cacao Telling the Stories Behind Good Chocolate
#WomenInChocolate Photo-essay Women of the Kallari Association in Ecuador
Whisky & Chocolate Pairing Tips from a Professional
Meet the Maker Interview with FjĂĽk and Pod Chocolate
Welcome to
Issue Three When we chose the theme for this issue many months ago, we never would have believed we would be writing this letter amidst the first global pandemic in our lifetime. But throughout this turbulent and difficult period that we’re yet to see the end of, the message we wanted to share with you is as relevant and important as ever before. We cannot face these times alone, and we cannot overcome them without the strength and the power of women. There are women everywhere in chocolate, we see them all the time in adverts with their eyes rolled back as they lick their lips. But we don’t think enough people see the farmers carefully cultivating cacao, the makers experimenting, the traders and campaigners and law changers; the business owners founding successful, sustainable, and delicious chocolate companies all over the world. We wanted to say a huge thank you to all of the amazing women who inspired and helped us to create this magazine and somebody who we can’t thank enough is Lauren Heineck, founder of WKND Chocolate and the creator of the #womeninchocolate hashtag. We are so proud to fill our pages with women who continue to inspire, inform, connect and uplift others, whatever life throws their way. This issue is dedicated to every single Woman in Chocolate, but it’s also for everybody who takes the time to read it. So whatever your gender, whatever your passion or purpose, we thank you for being here, and as always, hope you enjoy reading this edition as much as we had making it.
Lukas T. Reinhardt & Ruby Willow Founders of Cacao Magazine
Contributors This magazine wouldn’t be possible without the brilliant writers, illustrators and photographers who we so dearly rely on. A huge thank you to all of our contributors:
Kim Wilson
Lauren Heineck
Michelle RenĂŠe Baldovin
Maria Maiskaya
Cyndi Clement
Estela Duque
Oonagh Browne
Victoria Cooksey
Carmen Magali Eraso Adarme
Nicole Hewat
Diana Yates
Megan Giller
Paula Calleja
Jordan Cohayney
Sue Quinn
Romany Pope
Jeanne Donkoh
Eduardo Morales
Emily Stone
R. M. Peluso
Corinne Joachim-Sanon-Symietz
Anna Bazyl
Dennise Valencia
Moji Aina
Hanbin Paek
Agurtxane Concellon
Petra Arias
Siv Hereid
10
Bean
12 – 23
52
Sponsor: Canadian Chocoholic
52 – 55
Femmes de Virunga: The Power of Chocolate
Canadian Chocoholic: The Chocolate Goldsmith
24 – 31
56 – 65
Women: The Secret Ingredient for a Living Wage
32 – 51
Photo-essay: Las Mujeres de Cacao
The Peace Crop: When Women Come Together
66 – 67
Recipe: Pasta with Gorgonzola, Walnuts, Rosemary, and Chocolate
68 Bar
70 – 83
Where is a Woman’s Place, in chocolate?
84 – 89
Baking with Single-Origin Chocolate
90 – 95
Chocolate Landscapes: Painting with Cacao
96 – 101
118
Meet the Makers
102 – 111
How to Host a Cacao Ceremony
112 – 117
Whiskey & Chocolate
118 – 125
Interview: Meet the Makers: Nigeria to Norway
Column: Poison Your Lover With Chocolate, and Other Advice From 17th Century Witches
Contents
The Power of Chocolate
Femmes de Virunga The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to the Virunga National Park, one of the most biodiverse areas on Earth and Africa’s oldest national park. Critically endangered animals roam freely over the diverse habitats, from the swamplands and savannahs to mountains and volcanoes. It is within the surrounding buffer zone, however, where women and cacao are flourishing.
