Semi-sweet baking chocolate
Rich and sophisticated
Its premium quality and rich taste will make your homemade treats unforgettable.
Quick tips for baking:
*18 chocolate squares per bar
*10 squares = 56g or about 2oz
List of organic ingredients
Golden cane sugar, cacao mass, cacao butter.
Allergen statement
Ingredients manufactured and transformed in a gluten-free and allergen-free facility free from: milk •peanuts •tree nuts • gluten •wheat • eggs • sesame • soy •mustard • sulphites •casein •lupin •fish •crustaceans and shellfish
Where does it come from?
Peru
Initially funded by the United Nation’s program to promote cacao cultivation as an alternative to growing coca leaves, ACOPAGRO was the first co-op to export cacao in all of Peru and is now an established exporter of quality cacao. The co-op, based in the San Martin region, has grown from 27 members in 1997 to more than 2,100 members today and is now the largest cacao exporter in Peru.
In July 2012, ACOPAGRO won first place in the national quality competition, Concurso Nacional de Cacao, in Lima. The co-op has diversified into other products and services like dried coconut, a reforestation and carbon capture program and credit service for members.
With Fair Trade premiums, ACOPAGRO has invested in a new office and warehouse facility, equipment and quality trainings for members, vehicles for staff, and social programs such as basic food production and access to medical services like dental and eye care.
The average farm size is 3 – 10 hectares, and many also grow fruit and timber trees. La Siembra has been sourcing cacao from ACOPAGRO since 2010. Read about our recent visit here.
Mission
To strengthen and improve production and productivity of cocoa harvesting to obtain quality products, raising income and quality of life for all ACOPAGRO family farmers. Read more >
NORANDINO
Since the introduction of Cuisine Camino whole brown sugar (Muscovado) in 2009, La Siembra has been working directly with Cooperativa Norandino (formerly Cepicafe) when then first developed their sugar project.
The sugar project at Co-op Norandino transformed the co-op from a successful democratically-owned farmer export organization to a demontratically-owned farmer organization for social and economic change. Recognizing their success in raising household incomes from better prices and yields from coffee, village co-op leaders noted that sugar cane, which members grew in the low-altitude parts of their farms,had no market. To address this and the increasing practice of turning cane juice into rum, the farmers decided to move forward with investments in village level panella production and processing facilities. They built 20 cane crushing and drying stations throughout the three departments of Ayabaca, Huancabamba and Morropon.
Today, co-op Norandino is an association comprised of 90 grassroots organizations with more than 4,790 small-scale coffee, sugar and cocoa producers, located on the western slopes of the Andes Mountains in Piura, Peru. The farmer owners of co-op Norandino benefit from five key areas of program services from the co-op: training, financing/credit, certification, processing and sales & marketing. Read more >
CACVRA (Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Valle Río Apurimac Ltda) is a democratic, worker-controlled organization of small scale family farmers of cacao and coffee located in Ayacucho, Peru.
The organisation was founded in 1969 to sustain their livelihood and preserve their culture and land. Today CACVRA has close to 1600 organic members and has become a significant producer and international exporter of quality organic coffee and cocoa beans. They have invested substantial resources into cultivating and marketing cacao of the highest quality. La Siembra has been supporting CACVRA since launching our first 100 g chocolate bars in 2002 by purchasing their organic cocoa beans under fair trade terms.
Mission
Provide efficient marketing services, agricultural credit, education, technical assistance, social services, agricultural industrialization, complemented by an efficient business management, leading to the sustained development of families and communities of family farmer members located in the VRAE.
El Quinacho (Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera El Quinacho) is a cocoa and coffee co-operative located in the southern part of Valley Apurimac in the District of Sivia-Province of Huanta-Ayacucho Region in Peru. The co-operative is also part of the larger organizations Junta Nacional del Cafe and Associacion de Productores de Cafes Especiales (APECAFE). We began sourcing from Quinacho in 2010