COCOA: a Trip To Dominican Republic
Hello. Zander here from Islands. Being the first employee here does have some benefits, namely, a trip to the Caribbean. However, this was certainly no beach holiday. I was lucky enough to take a trip to our partner farms in Dominican Republic to learn everything about the growing, harvesting, and fermentation processes that are involved to produce the unique flavour of our cocoa.
Along with our Chairman, Harry, I spent 6 days journeying across the country north of San Francisco de Macoris, which is the main cocoa growing area of Dominican republic, being rainforest in nature. We spent our time auditing new farmers and processors so that we are happy with what we are buying in terms of quality and taste as well as ethics and then moved onto gathering the information we need for supporting our new certifications and finally, polishing up what is required for our traceability reports which accompany each and every shipment of cocoa.
This was my first visit to the Dominican Republic; prior to this my only experience of cocoa farming had been our own farms in St Vincent. The differences were considerable. Whilst in St. Vincent most of the cocoa is grown by us and spread around the island on relatively small and young farms, in Dominican Republic, cocoa farming has been a major industry for many years and is very much part of the fabric of the country. Dominican Republic is the largest producer of organic cocoa in the world.
The difference was fascinating. With fourth generation farmers and fifty year old mature cocoa trees, farming practices differ considerably. Whereas we had the benefit of largely starting fresh, controlling exactly what types of cocoa are planted and professionally managing the treatment of these plants, our Dominican Republic cocoa farmers rely on traditions and knowledge passed down through the generations. Farming cocoa is almost instinctive, bypassing the levels of data analysis and close management we commit to in St. Vincent. Being predominantly organic only, this equates to a low input, low output model. But one of the main differences is the harvesting, whereas we harvest all year round (albeit with two recognisable peaks and troughs) in Dominican Republic there are two very distinct harvest periods (equivalent to our spring and autumn) outside of which there is little-to-no harvesting. This means most are peace-time workers, with other sources of incomes, as opposed to being employed full time.
The visit was a great opportunity to identify exactly what we wanted and from whom we should source it. Our experience was a great help in this respect. We followed the journey of this cocoa from the farms we visited, which allowed us to meet the farmers, all the way through to the two processing plants that we have identified as being able to manage the beans to our chosen specification. Processing not only covers the actual process itself of weighing and inspecting, fermenting, drying, bagging up then shipping, but also the increasingly important aspect of traceability. Notwithstanding new EU rules about to be introduced will mean that cocoa (along with other commodities such as palm oil and beef linked to deforestation) will be banned from entering the EU unless the importer can prove its produce is free from malpractices such as deforestation. Without proper traceability we cannot guarantee the quality and also ethics which is integral to our ethos at Islands.
Back to processing. Fermentation is the most important stage as it determines the end flavour of the bean. Whilst lots of other factors contribute to the end taste and quality of the bean -variety, terroir, how it is collected, how it is dried etc - none are as important as the fermentation process - you cannot produce good cocoa with bad fermentation but you can produce better cocoa from good fermentation!
Like our St. Vincent farms, cacao is fermented in wooden boxes; interestingly half our size at 500kg but with an extra layer - four rather than three but essentially the objective is the same. Fermentation is essential to flavour development. Raw cacao beans have a bitter and astringent taste. Fermentation allows for the breakdown of proteins and carbohydrates inside the bean to create its unique flavour. There are two stages; anaerobic and aerobic. During the anaerobic stage yeasts consume the sugars contained in the cocoa pulp producing carbon dioxide and ethanol and bacteria convert citric acid, glucose and other carbohydrates into lactic acid with enzymes also helping breakdown the pulp, transforming it into liquid which runs off. During the aerobic stage the cocoa is moved between boxes to encourage bacteria to oxidise the ethanol and other acids to produce acetic acid, which is then further broken down into carbon dioxide and water. This aerobic process generates significant heat (we aim for at least 45 degrees centigrade) which along with ethanol and acetic acid, breaks down the cell walls allowing the chemical changes to take place which develop the flavour precursors associated with chocolate. This whole process takes 7-10 days depending on climatic conditions and other factors.
Following fermentation, the cocoa is then moved to a drying facility. Fermented cocoa has a high moisture content and needs to be dried to around 6% water content otherwise it will rot. The cocoa is taken to purpose-built drying tunnels, specially designed to channel air in a circular motion to improve drying efficiency, bypassing the need for motorised fan assistance.
Once dry, the cocoa is bagged and stored ready for shipping. The information relating to farms, yields, batch dates, fermentation and drying details is then digitally recorded.
One of the main purposes of my trip was to improve our traceability reporting system in the Dominican Republic as it currently requires multiple points of contact and the information is not as easily accessible for clients as it could be. Having ironed out the details with the teams there, we will soon be able to provide succinct traceability one pagers upon request for every batch of cocoa and chocolate we sell.
This is especially relevant for those of our clients who want their powder and / or chocolate to come from cocoa certified by one of the big recognised certification bodies such as Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance. Whilst we are very confident that the cocoa we source already goes above and beyond these ethical standards, we respect that some brands require these stamps of assurance across their product ranges and their own customers expect to see them. So we are happy to arrange this.
All in all a fascinating and useful trip.
