Saveur – July 2019

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verge of chopping down all her trees. A widow with seven chil-

dren, she couldn’t see a way forward given the abysmal prices

she was getting for her crop. But since then, she’s been selling

to Kokoa Kamili, and today her cocoa plantation is among the

most productive in the area. “We’ve been getting big money,”

she admits with a shy grin, gesturing toward the new house.

at the kokoa kamili factory, the sour, syrupy smell

of fermentation permeates the air, clinging to hair and clothes,

attracting droves of bees that land on sacks of fresh beans and

hover over the puddles of juice beneath them. None of this seems

to faze the workers. They spend their days hauling dripping bags

of cocoa, packing the beans into wooden fermentation boxes, and

shuff ling them across long trays to dry in the sun.

The company employs around 50 people in high season,

and almost all are from Mbingu. The foreman lives across the

street; he used to lend a hand for free until Kokoa Kamili hired

him. The head agronomist, who helps growers with any prob-

lems with their crop, still has his own farm in the area; he first

approached the company as a farmer looking to sell his beans.

On a concrete porch, some two dozen women grade piles of

dried beans, spreading out handfuls over round woven trays.

With quick fingers, they pick out leaves, rocks, and too-f lat

beans, while a handful of overall-clad workers in a warehouse

behind them shovel heaps of fermenting cocoa from one box to

another. Moving the beans every two days keeps the fermen-

tation hot—often as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit—allowing

the microorganisms responsible for fermentation to thrive.

With outside temperatures in the 90s, it’s a sweaty business.

After six days of fermenting, followed by up to a week of drying

in the sun, a cocoa bean becomes hard and russet-colored, like a

f lattened almond. You can f lake off its thin shell to reveal a firm

nib, deep brown with a tinge of purple. Even unroasted, it tastes

unmistakably of chocolate, with some fruity notes of citrus and

banana. (The chocolate-maker will roast the bean to further de-

velop these f lavors.) In a final step, bags of beans are blended to

ensure consistency throughout the batch.

i s r a e l c h a g at i , a n ol de r , m u s c u l a r ma n, s e e s h i m s e l f a s

a successful farmer. He has been growing cocoa for 20 years, lon-

ger than any of his neighbors, and has managed to send all three

of his children to university. Since he began selling his crop to

Kokoa Kamili, he has traded a grass hut for two tidy brick houses.

But until recently, Chagati had never actually tasted a choc-

olate bar. It isn’t something he or his neighbors could have af-

forded to eat regularly and, aside from cocoa-flavored cookies,

chocolate isn’t available in the village. During his early years of

cocoa farming, Chagati says, he didn’t even know what sort of

product his beans were destined to become.

Closing this loop is increasingly important for many craft-

chocolate-makers. “We’re acknowledging that the farmer plays

an integral part—what they do is important,” Mullen says. Now

that Chagati is working with Kokoa Kamili, he is starting to ap-

preciate the full scope of his work. Bindra and LoBue will bring

visiting buyers to his farm. He smiles when he hears about the

value people put on the quality of his crop, and the awards the

chocolate has won, at the end of one such visit. He recalls his

first taste, on an earlier visit. “It was good,” he says as LoBue

translates. “Flavorful. A bit sour.” And he’s already dreaming

bigger: “We should make our own chocolate here in Tanzania,”

he says, “and send it out into the world.” 

This page, clockwise from top left: Visiting American chocolate-makers; mov-

ing a batch from a fermentation bin; arranging beans on drying racks; cocoa

beans in various stages of fermentation and drying; cocoa pods ready to harvest.

Opposite, clockwise from top left: Cocoa beans being sorted; Bahati Sanjingu, a

Mbingu grower; the flower of a cocoa tree; harvesting the day’s fruit.

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