We source our Nicaraguan cocoa through Frank Homann at Xoco, an organisation focused on transforming the way cocoa is grown by planting for variety and flavour. Xoco was started in 2007 and operates across Central America in Nicaragua, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. Xoco owns its own farms and also works with more than 400 outgrower smallholder farmers, mostly in Honduras and Guatemala.
Our Nicaraguan variety was identified in 2007 at Xoco’s mother-tree farm in Northern Nicaragua. Trees from this farm – many of which are more than 50 years old – were chosen for their fine-flavour cocoa, and as the name suggests, are the parent trees of those grown on Xoco’s farms.
Xoco originally named this cocoa variety after its neighbour, Chuno Herrera, but later improved the selection and changed the name to Tuma, after the general region where the original cocoa comes from, around the banks of the eponymous river. The fruit is green but turns yellow when it matures.
According to geneticists, our Tuma cocoa may be related to the original Royal Cocoa of Nicaragua and the sought-after Venezuelan Porcelana. It is rich in cocoa butter and has an intense cocoa flavour with a hint of nuttiness, floral notes and a smooth, melt-away finish.
