After being selected among the 50 best in the world in the Cocoa of Excellence (CoEx), Bahian producer João Tavares won a gold medal. Also in the competition, Angélica Maria Tavares from Bahia and João Evangelista from Pará won silver medals in the awards ceremony held live, direct from Paris, to more than 70 countries. The producers watched the broadcast in a space set up at the Ilhéus Convention Center, in Bahia, where the 19th Chocolat Festival - Bahia edition International Chocolate and Cocoa Festival is taking place until Sunday (12/12).
The virtual ceremony was broadcast to more than 70 countries, and Brazilians watched the announcement from the Ilhéus Convention Center, in Bahia, where the 12th International Chocolate and Cocoa Festival is taking place this week, which brings together various chocolate brands. The national event, considered the largest in the sector, marks the resumption of in-person activities after interruption in 2020 due to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The biggest highlight of the “cocoa world cup”, João Tavares from Bahia has already been awarded twice in the competition, taking first place in 2010 and 2011, and appearing among the 50 best in 2019. This year, João competed with a sample of the Catongo variety, a Brazilian variety characterized by light almonds. According to João, catongo cocoa is much appreciated by chocolatiers for having sweet caramel notes, without losing the floral aromas. “It’s a very exotic, very different material”, adds the person responsible for the plantation at Fazenda Leolinda, in Uruçuca, which had already won the award for best cocoa in the world in two other editions of the competition, in 2010 and 2011.
João Tavares' mother, Angélica Maria Tavares, entered a sample of the FL 89 variety from the farm of the same name, also in Uruçuca, and ended up winning silver.
“This achievement represents the recognition of Brazilian cocoa by the international market. The greatest joy of all is knowing that this will bring opportunity to the region, which needs to add value to cocoa, verticalizing production to chocolate and other derivatives”, points out João Tavares.
From the settlement in the Tuerê region, in the municipality of Novo Repartimento, producer João Evangelista Lima represented cocoa farming in the State of Pará very well with a hybrid sample from Pará. João Evangelista entered the competition with the support of Fundação Solidaridad. “Solidaridad has been operating in Brazil for 11 years supporting family farming and sustainable development”, explains Pedro Santos, Solidaridad’s field supervisor in Pará.
“I didn’t expect so much, but we got far and it was very good, it generated better value for my product”, celebrates Evangelista, while remembering to be grateful for all the support and technical guidance he received from the Solidarity Foundation and the Executive Committee of the Farming Plan Cocoa tree (Ceplac) from Pará.
The International Cocoa Award - Cocoa of Excellence is the most prestigious competition in the world and provides global recognition to high-quality producers, celebrating the diversity of flavors from different origins on the planet. In total, 235 samples were sent from all continents and the best 50 were selected by experts around the world for the grand final, in Paris.
The 29 Brazilian samples registered in CoEx were pre-selected at the Cocoa Innovation Center (CIC) under the coordination of Ceplac. Of these, eight went to Paris and the three that remained among the finalists won the highlights. This screening carried out in Brazil before submitting the samples for the competition is essential to guarantee competitive quality. “On the one hand we have the producers doing beautiful work in the field, who invest in quality, who are pioneers and face the Brazilian challenge of producing cocoa in the forest. And on the other, we have a technical team that is focused on increasingly professionalized almond qualification work. We have invested a lot in analysis methodologies and this is a game changer. It's no surprise that this year we have three winners. In fact, there was a thorough evaluation of each stage: physical, chemical and sensorial analysis of unroasted cocoa, liquor and chocolate. We realize that when we deliver something with technical support, we have a brilliant result like this. So, Brazil wins", comments biologist Adriana Reis, PhD in biotechnology and quality manager at the Cocoa Innovation Center (CIC).
Brazil participated in all editions under the coordination of Ceplac, which, since 2019, has had a partnership with the CIC to carry out all the final selection stages of the almonds that will be evaluated by the International Committee in France.
Held since 2009, the Chocolat Festival is considered the largest chocolate event in Brazil and brings together the entire production chain from the plant, from the fruit to the final product. “The festival is important because you bring researchers, chocolate producers, chocolatiers from other countries, from other states, people involved with this market. They demonstrate to producers that it is worth investing in quality, in fine cocoa, in cocoa of origin. The world is increasingly looking for products that have aspects such as environmental preservation, flavor and history behind them – all of this our region has, the south of Bahia has”, highlights Marco Lessa, businessman and creator of the event.
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