BIDDING CLOSED!
​HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED:

Contributing Authors: Volker Lehmann & Rowan Jacobsen

The HCP was founded in 2012 in response to the global pressures of environmental change, deforestation, and economic influences threatening the world’s supply of high quality, flavorful cacao. We know that endangered cacao trees are the foundation for not only delicious chocolate, but also the livelihood of many farmers and farming communities. We are the first initiative to identify and map the world’s finest cacao and designate growers of these endangered trees.

​​HCP #1
​Celebrating Ten Years of  Exceptional Cacao

Photo provided by Volker Lehman

For our very first heirloom designee, we came out strong with a unique selection of beans from the Alto Beni region of Bolivia, which was virtually unknown at the time. The beans had been developed from seed by farmers in the region and carefully fermented by Volker Lehmann, the famed cacao explorer who had spent years working with wild trees in Bolivia. The cacao was rich and complex, with strong fruity and chocolatey notes, and it set the bar high for the sixteen heirloom designees that followed over the next decade.

Now, in celebration of our tenth anniversary, we are auctioning off a once-in-a-lifetime lot of beans from the farm of Felix Paredes, the Grand Cru of Alto Beni beans. Felix has been farming cacao in the Alto Beni for 60 years. His beans were part of the mix for our HCP #1 designation, but this new lot is 100% from the Paredes farm. “When I saw his trees full of colorful cacao pods,” says Volker, “I knew he was the one to make a very special HCP#1 batch for the 10th anniversary.”

The beans were box-fermented for five days, mixed once per day, and dried in three stages: first with warm air in a stainless-steel flatbed dryer, then rested for two days in open bags in a greenhouse, then finished for two half days in direct sun. The result is perfection. “I believe this is one of the best batches I’ve ever made,” says Volker.

Transparency Statement
All proceeds of the auction will be split equally by HCP and Flor de Cacao.  

The HCP will use their proceeds to continue to "discover, identify and preserve fine flavor Heirloom cacao varieties for the conservation of biological diversity and the empowerment of farming communities."

Flor de Cacao will split its proceeds equally between Felix Paredes, the farmer of the 10th Anniversary Auction Beans, and making facility infrastructure improvements.

The Anniversary Auction--How did it work?​

The auction to celebrate the farmers and successes of Alto Beni will be the first of many future auctions for the HCP.
​
For the 10th Anniversary, Volker Lehmann auctioned a total of 600KG of the 2023 HCP #1 Alto Beni Harvest that was divided and auctioned as follows:

	QUANTITY Stored in 50 kg bags	AUCTION START ​29 February 2024	AUCTION END 7 ​March 2024
LOT 1	​200 kg of beans ​(four 50 kg bags of beans)	​12:00 PM PST	​12:00 PM PST
LOT 2	​100 kg of beans ​(two 50 kg bags of beans)	​12:10 PM PST	​12:10 PM PST
LOT 3	​100 kg of beans ​(two 50 kg bags of beans)	​12:20 PM PST	​12:20 PM PST
LOT 4	​50 kg of beans (one 50 kg bag of beans)	​12:30 PM PST	​12:30 PM PST
LOT 5	​50 kg of beans (one 50 kg bag of beans)	​12:40 PM PST	​12:40 PM PST
LOT 6	​50 kg of beans (one 50 kg bag of beans)​	​12:50 PM PST	​12:50 PM PST
LOT 7	​50 kg of beans (one 50 kg bag of beans)​	​1:00 PM PST	​1:00 PM PST

Thank you for celebrating ten years of saving priceless heirloom cacao.

​The auction took place on eBay Charity from 12:00 PM on February 29th until 1:00 PM of March 7th Pacific Standard Time (PST). The bidding for each lot opened in 10 minute intervals from 12:00 PM PST on February 29th.

Thank you to INVALSA for supporting us with the logistics of getting all shipments to the lot winners!  Invalsa’s sister company Alto Beni Cacao Company (ABC) operates a cacao processing plant and produces organic-certified cacao for export worldwide. Invalsa Coffee is ABC’s selling agent.

