Delicious, eco-conscious chocolate used to be tough to find, but now more and more companies are catering to the desire to satisfy a sweet tooth with something sustainable. One of the standouts in this category is award-winning, family-owned Pacari Chocolate, which is not only organic and biodynamic but is also looking to change the chocolate industry in Ecuador.
Founded in 2002 by Santiago Peralta and Carla Barbotó, Pacari Chocolate was created to allow native Ecuadorians to take pride in this local commodity. “They were motivated because they were Ecuadorian and saw so many cacao farmers for generations do all the hard labor but then not getting paid for their work,” says the company’s U.S. importer and ambassador Natalie Mitchell. “And more times than not, they were not seeing the final product of their work, some of them never having tasted chocolate.”
Pacari is the Quechua word for “nature,” and it’s no accident that this is the name that was chosen for the company. The “natural” ideal is strong here, but in order to distance themselves from products claiming the natural label with no solid basis, Peralta and Barbotó made a few concrete decisions.
A Biodynamic Chocolate
Firstly, they decided to be good to the earth. Pacari Chocolate is the only chocolate company to hold the Demeter Biodynamic Certification, a unique and rigorous certification demanding the highest of standards for the product and its fabrication. As Mitchell explains, “The board of Demeter Biodynamics meets yearly to raise the bar and clarify the standards accordingly.”
According to the Pacari Chocolate site, this choice “certifies that the raw material production keeps an auto-regenerative ecosystem which is free from chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers,” and creates an ecological balance in the production of this chocolate.
“There is also a spiritual element of biodynamic,” explains Mitchell. “Since some of our farmers are indigenous to the land, they are very pure in their methods and the way that they harvest, so we are honoring the, ‘Pace Mama,’ or mother earth.”
It took the company 5 years to achieve this status. “It doesn’t only involve stopping the use of any chemical, batteries on the land, pesticides, etc.,” Mitchell explains. “It is also retreating the soil very deep down.”
By treating the soil well, the chocolate company seeks to find the echoes of Ecuador’s very terroir in the final product.
A Farmer-Based Chocolate
Secondly, Pacari Chocolate put the farmers and producers of their chocolate at the heart of their business plan.
“We are paying our workers 2 to 3 times more than someone outside of Ecuador who is buying the cacao from them,” Mitchell says. “We don’t own the land or the farms, so it’s all based on relationship and the way we treat them.”
And this extends past mere finances. Mitchell relates a story of a worker who had a bad back, and rather than firing him, as some other companies might have done, Pacari Chocolate chose to purchase a donkey, so that he would still be able to move the cacao bags.
“In addition, Pacari is a Pro-Woman company,” says Mitchell. “We have 50-pound bags instead of 100-pound bags like most other cacao farms, and so it makes it possible for all types of people to work.”
Sustainability and social responsibility are at the forefront of business decisions: direct business is done with small-scale farmers, and as a result, this single-origin chocolate shows off the best of Ecuadorian farmers and Ecuadorian soil.
Flavor is Key at Pacari Chocolate
And finally, but of course not least importantly, Pacari Chocolate wanted to make a final product that was delicious and enjoyable for the consumer.
“A fine chocolate should be like a fine wine,” says Mitchell. “You should be able to taste the cacao.”
And that should be all you taste. Pacari is entirely devoid of lactose, soy, and gluten. The chocolate is also USDA organic, Kosher, and Beyond Fair Trade, and its biodynamic certification means that it is entirely devoid of GMOs.
So what is in the chocolate?
One-hundred-percent fino de aroma or Arriba Nacional chocolate (meaning “above the river”), which hails from an ancient Ecuadorian cacao variety native to the region. The beans are harvested moist and fermented for 4 to 5 days to extract the unique flavor of these Ecuadorian beans which, according to Mitchell, produce a chocolate that is far less acidic than some African cacao varieties.
“I believe that all of our bars are unique in flavor, but overall they are complex, fruity, nutty, and floral notes,” she says of the final product.
And indeed, there are several different varieties on offer, from single-origin chocolates to bars with added ingredients, such as coffee, goldenberry, or guayusa, but Mitchell says that her favorite is the plain Raw 85%, sweetened with coconut sugar. “I love it and have it every day to start my day right,” she says. “I don’t drink coffee, but that one square of 85% gives me that kick of caffeine I need for the day, and it’s pure and not too sweet.”
For Mitchell, this chocolate redefines what chocolate should taste like — no longer an amalgam of cream and milk and sugar, but the purest flavors of bitter, sweet, fruity chocolate that isn’t just delicious, but that you can feel good about eating too.
As for the future of Pacari Chocolate, the company seeks only to reach new heights. For now, all of the cacao is biodynamic, and all of the added ingredients are certified organic, but in the future, the company hopes to source all of its ingredients from biodynamic farms. The work of informing, educating, and aiding these local farmers to convert to biodynamic is the next challenge for this biodynamic chocolatier.
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Images care of Pacari Chocolate