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If you Google “Virunga” you will get a dramatic mix of good and evil, beauty and horror, rich and poor. All are prevalent, but it is what one makes of it. In the face of extreme adversity, the spirit and courage of the people who live there remains, a theory tested now as much as ever before whilst the world fights COVID-19. A challenge that has caused shockwaves throughout the globe, but for the people who have already been up against ethnic wars, centuries of foreign usurpation and Ebola, it is yet another hurdle to overcome alongside poverty, climate change and gender inequality. In the park’s bordering countryside and beyond, life for women is especially hard. Collecting water, gathering firewood, making and caring for children is their life’s work - with little respite or opportunity for much else. In a place where girls’ education is as undervalued as much as their abuse is ignored, there is a movement stirring. Through growing and harvesting fine cacao, through working together and leading teams of hundreds, and through playing an active role in the supply chain of fine chocolate, the women of Virunga are demanding peace and prosperity where it has been absent for far too long.
Every Great Park Needs a Great Buffer The Virunga National Park was first founded and named ‘Park Albert’ in 1925, with the primary goal of protecting the endangered mountain gorillas that live across the Virunga Massif. In 1979, it was renamed Virunga National Park and designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Sadly, by 1994 it was labelled an Endangered Heritage site, due to environmental damage fuelled by conflict, refugees settling amongst the park borders, and poachers and rebel groups posing a threat to the park and its protected species. Over the years, despite the brave and fearless rangers who dedicate their lives to protecting the park’s animals, many have been killed in a series of horrifying incidents carried out by local militia. The Oscar-nominated 2014 documentary “Virunga” tells a vivid and emotional story of these complex interests that have included mass gorilla killings and culminated in, as recently as the 24th of April 2020, the death of dozens of heroic rangers. The rangers are the police forces charged to protect national parks. Their mandate ends at the borders of the park
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a regenerative consumer society
Women: The Secret Ingredient for a Living Wage Words by Kim Wilson
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A
sk anyone working in community development and they’ll tell you – communities thrive when you get money in the hands of women. They invest wisely in education, healthcare and nutrition, things that have an impact today and for the next generation. When we (Good King) started this journey, our goal was to advocate for a living wage for farmers. I had no idea the secret ingredient would come in the form of women.
Real Implications of Less than a Living Wage Talking economics is one thing, understanding its personal impact is completely another. Let me try to paint a picture: when income is not available in rural cacao farming communities, it is generally the men who go to cities to find work. When men leave for the cities, fathers are absent, family structures often fall apart under the pressure of separation, and rural women and children are left with devastatingly few income-producing options. People with few options are not typically looking for high-risk, high-reward growth opportunities – they are trying to survive and find stability. While the specifics and personal stories vary widely, one fact remains: a significantly discounted and immediate payment is often far more appealing than the risk of getting either a higher payment or nothing at all. This is the reality in which most cacao-growing communities enter the sales “negotiation”. Until now, I (as a cacao buyer and chocolate lover), have been all too happy to benefit from that deal.
When Doubling Yields is not Enough
bility Partnership with working group meetings. The most influential industry players in Southeast Asia were strategising on how to dramatically and sustainably increase income for cacao farmers. Sights were set on the whopping goal of doubling yields and improving post-harvest quality. Likely, this is still one of the fastest and most effective ways to increase farmer and community income. Yet, at that time, rumour had it that farmers were earning one-quarter of a living wage. I thought to myself, “even *if* we succeed, best case, they’re now halfway to a living wage…” There is so much more work to be done.
Borrowing Tools from Coffee and Wine On top of doubling yields, higher prices and premiums certainly help too. However, price premiums rarely, if ever, cover the wild volatility (70% variance) the cocoa commodity market has experienced in the past five years. In this case, cocoa can learn from some of its neighbouring industries. Coffee: The 4th wave, namely the creators of Guilder Café and Junior’s Roasted Coffee in Portland, are conversing about and insisting upon covering the cost of production. This is great, since we would not pay our own employees less than minimum wage, so we should extend this thinking to our suppliers too. At Good King, we revisit this topic annually with our partners. Wine: Similarly, long-term price contracts were commonplace in my wine days and seem necessary for a tree crop that takes five years to bear fruit and yields for decades. As buyers, we cannot de-risk the impact of pests and
In 2013, while in Indonesia, I had the privilege of attending the Cocoa Sustaina-
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weather on yields, but certainly, we can bear the brunt of market price fluctuations, especially when consumer price and consumption patterns are relatively stable. That said, like wine and coffee, there’s much more to be done from farm-to-bar. How can growing communities enjoy more than 3% of the value of that rich and dreamy chocolate pie?
