Kpalimé

from Kpalimé, Togo

It was after the 2022 Salon du Chocolat in Paris that Greg first met Oskar Jönsson, Head of Cocoa Sales at gebana, a Swiss company building sustainable supply chains. As it turned out, Oskar was already working with Dandelion's friend Julia Zotter, of Zotter Chocolate in Austria. Greg was a fan of Zotter’s Togo bar, so he was curious to learn more. Oskar sent us a cocoa sample to evaluate, sourced from Vision+, a cooperative located near Kpalimé, Togo.

The typical cacao farm in Togo is about half a hectare, and produces on average 250 kilograms of beans a year. It can be a challenge making a living just by growing cacao, so interspersed among cacao trees might be other crops such as coffee, maize, or plantains, destined for local markets. However, the additional cash from export crops like cocoa is important, as it enables individual investment choices — including medical care, children’s continuing education, or simply improving quality of life.

Each Togolese smallholder farmer not only grows and harvests their own cacao, but also does all of the fermentation and drying. After harvesting and cracking open pods, farmers pile wet beans into heaps and cover them with banana or plantain leaves, then turn them every few days to achieve an even fermentation — a process that takes around seven days. Once fermentation is complete, the beans are placed onto elevated drying tables made of bamboo for about ten days. Once dried, the beans are brought to a centralized facility where they are sorted, blended, and bagged for export. gebana’s mission is to bring Togolese cocoa to the world market, and we feel very fortunate to make chocolate from these delicious beans.