Organic Hot Cocoa 42% – Caramel

Taste & Crema

Hot cocoa powder with 42% cocoa and a pinch of cane sugar tastes very delicious, warm and soft. The caramel flavoring gives it an attractive but unobtrusive note of a favorite treat.

Origins

You may know hot cocoa from a vending machine or a colorful box on the supermarket shelf. It's hard to know what all such mixtures contain. But the composition of this organic hot cocoa with caramel flavor couldn't be clearer: cocoa powder from the Dominican Republic, cane sugar from Paraguay and a drop of caramel flavoring from Europe. That's it. No preservatives or unnecessary additives. What's more, the cocoa and sugar come from organic farming, so they can rightfully boast the organic label.

Cocoa and its products surround us every day. However, we rarely realize where they actually come from. You might be interested to know that the world's largest producer of cocoa is Ivory Coast, followed by Indonesia and Ghana. The Dominican Republic, whose farmers grew the cocoa beans for this hot cocoa, comes tenth. It produces around 50,000 tonnes of cocoa a year. It is a key crop for the country. Cocoa makes the Dominican Republic one of the top exporters of organic products in the world. The quality of its cocoa is recognized internationally as one of the best. Incidentally, around 17% of the nearly 40,000 registered farms are growing cocoa under the organic farming. This is certainly not a small number. Most Dominican cocoa goes to the United States, the Netherlands and Belgium. Exports have increased by a staggering 322% over the past 10 years.

The true cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) is a tall evergreen tree with long leaves and large, up to 30cm long fruit. Their flesh hides 4-14 cocoa beans about 2cm in size. These need to be removed, stripped of the remaining pulp, left to ferment for a few days and then dried well. The beans then go to the processing plants where they are cleaned, peeled and roasted. They then go to so-called mills where they are turned into cocoa mass. From this, the cocoa butter and the cocoa powder itself are separated.

Like cocoa, we know sugar very well from our daily life. However, it may not be so clear what's its origin. Sugarcane is classified in the saccharum family and thrives best in the tropics. Paraguay is one of the countries for which sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) is an essential crop, even supported by the state. Although the first seedlings were planted as early as 1549, it is only since the middle of the 20th century that farmers have seen higher yields. However, sugar production in Paraguay is expected to grow. Cane sugar is produced by boiling the juice of the sugarcane stalks. As soon as the water evaporates, sweet, amber-colored crystals form in the containers.

All the ingredients in the 42% Hot Cocoa Powder come from organic farming. The blend is flavored with a caramel aroma that does not obscure the original taste of the ingredients while not causing heartburn or any other health reactions. Only lactose intolerant people should be careful. Hot chocolate may contain traces of milk.

Hot chocolate & Hot cocoa packaging preview

Our quality aluminum packaging lacks any bold graphics, as we’d rather focus on the taste of our products. Thanks to the hermetic seal, this container helps the contents keep their freshness and protect them against humidity, light or foreign odors.