The Great Divide Once upon a time, chocolate was prized as a nutritional and invigorating drink in the regions where it was grown. It took until the 1500s for the Spanish to “discover” it in Central and South America and introduce it to Europe. It would be a few centuries more before the industrial revolution would produce chocolate as we now know it. However, cacao can only be grown in equatorial regions and the newly-hungry consumers did not reside there. So, European colonisers planted it in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Suddenly, cocoa was being grown in areas where it had no cultural significance and no value as a food source. We, as buyers, hold little value for work we do not understand or cannot see, from people that we do not know. Likewise, as sellers, we have little passion to carry out difficult manual labour for a product we do not understand, for people we do not know. And here began the great divide.
From 6-Degrees to 2-Degrees As I write this, amidst the first global pandemic in 50 years, it is clear that our world is small and intricately connected. It is easy to stay disconnected from the plight of millions of smallholder farmers when they are 5 to 6 degrees removed from my social circles. However, for companies like us who are trading directly, we are now talking about becoming the link between friends of friends. When my friends recount stories about their friends, I listen more, I strive to understand more and I feel connected and invested in the friend’s story and success. Like other chocolate makers trading directly and investing heavily in growing communities, we long for our friends on both sides of the world to know and value one another.
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Chocolate is Not (Always) the Answer As I spent time getting to know my new friends in cacao farming communities, I searched for ways to restore income-earning steps from cacao to their local area. It does not take a genius to realise farming communities are unlikely to place very high in a business school’s competitive matrix for launching a best-selling, global chocolate brand. Even if they: • • • •
found a solution for unreliable electricity and water overcame confounding local and international food regulations created a beautiful temper in a wet & warm tropical climate shipped their chocolate in refrigerated containers all the way to its final destination
Each of these seem near impossible. Even if they could overcome each of these obstacles, it would be unwise to compete with their capital-rich, multinational customers. Making chocolate themselves might not be the answer.
Goodbye Sweet and Smooth Imagine with me, for a moment, eating an exquisite chocolate bar. Consider the heady aroma, the sweetness that hits your tongue, the creamy smoothness that melts in your mouth. It is lovely. Chocolate forces me to pause for a moment – to be fully present with it. Is this the fullness of its personality, or did this “food of the gods” have more possibilities to be discovered?
After months spent in various farming communities, I knew there was more to this super seed. I became focused on creating a crunchy, less-sugary, healthy snack from whole, peeled cacao beans. It could be fully produced by the farming communities and, crucially, it did not melt. The snack craze was, and still is, insatiable, particularly in the US, where all-natural, shelf-stable crunchy snacks from wasabi peas to trail mixes were taking grocery store shelves by storm. Why not cacao? In theory, it appeared to be a win-win for farming communities and the chocolate industry by: creating demand for less desirable, small cacao beans dramatically improving post-harvest fermentation and drying (because each bean is eaten individually) with an immediate feedback loop expanding consumption through a new, natural, crunchy and healthy treat that was more likely to appeal to on-the-go snackers Would this theory work in practice?
