Colombia · La Esperanza · Criollo

Colombia · La Esperanza · Criollo — El Turpial, San Juan de Arama (Meta)
100% pure MOOJO ceremonial cacao, grown by Maria Gloria Villamizar at the La Esperanza farm, available roasted or raw.

La Esperanza is a farm in the village of El Turpial, in San Juan de Arama, in the department of Meta —where the Andean foothills give way to the vast plains of the Orinoco. Maria Gloria Villamizar has been growing cacao there for years. She has given us permission to name her here.

The cultivar is FSV155: the plot has its own sign, which provides more information than most of what grows in the surrounding area. We haven't had it confirmed in a lab, and we won't write about it as if we had.

What we can say from firsthand experience—since we process this cacao in our workshop—is that it’s one of the palest cacaos we handle. Color doesn’t prove genetics—but this is an observation from our workshop, not a hypothesis, and that’s what makes it so unique.

The details of post-harvest processing on the farm—fermentation, drying—still need to be documented on site. We’d rather describe it than fill in the gaps.

Sourcing: Cocoa from Colombia. This cocoa is processed by MOOJO at its workshop in Heks, Belgium.