The Kallari Farmers’ Cooperative presented the tedious process of turning cacao beans into chocolate bars this past Tuesday. Culinology Program Director Klaus Tenbergen hosted the cooperative’s presentation inside Fresno State’s Henry Madden Library.
“I normally volunteer to do one seminar every year, but I try to come up with something that is cool, different, and to the benefit of everyone involved,” Tenbergen said.
“This presentation was a good way to educate both students and consumers about how much work is behind something that we love so much.”
Kallari has its own line of organic chocolate that is harvested and marketed by a coalition of farmers and local families in the Napo region of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Two members of the cooperative flew from Ecuador to San Francisco, and then drove to Fresno in order to present at Fresno State.
“We have been harvesting cacao beans for over 100 years in Kichwa, Ecuador,” said Kallari Tour Guide Roxana Salvador. “In our culture, cacao has been known as the ‘golden bean’ because it was our best produce along trade routes.”
Salvador, who is only 18 years old, works approximately two to three months out of the year at the organic Kichwa Farms. She explained the entire history of the cacao bean and presented a step-by-step guide to how they are taken from the farms and processed.
Judy Logback, manager of United States Sales for Kallari, was able to translate for Salvador as she presented detailed pictures of the cacao beans, and explained how supply and demand has helped to establish the local communities.
“Cacao beans are the world’s third largest commodity due to the fact that harvesting is so labor intensive,” Logback said.
Logback lived with the Kichwa people in Ecuador for 11 years in order to set up the cooperative’s infrastructure.
“I do this because I have a passion for culture, and I am glad that I have the opportunity to tell the stories of the workers behind the scenes,” Logback said.
The audience was first handed a plate with chocolate pieces that resembled the hours on a clock. The pieces were spread apart to signify the decrease in darkness of the chocolate.
“I wanted people to experience our chocolate with multiple senses and for them to actually see what chocolate looks like in its early stages,” Logback said.
Tenbergen also added to the audience’s experience by pairing the various levels of dark chocolate with three variants of wine.
The final taste for the evening was Tenbergen’s freshly baked dark chocolate cake. The cake breading was made with ground up cacao beans, and the inside was filled with rich, creamy Kallari chocolate.
“I think events like these are fantastic because it really increases peoples’ awareness of different types of food,” Maria Frye, a nutrition major, said. “I know that they [culinology department] can be busy, but I definitely think that more events would be beneficial to the students.”