Our story takes a turn into the real world. We are dealing with an issue in society that can cause great concern with a practical and productive solution. Coca is a bush that grows in much the same conditions as cacao. The leaves from the plant contain around, usually less, than 1% of the cocaine alkaloid. When refined to a purity of near 100%, pure cocaine powder is obtained. The process of turning coca leaves into a powder was not known and never employed by the native people of Peru. People in Peru may have a coca bush in their backyard for their own medicinal use. Medicinal use should not be misinterpreted. Medicinal use of the leaf is usually in the form of a tea. The beverage obtained has less of an effect than a cup of your favorite coffee. The leaf has many different nutrients in its natural form and could actually have potential to be used as a supplement for people who suffer with depression. We understand that some people won't want to read that the leaf has positive qualities, and we understand the psychology behind that, but our world is full of things that seem simple, but upon further inspection become more complex. The fractal of life allows you to appreciate things on different levels.
While families may have A bush behind their homes, there are many farmers who choose to grow coca in clandestine ways because of the high price the market pays for the leaves. Farmers work hard to provide for their families and coca is a way to make money that doesn't require the work or care that other crops like cacao, coffee, or other fruits from the region. Cacao and Coffee do have a market that pays well and are sustainable alternatives to coca. Fruits from the region are delicious, but the lower price they receive and their fragility make their production less attractive to farmers. Some say that you go to sleep at night and the coca grows, you don't have to do anything and coca grows, the climate is perfect for the plant and it is easy to understand why a struggling farmer would choose to grow a crop that did not require much work and paid well. Aren't there many of you reading this that would love a job that did not require much work but paid well?
Coca farming has become a headache now that there are efforts to manually eradicate coca. Manual eradication differs from chemical eradication and is much better for the environment than the blanketing of forest with herbicides. Eradicating the fields of cacao does not though address the reason why people grow coca in the first place. Eradicating coca is like treating the symptom rather than the cause of the disorder.
Providing an alternative to farmers that paid well, and at times as well as coca, would be a way to address the issue. Cacao trees were planted during the 1980 as an alternative to coca. Farmers could now grow a crop that paid well and did not face the risk of eradication. The only problem was that the international market was not informed of the social effects of their behaviors. Commodities brokers, at the time, thought that paying the lowest price from the poorest producers was the best business plan. Now, we aren't faulting anyone who wants to make money, but how can it be right to make money at the expense, suffering, of others? We at Peruvian Chocolate do not believe that you can profit from the poor conditions of others. I know we are idealistic, but we want to live as if we were in the world in which we wanted to live. This is why we have a blog, not a formal text on the website. We are real people trying to help others while enjoying some of the best chocolate in the world. We have cool additions like quinoa and kiwicha (amaranth). Our coconut is amazing too. Tangents aren't probably the way formal text should be written, but actual conversations contain them, and we want a conversation with you.
Providing an alternative to farmers that paid well, and at times as well as coca, would be a way to address the issue. Cacao trees were planted during the 1980 as an alternative to coca. Farmers could now grow a crop that paid well and did not face the risk of eradication. The only problem was that the international market was not informed of the social effects of their behaviors. Commodities brokers, at the time, thought that paying the lowest price from the poorest producers was the best business plan. Now, we aren't faulting anyone who wants to make money, but how can it be right to make money at the expense, suffering, of others? We at Peruvian Chocolate do not believe that you can profit from the poor conditions of others. I know we are idealistic, but we want to live as if we were in the world in which we wanted to live. This is why we have a blog, not a formal text on the website. We are real people trying to help others while enjoying some of the best chocolate in the world. We have cool additions like quinoa and kiwicha (amaranth). Our coconut is amazing too. Tangents aren't probably the way formal text should be written, but actual conversations contain them, and we want a conversation with you.
In the late 1990's, a small plant was built to turn the raw cacao into chocolate bars. The local buyer that the plant represented helped stabilize the market for cacao making it an attractive alternative to coca. A small group of women and a couple of men started out on an endeavor that has endured to today and have developed into one of the most flavorful chocolates on the market. There were Swiss technicians who worked with the women to teach them how to make European chocolates. The plant was not the industrial monstrosity that dominate production nowadays. The beans were roasted and conched in machines but the tempering and forming of the bars is done by hand. Making smaller batches of chocolate allows our team to process the beans as much as is necessary but still retain the flavor characteristics of the beans.
We mix local ingredients with our chocolate to make some interesting textures and wonderful taste. Quinoa is the superfood that was analysed by NASA. The NYT just wrote an article on Quinoa and how the increase in demand has made the price of quinoa prohibitively expensive for those living in Bolivia. We get our quinoa from the Cuzco are of Peru. The puffed quinoa is mixed with our milk chocolate to give a different kind of crunch. Kiwicha, aka amaranth, has the same nutritional value of quinoa, but is much smaller in size. Puffed kiwicha is mixed with our dark chocolate for a light crunch to our dark chocolate. We use coconut, brazil nuts, and nibs to give a variety to chocolate. All ingredients are sourced in Peru to stay as local as possible.
So now we have former coca farmers who have converted their crops to cacao and a local buyer who paid a fair price for the cacao and made chocolate from the beans. The factory knew from its inception that the higher the quality of the cacao the more competitive their chocolates would be. The factory served as the organizer of training sessions so farmers could learn how to improve the quality of cacao grown. Training sessions taught farmers how to properly ferment the beans to the ideal percent. Fermenting beans develops the flavors while eliminating the bitter taste from a "raw" bean. Fermenting the beans too much can be overwhelming, so farmers had to learn to judge the percentage of fermentation. Farmers learned how to properly dry the beans and knew that the factory would pay a fair price for their work. Farmers were taught the importance of biodiversity of the fields to ensure the sustainability of their fields.
The factory did all this not expecting to get publicity. They did it because it was their community that was battling narco-traffickers and wanted to restore their region to the peaceful area that it once was. People wanted security. The people of San Martin stood up and took their region back. The gains are tenuous though and the threat of the return of coca is real. Farmers can be threatened into growing coca by the remaining narco-traffickers. Here we come to a really tough problem. Even when farmers want to switch their fields from coca to something else, they fear for their safety. We are not trying to scare anyone and farmers being threatened does not happen all the time, but it can be a very real concern. Developing a community around an industry helps deal with this threat by providing a support network of neighbors and friends.
We know we can't change the world, but we are working to improve our little part of it. We are real people who know that there are many more good people out their. I don't know what to expect from this, I can just be honest with all of you reading this. Let's have some fun before we're done.
We know we can't change the world, but we are working to improve our little part of it. We are real people who know that there are many more good people out their. I don't know what to expect from this, I can just be honest with all of you reading this. Let's have some fun before we're done.
I hope you want more of the story. I'll continue later. Hope you have some questions.