Unintended Consequences: In a Good Way In 2014, the week before my third trip to a cacao growing community, an acquaintance prayed for my journey and for me. He said he saw me working with women. I told him that would defi-
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Las Mujeres de Cacao
A glimpse into chocolate and the lives of the women farmers who make it possible. This photographic essay features women from the Kallari Association, a farmer’s cooperative based in the Amazon region of Ecuador. Words & Photography by Michelle RenÊe Baldovin
C
hocolate is one of the world’s most beloved foods with an industry that is worth over US $1 billion worldwide. The majority of cacao production takes place on small family farms, usually less than ten hectares in size. Cacao farmers receive the smallest portion of profits within the chain of production, and women are even further marginalised. Within cacao-producing communities, women are often the primary workers of the land and are leaders on tasks that are crucial to the production of chocolate. The work they do often goes unrecognised and uncelebrated, and within families it can be seen as an extension of their household work. Not only do women farmers have to overcome the typical challenges of being a smallholder farmer, such as the demanding physical labour, crop diseases that decimate harvests, and low income due to low prices of cacao, but they face additional challenges too. These include the pressure to function under multiple roles, such as taking the lead on unpaid and underappreciated household chores, like caring for children and elderly, maintaining the household, preparing meals and washing clothes. Women are often seen as the wives of the cacao farmers, as opposed to the farmers themselves. In general, women who do not own their land are less likely to control the finances generated from farm revenue, despite contributing more than half of the labour. In this case, women would rarely be responsible for the transportation of crops to market or in the final sale, leaving the control of income in the hands of the men. Women will often be paid less or not at all, and receive less recognition and compensation, despite their hard work and contributions. Additionally, women are less likely to participate in technical training or to be present at cooperative meetings, due to extra responsibilities and societal beliefs regarding women’s roles. By being involved in a cooperative, there are many
benefits for farmers. Specifically for women, it gives them more opportunities for leadership and better access to resources that might be more difficult to obtain without cooperative support. In Ecuador, farmer-owned cooperatives like the Kallari Association grow cacao and process the beans into award-winning chocolate. Behind the chocolate that we all love, are women who are involved in every step of the way: from planting, pruning and caring for the trees, grafting desired varieties, combating fungal and insect pests, to the harvesting and sales. Furthermore, women from these cooperatives are involved in the post-harvest processes, as well as in leadership roles, as representatives and leaders for their communities, and within the administration in the main office. Women from these Amazonian communities are present at the cooperative’s annual decision-making meeting - they do all of this while simultaneously caring for family nutrition, health, and completing household chores. Kallari is 100% Kichwa farmer-owned. The Kichwas are an indigenous group in Ecuador and Kichwa farmers grow cacao and other plants using traditional and diverse systems of agroforestry. This means that the farmers plant trees that will grow among the forest rather than clearing the land for a monoculture style of agriculture. This way of farming aligns with Kichwa culture, which consists of deeply respecting the earth. This photographic essay represents a small percentage of the women from the communities involved in the Kallari Association. It aims to create a visual appreciation for the role of women as leaders in the supply chain of cacao cultivation and chocolate production. It is a celebration of women cacao farmers and their crucial role within the chocolate supply chain.
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The Peace Crop When Women Come Together. Words by Ruby Willow Illustrated by Paula Calleja
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very chocolate bar begins its journey somewhere within the Cacao Belt, 20 degrees either side of the equator. Countries in this area grow much of the world’s food and two which are known specifically for their cacao production are Colombia and the Solomon Islands. Concealed within many luscious cacao plantations are things we often prefer not to think about. Slavery, poverty, drug wars, domestic violence and sexual abuse, are all problems which the farming families responsible for some of our favourite chocolate bars might have faced. As is true for much of the world, when a community
struggles, it is the women who bear the brunt of these issues. I wanted to explore the impact fine chocolate has on countries where women are known to face severe adversity, and whether simply buying better chocolate could make a tangible difference to a woman’s life. I was lucky enough to speak to two incredible ladies who are changing the lives of their community, one woman at a time, and the women who are supporting their mission from thousands of miles away. This is a story of what happens when women come together.
