Raw Cacao

The cacao bean, fruit of the cacao tree, acquired economic importance because it forms an essential element for the taste of chocolate, a worldwide popular delicacy. Cacao beans come in three main varieties, namely Forastero, Criollo and a cross between the two called Trinitario.

In Indonesia cacao is farmed all over the country, but 75% of that is in Sulawesi and the bean variety is mostly forastero, with some criollo grown in Java and trinitario in Bali. Cacao has been one of the most important agricultural export products for Indonesia and currently being the third largest cacao producing country after Yvory Coast and Ghana, with approximately 1.5 million hectares of cacao plantations. In the past decades, the Indonesian cacao sector has experienced massive growth, driven by rapid expansion of smallholder farmer participation. Indonesian smallholders contribute – by far – most of the national production, thus outperforming big state plantations and large private estates.

Unfortunately, Indonesian cacao are not regarded as high-quality beans. In fact, they mostly go into what is called “filler chocolate” which goes into industrial chocolate products, and has various other ingredients mixed in to stabilise and mask flavours. Pests and diseases resulting in low yields, labour intensive but low profitability as a result of minimum resources to add value for better profitability, and lack of resources to optimize yields and bean quality are among the big and ongoing challenges that the Indonesian smallholder farmer has to face, and forces them to choose planting high-yield, more disease-resistant, but low quality cacao variety.

We are very excited about Balinese Cacao. It is not just the fact that it grows in one of the most beautiful island in the world, but more to its uniqueness compared to other varieties of cacao in Indonesia. Historically, Balinese cacao has its roots to the “Light Breaking Javas”, which originally came from the fine criollo cacao beans of  Soconusco, Mexico.

Dutch planters over a hundred years ago had recognized Bali as a perfect growing climate for the heirloom cacao and tried moving the Light Breaking cacao beans onto Bali soil. However, Balinese wanted no part in the plantation game. So these incredible genetics simply spread across western Bali, casually planted in sustainably managed smallholder plots along with coffee and other crops, and soon became part of the typical tropical landscape. In the absence of commercial plantations, the trees spread informally and evolved into a unique, high quality cacao. In some areas of Bali, it is still possible to find pure strains of Criollo cacao; beautiful porcelain beans that may be some of the closest cousins remaining to the original Soconusco genetics.