ARRIBA GOLD

At the production stage, we believe that vanilla is frequently used as a frill that superficially enhances flavor or masks unsavory flavors in low-quality cocoa; and real gourmet chocolate, at this stage, shouldn’t need any masking. This is very different from chef's using added ingredients in their confections at the cooking stage. We believe in a pure product that is refined for a chef’s palate and needs, and to that end, we want to give chefs a “blank slate” to create whatever they want with the chocolate in whatever flavor they please – with or without vanilla. We want to provide gourmet chefs with bricks of high-quality, delectable chocolate, not bricks of vanilla.

Couverture is a term that simply means a chocolate that is made for covering, for instance, on pastries. We call that “enrobing,” i.e., in enrobed my phillo in 85% cacao. What makes couverture chocolate different than mass-market retail chocolate is its ability to melt and “cover” well because of high cocoa butter content. Cocoa butter is the most costly component in chocolate making, but it’s also one of the healthiest things about eating chocolate (besides of course the super-high doses of antioxidants). For chocolate to be considered couverture, it should have more than 32 percent cacao butter; and in our case, even our retail bars have a higher percentage.

Technically, it’s neither. Cacao beans (used to make chocolate after the fermentation process) are found inside the cacao pod, which is the fruit of the cacao tree. Natives of places that grow cacao often crack the pod open and suck on the unfermented and pulpy beans inside. In the fermentation process, those pulpy beans are dried out and ground (cacao nibs) and used to make chocolate. We still think pure and natural cocoa like ours is pretty awesome, but you should probably check with your doctor before making chocolate its own food group!

Absolutely. And if you leave it to us, we’d talk to you about it for hours. But here’s the basic gist of what it means to ferment cacao in a few short words:

First, cocoa pods are opened and the pulpy cocoa beans inside are scooped out over large banana leaves or a massive wooden box known as a fermentation vat. That vat has holes on the bottom which allow the liquids in the pulp to drain. At this point, the white pulp covering the bean begins to ferment with the help of tiny microorganisms. This leads to changes inside the bean which, over time, will influence both the flavor of the bean and final product – the chocolate bar you will eventually eat. The characteristics a chocolatier would want in his chocolate depend on this critical fermentation process; much like a wine maker’s fermentation process would affect how wine would taste. This is why Arriba Gold thinks that being close to the source is so important. Because we have control over the fermentation process our finished product is just what we want it to be. If you want a more detailed and scientific explanation, check out the International Cocoa Organization’s explanation here

At Arriba Gold we think that if you want good chocolate, you go right to the source. So we hitched a ride on a plane to Ecuador, found our beloved Arriba beans and set up camp. New York City (and Winnipeg) has great sights to see and foods to eat, but we looked high and low and couldn’t find a cacao tree! Processing the cocoa beans and producing the chocolate near the source means we have tight quality control and can watch over the process from start to finish. It also means that we can help employ local cocoa farmers and factory workers, and we feel pretty good about that.

Sure. We think the best kinds of stories are legends, especially legends with chocolate in them. And legend has it that way back in the 19th century, while cruising along the Guayas River in Ecuador, a Swiss chocolatier came upon some men toting freshly harvested cocoa. On smelling it he asked where it came from, and they responded, “de rio arriba”, which means “from upriver”. Since then, this variety of awesome cocoa has been known as “Arriba.”

Before it was called organic, most stuff that grew from the earth was just called “food.” You planted a seed, it grew, you ate from it. That’s it. Industrialization brought upon the “need” for pesticides and other chemicals and processes that were just plain bad for us and not good for the earth, either. But in Ecuador, where we purchase our cocoa from local farmers, the cocoa is intrinsically organic because cocoa grows in the wild without the need of fertilizers. Not only that, farmers in Ecuador simply can’t afford fertilizers or chemical controls. What you see is what you eat. They go beyond not using fertilizers, they use biodynamic methods of caring for their cacao, using ancient techniques.
In our opinion, organic labeling actually hurts small farmers in Ecuador and other parts of the world. USDA organic or EU organic charge large fees to farmers in order to issue the organic certificate, and each year farmers must pay to maintain their certification. For crops where farmers enjoy large margins, the fee is negligible, but for poor cocoa farmers the fee would put them out of business. For cocoa farmers, neighboring farms that have the organic label get paid above-market prices for their crops while farmers who don't have the certification are discounted. All the while, their crops are growing as “organically” as their neighbors, and with smaller yields because trees must be cared for by hand and individually.
We believe in pure chocolate, close to the source, as nature intended it. So, though we don’t have an “organic” label, we have full confidence that our cocoa is being sustainably raised in the healthiest way possible.
Eventually, we would like to push legislation for a free certification for farmers, under the name of Naturale (which means “organic” in French) where small farmers with plots less than 100 acres could apply and be evaluated for this certification; we could go beyond and get a Biodynamic certification as well. This gives consumers a standard they can expect from the product in their hands, and allows small farmers to reap the benefits of that recognition without an unsustainable fee.

Brandies with delicate undertones are perfect pairings for dark chocolates in the 55-70% range or bars with nuts, Zinfandels, Primitivos, Amarones and Bourdeaux style wines pair well with our 80 or 70%.

If you have any more questions, please email us at cocoa@arribagold.com. We can talk to you about your needs and what products and quantities would be best.