Belize Chocolate
Belize has four quality chocolate producers, all of whom use the organic Toledo cacao to create their masterpieces - Kakaw based in San Pedro, Cyrila's and Cotton Tree Chocolate who are both based in Toledo, and Goss Chocolate in Seine Bight on the Placencia Peninsula.
Cyrila's Chocolate
Cyrila's Chocolate is a family owned and run business in the village of San Felipe. Our matriarch, Cyrila, together with her son, Juan, and daughter-in-law, Abelina, harvest and process the organic cacao grown on their family farm for use in their wonderful range of chocolate and cacao products.
This is chocolate like you've probably never tasted before with an intense flavour enhanced by all-spice and local wild vanilla, as well as the extra ingredients in their range of flavoured chocolate, from organic orange peel to the baalam nut - itself a relative of the cacao bean - or the chili chocolate inspired by the spicy chcolate "kukuh" beverage, enjoyed by the family's ancestors.
Kakaw Chocolate from the Belize Chocolate Company
Chris Beaumont and Jo Sayer of the Belize Chocolate Company is a small artisan microbatch chocolate making company based in Belize. We think we may be one of a kind in the world, as our 'factory' is directly on the beach on an island in Belize, where the Maya arguably created 'chocolate'. Another unique quality is that we make our chocolate in the country where the beans come from. Many of the other microbatch companies in the US and UK import their beans from abroad. They use 100% Belizean ingredents: cocoa beans from the Toledo District, sugar from Orange Walk, and we don't add lecithin or vanilla, unlike most other chocolate makers, which makes for a much purer, finer chocolate.
The Belize Chocolate Company makes a signature 70% dark chocolate, and add other Belizean ingredients to make different bars - including orange, cacao nibs, chili, and shapes with pineapple, coconut, ginger, and mango.
Their product is called "kakaw", pronounced Ka ka wa, which is the Maya word for cacao, and you can find it in all fine food and wine stores, and top hotels in Ambergris Caye and throughout mainland Belize.
http://www.belizechocolatecompany.com
Goss Chocolate
Linn Wilson and Kerry Goss of Goss Chocolate was founded in 2007 - the same year as the CacaoFest.
Belize may well be the cradle of chocolate, and many people believe cacao was first used in this area. The Maya kings were the first to tax chocolate, but not the last. Only 1-3% of chocolate beans grown worldwide are flavour beans, those most valued by chocolate makers. Here in Belize, the vast majority of beans are flavour beans, and this helps make Goss Chocolate some of the best in the world!
We would like to thank the farmers who work very hard to grow world-class beans - growing organically is not easy, and we appreciate the excellent quality. We thank the TCGA for the work they do every day to ensure a great product. We thank the CacaoFest Committee and all the many volunteers who work to make the Festival a reality. And we thank our many customers who make Goss Chocolate the success that it is!
Cotton Tree Chocolate
More than just single origin, each batch of Cotton Tree Chocolate starts with cocoa beans from a single day's harvest from a single farmer.
We work with local farmers towards environmental, economic, and social sustainability. We exclusively use cocoa beans grown by our neighbours from the Mayan villagers surrounding our Moho River location at Cotton Tree Lodge.
Our products include milk chocolate, dark milk, and dark chocolate bars, as well as coconut rum bottles, and our special chocolate barrels filled with Belizean One Barrel rum.
http://www.cottontreechocolate.com