The Quest to Save the World’s Most Coveted Chocolate
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- Author: Heide Brandes
- Full Title: The Quest to Save the World’s Most Coveted Chocolate
- Category: articles
- URL: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/quest-save-worlds-most-coveted-chocolate-180982703/
Highlights
- Scholars estimate that Nacional was first cultivated more than 5,000 years ago, in what is now the Zamora Chinchipe province, and ancient traders planted these Nacional trees near the coast. A 2012 study found that European colonists began planting Nacionals themselves in the New World roughly a century after Columbus. The variety soon attained a global reputation for its strong aroma. Ecuador’s integration into the world economy in the 19th century was almost entirely dependent on the cocoa trade; in the late 1800s and early 1900s, its popularity exploded as chocolate became a craze in Europe. (View Highlight)
- We call it the ‘Noah’s Ark’ of ancient Nacional cacao,” says Jerry Toth, the 45-year-old co-founder of the Third Millennium Alliance (TMA), a conservation nonprofit, and the co-founder of To’ak Chocolate, a private company that creates organically grown, top-of-the-line chocolate using Ecuadorean cacao grown by local farmers.
More than 30 families are now working with Toth to reforest their lands using seedlings from the nearly extinct tree. The rebirth of this once-lost treasure isn’t just a miracle for the chocolate-loving world—it’s also a milestone in reviving the rich heritage of Ecuador’s coastal forests and farming. And it may even offer hope for saving other endangered trees worldwide. (View Highlight)
- TMA successfully planted 189 clones within a special parcel of the Jama-Coaque Reserve that was protected from cross-pollination from other cacao varieties. (Cross-pollination would muddy the pure genetic waters, and TMA and To’ak wanted to retain the purity of Nacional.) Toth’s goal was having all of those 189 reproduce, sprouting their coveted yellow or orange pods. In the end, nearly all of them did so, and those that initially did not were regrafted or replanted. TMA continues to distribute their offspring to any local cacao grower who wants to help save this historic variety from extinction by creating a suitable market for Nacional. To build upon their success for the next generation, TMA is also training a group of farmers in their 20s in the nearby community of Camarones to become grafting experts themselves. (View Highlight)
- Farmers working with To’ak receive, per acre, around 296 native shade tree seedlings, 1,482 cacao seedlings and 741 banana cuttings in the first year. In the second year, they get replacements for any seedlings that didn’t take. The growers can sell dry Nacional for roughly $7,300 per metric ton—more than twice the global median for cacao. After covering the costs of harvest and transport, To’ak reinvests in the program and then pays 83 percent of the gross directly to farmers. (View Highlight)