Coca to Cocoa The Women, Peace and Security Index ranks 167 countries throughout the world on women’s equality in their homes, communities and societies. Colombia is at the low position of 104 on this list. Contributing to this are a series of internal conflicts and drug wars. Over time, Colombia has become a worldwide symbol for illicit drug cultivation. Regular families who have been physically or financially pushed into farming coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, live a life built on uncertainty, crime and violence. For the thousands of families who live on the fringes of society, women’s rights are rarely prioritised.These families live in financial instability, with staggeringly low education rates that turn into equally as poor employment prospects. Dangerous cocaine cartels rule here - imagine living in constant fear of armed police turning up to set BEAN | 56
fire to your entire livelihood, or your husband being killed for being on the wrong side at the wrong time, and it is easy to see why coca farming is not an industry where women thrive. In an attempt to change this depressing narrative for Colombian farmers, the government eventually came up with the Crop Substitution Programme. This financially incentivised farmers to grow legal crops and became a catalyst for the surge in cacao farming. Cacao, coined “the peace crop” by the Colombian government, has been promoted as the optimal swap-out for coca. It requires an identical environment and even sounds the same. However, without a stable income and the education needed to grow high-quality beans that they can get a better-than-commodity price for, swapping chocolate for cocaine might not be as tempting as it sounds. For all of the violence and damage coca brings, it also comes with an income that many rely on to survive. In the remote countryside, where roads are scarce and you are miles of rivers away from any populated markets to sell your crops, it’s not as easy as choosing a new plant out of a hat. The chocolate industry accrues over 80 million dollars per year, but it is estimated that cacao farmers receive just 3% of this, with a handful of multinational companies pocketing most of the share. This impacts women bitterly, as they are paid, on average, less than one-third of what male farmers make, even when they complete two-thirds of the work. Today there are more than 35,000 families in Colombia who rely on cacao for their income, but less than 1% of them have been able to make use of the technology required to optimise their harvest and make a comfortable living wage. For women, this means the cycle of poverty, vulnerability and fear continues. For many Colombian women, living in fear is so commonplace that it is almost expected. Domestic violence, trafficking, and internal displacement are all disproportionately endured by women. Julia Zulver, reporting for The Washington
Post, wrote that women are “suffering extreme levels of assault, kidnapping and other violence”, and went on to explain that “Colombian women living in the conflict zones fear the armed groups that control their towns and rural areas will retaliate if they report violence.”
The Women Leading the way in Luxury Colombian Chocolate Cacao has been a part of Colombia’s culture far longer than it has been enjoyed across Europe, with both a local and international market for their aromatic beans. Traditionally consumed as a special cocoa drink, there’s now a growing number of chocolate makers creating luxury bars with Colombian cacao. One of these makers is Luisa Vicinanza-Bedi, the founder and chocolate maker behind Luisa’s Ve-
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gan Chocolates. Previously working as a teacher in Nottingham, UK, she found she was relying on her favourite chocolate to get her through the difficult school days. This passion led to her becoming the first bean-to-bar maker in Nottingham, and in 2017 she opened her chocolate shop. She has since won multiple awards for her single origin creations and feels passionately about working with other women.
“We have a lot of goals and have the strength to carry that through our entire lives. I want to share the passion and the pride we feel by being female farmers in Colombia.”
Funded by the UK government’s Prosperity Fund, the University of Nottingham is working directly with three female farmers in Colombia to create luxury bars for the UK market, in partnership with Nottingham chocolate maker Luisa. The aim of the project, which began in 2017, was to bring training and technology to Colombian female farmers, who for too long have been left with few financial options. The Prosperity Fund describes it as “helping Colombian farmers in conflict-affected regions to capitalise on cutting-edge UK technology and expertise to learn new skills, improve their productivity, economic independence and prospects for sustainable peace.” With a focus on women and girls, the Fund believes that reducing poverty and promoting gender equality go hand-in-hand. Carmen Magali Eraso Adarme is one of the farmers providing Luisa with delicious Colombian
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beans. In May 2019, Luisa was welcomed to Carmen’s cacao plantation to strengthen their partnership and learn more about each other’s lives as women working in the vast world of chocolate. Carmen explained to me how it has only been in the last six years that cacao has become a profitable crop to cultivate. Now that cacao’s importance in Colombia has grown, it is becoming more common for women to be working in this field. However, Carmen described how “women still find challenges constantly”, due to farming “typically being seen as a man’s role, and women being perceived as weak.” She proudly shared with me that “for cacao specifically, women have tried to change that perception by showing society, men and farmers that they do have the capability, that they do have the qualities they require to struggle against obstacles and know that they are capable of being farmers and delivering good results.”
