Maya Mountain Cacao of Toledo wins international award

By Aaron Humes: Maya Mountain Cacao of San Jose, Toledo District, is one of twenty winners of an International Cocoa Award (the “Cocoa Olympics”) celebrated at the Salon du Chocolat, Paris, shining the international spotlight on the work of cocoa farmers, and the diversity of cocoa around the world.

Every two years, the Cocoa of Excellence (CoEx) Programme spearheaded by Bioversity International (now the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) and Salon du Chocolat recognizes quality, flavour and diversity of cocoas according to their origin.

The winners were taken from a shortlist of fifty entries from fifty-five countries in four regions. Maya Mountain joins two winners from Trinidad and Tobago as well as St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Dominican Republic.

The Cocoa of Excellence Programme, celebrating 10 years, is the entry point for cocoa producing countries to participate in the International Cocoa Awards. For the 2019 Edition, the Cocoa of Excellence Programme received 223 samples of cocoa beans, originating from 55 countries. After a detailed physical quality evaluation, the beans were carefully processed into liquor for blind sensory evaluation by the Cocoa of Excellence Programme Technical Committee, a panel of international cocoa and chocolate experts. Following this evaluation and a robust data analysis, the best 50 samples were selected and processed into chocolate (following the same recipe of 66% cocoa) for sensory evaluation. This evaluation included 35 experts from a broad range of professions from chocolatiers to chocolate sensory evaluation experts to bean sources from 12 countries including Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Organizers say the CoEx Programme stimulates the sector in up and coming origins through the organization of national cocoa competitions. More and more countries celebrate quality and excellence at the national level promoting a greater participation and connections between producers, buyers and manufacturers at national level to bring more of the value added at origin. The producers in the best 50 and those winning an International Cocoa Award can play a strong role of quality champion in their cocoa communities.

Others winning include Ivory Coast, Ghana, Madagascar and Tanzania; Fiji, the U.S. (Hawaii), Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

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