Cacaosuyo Chocolate (Peru)

“Why your chocolate is so expensive?”. Samir Giha, a co-founder of Cacaosuyo Chocolate (Lima, Peru) heard this question very often when he was about to start a conversation with local market players who couldn't grasp the idea that chocolate and cocoa beans could have an origin. The whole business of Cacaosuyo was created just because its founders were passionate about using the best cacao to produce fine chocolate - first by rescuing cacao varieties that were thought to be lost and then controlling the fermentation of the beans post-harvest so that the unique flavors of each cacao bean is revealed in the fine chocolate bar. The encouragement came when the brand won the best milk chocolate award at the International Chocolate Awards 2015 for its Piura Milk. Four years and 37 awards later Cacaosuyo established itself as a leading bean-to-bar brand in the premium chocolate category. 

Peru is home to 60% of the world’s cocoa species and one of the main producers of the beans. Peruvian high-quality cocoa-growing industry, mostly due to the thriving bean-to-bar industry, is experiencing something of a renaissance lately exporting 130 000 tons of cacao beans to Europe, the United States and the rest of the world. And Cacaosuyo was one of the Peruvian chocolate-making heroes who contributed to the popularisation of the industry internationally. The international demand in growth and to keep up with it Cacaosyuo decided to expand and automate its production facilities. 

Meet the best bean-to-bar chocolate maker from Peru on Hello Chocolate.