In true feminist spirit, it is not just her own life that Carmen is working to improve. She has set up an organisation to pay forward what she has learnt through the project. She told me how “a few months ago, I started an association directed to women in Huila, which is the part of Colombia I live in. We share experiences to deliver high-quality crops and support all these women in the production so that they can gain more from their product. This helps them to start exporting and sending their products abroad to gain a higher profit and a higher quality of life. We also aim to promote education among our society. The name for the organisation is Cocoagro, which refers to cocoa and agriculture in Colombia.” For Carmen and the women she’s supporting through Cocoagro, an opportunity is all they need to prosper. They are hard-working, smart and certainly do not want handouts.
It is Carmen’s wish “for people to know that female farmers in Colombia, specifically in cacao crops, are very passionate and very entrepreneurial. We have a lot of goals and have the strength to carry that through our entire lives. I want to share the passion and the pride we feel by being female farmers in Colombia, so people can relate to this and maybe try our product, because we work hard for the production of high-quality cocoa. We want people to learn about the amazing product that gives us everything we have in life.” Carmen lives in Palermo, Colombia, and the plantation she runs with her husband Victor is on painfully steep land and is difficult to access, especially when carrying the beans on their backs. She explained that “in Colombia, farmers are not traditionally well paid for their work or product. The gains we have had are much higher than what we used to get before we started this process.” Carmen hopes with the increase in profits, she can improve her transportation to make it easier and safer to transport the cacao. She added that working with Luisa has allowed her to send her son to college, and for her and Victor to start learning English, which she hopes will help them access further education.
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Whiskey & Chocolate Words by R. M. Peluso Illustrated by Anna Bazyl
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ood pairing is an evolving science. It considers the compatibility of that which we consume, with how it is experienced through our sense of smell, taste, vision and touch. Touch, or haptic, means tactile-kinesthetic. The perception of flavour is the result of how our senses interact among themselves, as well as with memory, associative and analytic brain functions, and with the foods and beverages we consume.
Another contrasting combination is fat and citrus. Perhaps the reason why people like duck à l’orange is also why orange works so well in chocolate. Fat has texture and weight, and the richness of mouthfeel. Citrus includes sour, which also impacts haptic perception. Imagine the dryness or puckering aspects of tasting something sour. Also, think about crunchy versus smooth, and light or thin versus heavy or dense.
Flavour is a passion of mine that has only grown since writing my book Deep Tasting Chocolate & Whiskey. At that time, I was interested in systematically describing which chocolates and whiskeys (also spelled whisky) work together. As I later researched my column for Whisky Magazine and continued to collect data on pairing, I learned more about why certain food and beverage matches are successful.
Contrasts may also provide excitement, particularly through texture. Consider the melting smoothness of chocolate with the crunchiness of nuts, that delicious almond inclusion in your chocolate. As we chew and break it down, the fat of the nut merges with the fat in the chocolate. That which was contrasting now becomes complementary. Often, too, we can find nut flavour notes in the chocolate itself. Again, these are complementary.
Some pairings are based on contrasts; these may soften the extreme aspects of one another. An example is sweet versus salty, as in those ever-popular salted caramels. Sweet and salty are two of our fundamental taste perceptions, the other three being sour, bitter and umami.
The scientific explanation of complementary flavours is that they share molecular compounds. So, what makes a successful pairing is complex. Whether contrasting or complementary or both, my goal is a taste experience that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. Why else pair at all?
