Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. What is better than a day to celebrate love, kindness, and give small gifts to uplift someone else's heart. This year we poured our love into the creation of a beautiful hand-decorated gift set of heart bonbons with chocolates we make from Latin American beans. Each heart has its own story that we'd like to share with you through this blog and our instagram.
The cacao for the "Arhuacos" bonbon comes from "the hart of the world," the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. It is a special place where all of the biomes on Earth exist along an elevation gradient form the Caribbean Sea to the snowy glacial peaks all within in a region smaller than the size of Massachusetts. Essentially, it is a microcosm of planet Earth. Its caretakers are the Arhuacos, an indigenous group of people who are descendants of the Tairona, a pre-Columbian people present in the area as early as 200 BC. The Arhuacos harvest the same stock of cacao that their ancestors used to drink in ceremony.
We are very fortunate to have this ancestral cacao from the Arhuacos, since they have not been harvesting this year due to COVID-19. Instead they have focused their time on ceremony to bring the Earth back in balance. I was selected as one of the lucky partners to have some of the remaining lot of this cacao, because of my long-term commitment to working with Colombian cacao to help earn it recognition worldwide for its high quality.
Our Valentine, "Arhuacos" bonbon has a ganache created with our Arhuacos dark milk chocolate and a surprise crunch in each. Its outside decoration symbolizes the gold treasures the Tairona buried on the mountain to balance Mother Earth. The turquoise design symbolizes the mochilla bags that the Arhuacos weave and wear over their shoulder. When I met the Arhuacos, I promised to deliver their message to you through the chocolate: "Be mindful of how much we change nature. The wind, water, soil, and this special cacao are all gifts from Mother Earth that support humanity." This Valentine's day, let's spread some love to others we care about, to strangers by cooperating to contain the virus, and most importantly to Mother Earth who takes care of us.
We are very fortunate to have this ancestral cacao from the Arhuacos, since they have not been harvesting this year due to COVID-19. Instead they have focused their time on ceremony to bring the Earth back in balance. I was selected as one of the lucky partners to have some of the remaining lot of this cacao, because of my long-term commitment to working with Colombian cacao to help earn it recognition worldwide for its high quality.
Our Valentine, "Arhuacos" bonbon has a ganache created with our Arhuacos dark milk chocolate and a surprise crunch in each. Its outside decoration symbolizes the gold treasures the Tairona buried on the mountain to balance Mother Earth. The turquoise design symbolizes the mochilla bags that the Arhuacos weave and wear over their shoulder. When I met the Arhuacos, I promised to deliver their message to you through the chocolate: "Be mindful of how much we change nature. The wind, water, soil, and this special cacao are all gifts from Mother Earth that support humanity." This Valentine's day, let's spread some love to others we care about, to strangers by cooperating to contain the virus, and most importantly to Mother Earth who takes care of us.
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