. Once the trees start making cacao pods, To'ak buys the cacao. They pay higher prices for it.