*DISCLAIMER:
Shipping is to be paid separately and will vary based on your location. If, after the shipping cost is calculated, the buyer chooses not to follow through with the purchase, the beans will be sent to the second-highest bidder under the same conditions.

The Full Story
Get the full scoop on the beans.

"The beans, produced from May to July 2023, are from a single farm including 8 local varieties (Hybrids).

​Farmer: Paredes Family, Sapecho, Alto Beni.
Processing: Volker Lehmann at Flor de Cacao in Palos Blancos, Alto Beni

Felix Paredes, born in 1947, as son of a miner from Potosi, who came to the valleys of the eastern parts of the Bolivian Andes when he was 8 years old. He helped his father to build a small farm and cutting trees for his wood business. His father kept looking for gold mining opportunities in the rivers  when an uncle took Felix to Argentina, so he could go to school as there where no schools in Alto Beni at the time. But Felix quit school at 11, as he thought it was a waste of time, and started working cutting sugar cane in Tucuman, he wanted to earn money to go back to Alto Beni and have a farm. At 17 with the money he saved he managed to buy land and started planting oranges in the tiny village of Sapecho. In 1964 the Bolivian government managed to bring Trinitario cacao seeds from Ecuador and he helped to make the first cacao nursery and genebank. As payment he received 600 trees. He had to carry the young trees, in heavy bags, from the nursery 10 km by foot, walking back and forth for a month to his house where he prepared 3 hectares to plant them with the oranges.

In 1970, now married, he had the first big sales of oranges that allowed him to buy a Volvo truck. He has learned about orange farming in Tucuman Argentina and with three friends they became the kings, delivering oranges directly to La Paz. The boom lasted several years until too many poeple had oranges and a deseas braught orange production down. The cacao was successful too, but to a minor degree than the oranges. People did not receive any technical advice so they led the cacao trees grow without pruning. In the 80ies witches broom braught the production to a very low level so he opted, as many others, cutting the cacao trees for other crops like rice or melons.

As in 2001 CATIE started a cacao project in Alto Beni to revitalize the production, Felix was first in line, but the varieties they recommended did not have much success. Production remained low. Felix was again disappointed. Then Felix heard from trees of other farmers that where very productive and that had been grown from seeds. He decided to collect this local material and to start his own nursery of productive trees by cloning. As he also has learned how to prune cacao trees properly his three hectares until today represent the best local high yielding and fine flavor varieties in one farm in Alto Beni.
​
I bought cacao from Felix since the start of Flor de Cacao in Palos  Blancos in 2011 when we developed a fine flavor project. He always delivered his cacao, but we didn't speak much. He got his money and came back with fresh beans when he had. My people knew Felix and recommended him, but I never visited his farm until last year, when I reopened Flor de Cacao after 8 years of shutdown. His beans probably went into the batch I made for Zokoko in 2013 that became HCP#1 in 2014.

When I saw his trees, full of colorful cacao pods, all this different varieties and after he finally told me his live story I knew he is the one to make a very special HCP#1 batch for the 10th anniversary. Of course, it is impossible to make the same cacao again that was send to HCP in 2013, so we decided to use only the cacao from the Paredes farm for a special batch.

I agreed with Felix and his Family to buy all his production in 2023 and he started to deliver wet beans in May which we box fermented for 5 days, mixing only once a day and dried them with our three stage drying method. First stage is 2x6 hours with warm (42°C) air in a stainless steel flat bed dryer, moving them buy hand. The second stage is resting for 2 days in open bags in a greenhouse at tops 45°C and the third stage is two half days drying in direct sun. I consider drying as important but more tricky than fermentation, as half the way the beans keep fermenting inside until the moisture is too low. And I recommend a "ripening" time of at least 12 month before processing the beans into chocolate.

I believe this is one the best batches I've ever made from beans of one of the best and persistent farmers I've ever met."