Resources
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HCP Technical Guide for Cacao Nursery Management
The Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund (HCP) developed this nursery manual to share best practices for the preservation and propagation of Heirloom varieties. Using experiences and lessons learned from past nursery programs conducted at designee sites in Hawaii, Belize, Ecuador and Costa Rica, this guide describes how to manage the production of cocoa seedlings and grafted plants in nurseries following HCPs methodology. (Available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese) |
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From James Beard Award-winner Rowan Jacobsen, the thrilling story of the farmers, activists, and chocolate makers fighting all odds to revive ancient cacao and produce the world's finest bar.
When Rowan Jacobsen first heard of a chocolate bar made entirely from wild Bolivian cacao, he was skeptical. The waxy mass-market chocolate of his childhood had left him indifferent to it, and most experts believed wild cacao had disappeared from the rainforest centuries ago. But one dazzling bite of Cru Sauvage was all it took. Chasing chocolate down the supply chain and back through history, Jacobsen travels the rainforests of the Amazon and Central America to find the chocolate makers, activists, and indigenous leaders who are bucking the system that long ago abandoned wild and heirloom cacao in favor of high-yield, low-flavor varietals preferred by Big Chocolate. What he found was a cacao renaissance. As his guides pulled the last vestiges of ancient cacao back from the edge of extinction, they'd forged an alternative system in the process-one that is bringing prosperity back to local economies, returning fertility to the land, and protecting it from the rampages of cattle farming. All the while, a new generation of bean-to-bar chocolate makers are racing to get their hands on these rare varietals and produce extraordinary chocolate displaying a diversity of flavors no one had thought possible. Full of vivid characters, vibrant landscapes, and surprising history, Wild Chocolate promises to be as rich, complex, and addictive as good chocolate itself. |
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The Review Of Cacao Explorations and Germplasm Movements
By Dr. Lambert A. Motilal Cacao is an important tree crop impacting on livelihoods of millions of farming families in tropical and sub-tropical countries worldwide. This review serves to help conserve cocoa genetic diversity by identifying places for in situ collection and germplasm collection for ex situ genebanks. |
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Geological and Early Human Influences on Cacao Flavor
By: Richard Tango-Lowy and Donna McLintock This paper aims to clarify how and why cacao evolved as it did, the impacts of geological and human effects on species variation, and how these have altered the flavor characteristics of some varietals more than others. Along the way, we'll address the meaning of white seed cacao: what it is, and what it isn't. |
