Chocolaterie Home Sweet Home
& Cacao Trace Program
Great Taste, Doing Good!
Our approach enhances cocoa flavour and quality at every step. The extra value created from this higher quality is shared with cocoa farming communities, creating a sustainable future for cocoa and delivering exceptional taste to chocolate lovers.
Great Taste
“The better the beans, the better the chocolate”
At each step of the bean processing, we apply our four-pillar strategy:
- We define high-quality standards.
- We develop adapted professional equipment.
- We establish the right processes.
- We empower local people for a long-term impact.
High quality wet beans
We train cocoa farmers year-round to improve their yield and quality. From the first harvest, only the best beans are selected. These high-quality wet beans undergo strict quality control at our Cacao-Trace post-harvest centres.
Farmers who meet Cacao-Trace standards benefit from a better income through a Quality Premium paid on top of the farmgate price.
Fermentation mastering in post-harvest centres
Fermentation is essential to the rich flavour of your chocolate. We meticulously ferment cocoa beans to enhance the taste of your chocolate. We establish post-harvest centres in local communities, where we use special wooden boxes for fermenting cocoa beans. We also train community members to become experts in this process. Our fermentation lasts 6 to 7 days and is customized to the local beans, ensuring the best taste for the chocolate made from them.
Gentle and Hygienic solar drying
At Cacao-Trace, we go beyond conventional drying methods by ensuring beans are professionally dried in our advanced post-harvest centres. We invest in efficient, hygienic solar dryers managed by Cacao-Trace experts, ensuring an optimized drying process of six to eleven days to maintain the highest quality beans. Our strict Dry Cocoa guidelines ensure the beans’ highest quality, flavour, and preservation.
Low roasting
We redefine the roasting process through gentle, customised techniques. By adjusting the temperature and duration to each cocoa bean origin, we maximise the beans’ unique qualities, setting a new standard for quality and flavour in the chocolate industry.
Doing Good
The additional value created from our high-quality Cacao-Trace cocoa is distributed back to the farmers through initiatives like the Quality Premium and the Chocolate Bonus, making a life-changing impact.
A quality Premium for superior cocoa
For the high-quality wet beans we receive from cocoa farmers, we pay a Quality Premium on top of the farmgate price. This ensures a better income for farmers and addresses one of the main challenges in the cocoa chain: farmers’ poverty.
Impacting lives with the Chocolate Bonus
For every kilogram of Cacao-Trace chocolate sold, €0.10 is collected and returned directly to cocoa farmers to support life-changing community projects. The Chocolate Bonus is fully distributed to enhance farmers’ income, education, and health. These projects are selected collaboratively with the communities, ensuring they meet local needs and priorities.
Preserving the planet
To build a sustainable cocoa chain, we tackle deforestation and restore biodiversity by promoting good agricultural practices, increasing productivity, and investing in agroforestry. Our goal is to reduce our environmental footprint and support regenerative agriculture. We ensure full traceability and compliance with environmental regulations, protecting endangered forests and fostering a sustainable future for cocoa farmers and their communities
Are you a chocolate lover?
By choosing our chocolate, you help increase the income of cocoa farmers. Your purchase supports our mission to create a sustainable future for cocoa and the communities that grow it.
