The Amazon is burning and many of us are lying awake at night asking ourselves what to do. The last time the world was so shaken in real-time by an environmental disaster was when the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl melted down. What we are witnessing in Amazon is far more consequential. But we can understand…
Summer, sun, chocolate time? It’s hot outside and the temperatures in the living rooms are also quite high. But can you do without chocolate? Absolutely not! Here we have collected 4 expert tips on how best to store chocolate in summer, so that it is also a treat in summer. Cool, but not cold Chocolate…
If we want to change this world for the better, then we need to give it our passion, an unconditional surrender to taste and love to a pleasurable life. Because not the virtual world, not the additive-contaminated substitute satisfactions, is what makes our lives worth living. By TOBIAS SUDHOFF Real chocolate ice cream should be…
For many of us it is not news and yet, the latest report by the World Biodiversity Council (IPBES) has shaken the news world. It states that in the coming years and decades, one million species will be threatened with extinction if there are no fundamental changes in land use, environmental protection and mitigation of…
Real chocolate is a heavenly food. Break off a piece. Close your eyes and slowly let it melt on the tongue to taste its many nuanced flavours. Please don’t just chew it. Real chocolate is made from a hyper-nutritious seed, roasted to bring out its flavours, ground to a fine paste, and finally sweetened with…
For those of us whose lives are plugged in from the moment the alarm on our phone wakes us up to the minute our electric toothbrush cleans our teeth before bed, it is difficult to get a sense of daily life in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). To label the region poor or…
In Virunga, Eastern Congo, where Original Beans has been developing (organic) cacao farming among thousands of farmers since 2008, 2018 has brought an exceptionally good harvest for the Cru Virunga and Femmes de Virunga chocolates. The exceptional Congolese men and women of our local NGO, IDAD, have trained and equipped hundreds more women for beekeeping,…
The Arhuaco have chosen to live in their own world, which they believe is ‘the heart of the world’. Their world is a world of dense rainforest, snow-clad mountains, wild rivers, cozy water streams, deserted Caribbean shores and ancient cacao trees, all of which are sacred to them. The Arhuaco tribe is genuinely protective of…
Forced into the highlands for centuries by conquistadors, settlers and the coca wars, the Arhuaco have recently returned to their ancestral lands and sacred sites at the Caribbean shores of La Lengüete. These are the shores where the endangered green turtle lays its eggs. Cocooned by the pristine rainforest, the Arhuacos’ ancient and rare cacao,…
With little land and few possessions, today’s Zoque and Tzotzil communities struggle to make the best of their land in sustainable ways. As Jose himself says: “We work hard in our cacaotales every day and so we learn patience. We do not have much land, but with patience, we can make the best of our…
Awaking. The sun is about to rise and the sky is a fragile blue. The scent of cacao being roasted. The sound of a wooden spoon turning the cacao beans in the pan. The sound of a chicken being slaughtered somewhere nearby. The cicadas stand guard in the fog that still covers the forest. I…
“I who come from Tabasco with knots of Mayan blood where the ground cacao gave a new meaning to water” Carlos Pellicer Cámara Jose’s family is a typical Tzotzil family. They work hard in the milpa and cacaotales throughout the day and they only eat what they grow, which sounds modest, but they grow a…
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