History of Cocoa
The cacao tree originated in the nearby Amazon or Orinoco river basins of the South American homeland of the ancestors of the Taino, the native inhabitants of the island of Hispaniola.
Cacao was introduced into the Dominican Republic by the Spaniards at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Just a few decades later the French had taken over the island and planted new varieties taken from other colonies. It was not until the mid-ninteenth century that cocoa became a relevant export commodity in the country.
In the last agricultural census of 1988, surface planted with cocoa represented nearly 10 percent of the total superficies of secondary forests.
Cocoa Flavor Attributes
Dominican Republic cacao has one of the most distinctive and diverse genetic bases in the world, primarily criollo and trinitario, with strong fine flavor imports from Trinidad and Venezuela. The taste of Dominican cacao reflects the variety and the richness of its genotype.
Grown by small farmers with diverse production, Dominican cacao peculiar and notable note is fruitiness. Fruity flavors in our cocoa may have hues of ripe bananas, citrus and prunes, with a hint of Caribbean warmth in all of them.
Etymology
"brown powder produced by grinding roasted seeds of the cacao, an American evergreen tree," 1788, originally the seeds themselves (1707), corruption (by influence of coco) of cacao. The confusion with coco was already underway in English when the printers of Johnson's dictionary ran together the entries for coco and cocoa, after which it has never been undone. Cocoa has been the regular spelling from c. 1800.
The quality of the cocoa produced in the country is one of the best at the international level; noting that 40% of nationally produced cocoa can be sold as "fine", according to the specialized committee of the International Cocoa Organization, with the potential to reach 70%.
The Dominican Republic was included in the select group of 15 countries recognized as producers of gourmet cacao.
Organic cocoa is divided into two types: a) Sánchez (unfermented), which constitutes 70% of the Dominican cocoa export and is preferred by the US market, and the Hispaniola type (fermented) of high demand by the European market.
See it and taste it in one of our experience.
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