My Field to Bar, a connection that goes beyond borders

The pastry chef and the cacao farmer. Two different people, two different works, two different worlds, but with the same passion and daily effort on every step. The fine aroma chocolate our clients use on their creations, wouldn’t be the same without high quality raw ingredients, without that fine aroma Latin-American cacao, harvested by our allied farmers with dedication and care. Because of this, we created a project where these borders will disappear, and on this way, chefs from around the world will meet our allied farmers in person, and after living by themselves the “bean to bar” experience, create unique chocolate on their origin, this is My Field to Bar. 

For our first My Field to Bar, we invited Luis Robledo, renowned Mexican Pastry Chef and winner of the Latin America’s 50 Best Pastry Chef 2019. Luis came to Ecuador, to the Vinces region on the “Los Ríos” province, where he met Jaime Alarcón, one of our allied farmers, owner of the “Santa Clara” farm, where he harvests Cacao Nacional, more commonly known as Cacao Arriba with a unique passion. Luis walked through Jaime’s farm, talking with him, getting to know him and learning about his work and cacao production process. 

After this encounter, Luis developed the recipe in order to create his own small batch of select chocolate, from a specific cacao harvest from this high-level plantation. Once the recipe was stablished, Luis worked alongside our R&D and Quality teams in the production of his My Field to Bar chocolate, in a small production center that we built inside our Vinces Collection Center, in the middle of cacao plantations.  

What is more, during his visit Luis gave a chocolate workshop to the women farmers of the zone, where they learnt various of his techniques and developed abilities that allowed them to potentiate their economic stability.  

This project becomes a reality on the field, thanks to the strong connection between the Chef and the cacao farmer, that is not only based on creating an exclusive chocolate, but also on investing in long-term projects that will generate a true triple impact, economic, social and environmental, which supports our B Corp certification. This is just the beginning of My Field to Bar, a chocolate that goes beyond borders, full of stories, connections, dreams and purpose.  

Learn more on the following video: LINK