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Tips for Tasting: 1. Flavour enters first through the eyes. When we pour a dram of whiskey and open a bar of chocolate, we may appreciate the design elements of the packaging, the colour and integrity of the liquid in the glass, and the smoothness of a properly tempered and perfectly moulded bar. Our perception is primed to anticipate pleasure. Beautiful presentation can often trick us into perceiving that food or drink are better than they actually are, or would appear to be in a blind tasting. To unsee what has been seen is difficult, but we can try. 2. Select a tulip-shaped glass, with a bottom wider than its neck, so you can direct the aromas upward. Let both the whiskey and chocolate sit and “breathe� so the aromatics can emerge. Most single malts that are twelve years or younger, and noage-statement (NAS) whiskeys of all types, including bourbon, need at least fifteen minutes for the harsh alcohol vapours to dissipate. Otherwise, even a sniff of whiskey can burn. Let your unwrapped chocolate share this time kept at room temperature. Avoid ice. It is fine for recreational drinking and cocktails, but ice suppresses the full range of aromas, flavours and textures of a quality spirit.
4. Take your time! First, familiarise yourself with the aromatic notes of the chocolate, then those of the whiskey. Get to know them both independently before experiencing them as a pair. You should always start with the chocolate because it is more delicate and subtle. Begin by tasting a bite of chocolate and let it melt in your mouth, lips slightly open to allow air to mix with it, as you encourage your tongue to coat itself fully. Note all the emerging textures and flavours. Pay attention to the finish and any aftertaste it leaves. Now take a sip of water or simply wait a few moments before trying the whiskey. Pick up the glass and swirl the liquid a couple of times. Sip. Gently exhale over the liquid as it coats your tongue. You can give it a slight chew and note the texture and flavours as they emerge. Now try the duo together in a closer sequence. Chocolate, entirely melted, then the whiskey. Savour the experience for a while. Finally, try tasting them simultaneously. Allow the chocolate to half melt, then take a sip of the whiskey. Allow them to mix. Notice how any complementary flavours create unique synergies. Explore whether you prefer to taste the chocolate and whiskey sequentially or simultaneously.
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Meet the Makers: Nigeria to Norway Interview by Cacao Magazine
This Meet the Maker takes us across two continents to speak to two female-owned chocolate businesses and three chocolate makers. You’ll meet Moji Aina from Pod Chocolates, who is the first chocolate maker in Nigeria, and Agurtxane Concellon and Siv Hereid from Fjåk Chocolate, Norway’s first bean-to-bar brand.
Can you tell us about your background and why you started making chocolate? Moji (Pod Chocolates): My name is Moji Aina, my corporate background was as a pensions analyst. I graduated with a BSc. (Hons) in Actuarial Science and hold an Advanced Diploma in Operational Research. I have always had a passion for sweet things, and as a result, decided to have chocolates at my wedding. Unfortunately, there were no chocolate makers in Nigeria, so I took some vacation time from work and spent 5 days learning how to make chocolates, and I thoroughly enjoyed the class. It was then I decided I would explore the option of becoming a chocolatier in the future. Upon my relocation to Nigeria in 2008, someone who heard I made chocolates for my wedding also requested chocolates, this led to the start of my company called Chocolatier’s Wonders. [It was] a company providing premium handcrafted Belgian chocolates and gourmet cupcakes. Ten years later, in 2018, I started my Nigerian bean-to-bar chocolate brand, Pod Chocolates.
Agur (Fjåk Chocolate): I am a photographer and have been working as a freelance photographer and graphic designer for the last 15 years. I started to research chocolate in 2015. At the time I was looking for a new project in my life and I came across that “famous” video of the Mast brothers making chocolate in Brooklyn. This was the start of my deepest research on chocolate making. I discovered the story of Mott Green from Grenada Chocolate Company and cacao became a little obsession. I bought a Premier grinder and started to make chocolate in my kitchen with my boyfriend. Siv (Fjåk Chocolate): I am a chef by profession, and it was in the restaurant kitchen my friendship with Agur started, working together for many years. She was also the one introducing me to my first bean-to-bar chocolate she had made herself. It was easy to get fascinated by all the natural flavours you never thought could exist in a chocolate.
“I take inspiration from our Nigerian flavours and ingredients. We have so many different cultures in Nigeria, so there is so much to explore.”
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