The Quichua Cacao Farmers Behind Kallari Chocolate
Travel Blog • Joanna Kakissis • 11.12.08 | 9:33 AM ET
The $5.95 bars of rich, smooth Kallari artisan chocolate sold at Whole Foods come from an island on the Napo River in Ecuador’s rain forest. The Quichua people have been farming cacao for generations and then selling it, but now they’ve cut out the middleman and are making and marketing the chocolate themselves. The New York Times reports that they may be the only cacao farmers in the world who make and market their own chocolate.