Santiago Peralta, cocoa expert: ‘If we all ate chocolate, the world would be a better place’

“Chocolate has been a cult food for 5,500 years,” says 53-year-old Santiago Peralta, while lamenting that, nowadays, there’s a lack of knowledge about the culture surrounding the product. However, in the company he created with his wife, Carla Barbotó, more than 20 years ago, he continues to cherish the heritage of chocolate. The Ecuadorian businessman is convinced not only of its capacity to generate well-being in those who consume it, but also that it can be produced in an honest way, while respecting the environment and society.

Pacari Chocolate produces what is considered to be among the best chocolate in the world. This is confirmed by the dozens of International Chocolate Awards received throughout its history. In the last edition alone, Pacari won eight. The Quito-based company is also recognized as the most ethical chocolate producer in the world, according to the British organization Ethical Consumer.

When it comes to making it, Peralta doesn’t hide his red lines: “Milk is never added to chocolate and its main ingredient must be cocoa. Calling something that has 15% cocoa ‘chocolate’ is a scam.”

While passing through Madrid — a city he travels to four or five times a year — he has an iced coffee for breakfast at Bô Coffee and takes the opportunity to taste some of the chocolate bars he’s carrying in his backpack. “This one has toffee, vanilla, meringue... it looks like café con leche,” he says, regarding the Esmeraldas bar by Pacari, which is 60% cacao. He then tears open a Raw 70%, one of the most-awarded bars, and, when he tastes it, he detects notes of wood, nuts and “red fruit, but very subtle.”

This is a small demonstration that chocolate — the good kind, made with fine-aroma cocoa — isn’t a product of flat flavour. Rather, it’s full of nuances determined by origin, variety or terroir... as if it were wine. “We only look at the price [of a wine bottle], without being able to distinguish what a Vega Sicilia is. That’s because it hasn’t been explained enough,” he notes, making a comparison between his chocolate and one of the oldest Spanish wineries.

There’s a lot of ignorance around chocolate. Hence, Peralta preaches in favor of a renewed chocolate culture. However, he acknowledges that, in recent years, the development of the bean-to-bar movement — the process of making chocolate that’s carefully monitored from cocoa farming to grocery stores — has encouraged people to start looking at cocoa in a different way. “It’s important that someone tells you about the origin of a cocoa [bean] and [that we] treat the quality of this product with respect.”

To understand the history of Pacari and its philosophy around responsible cocoa production — such as the firm’s work with organizations like the World Wildlife Fund — you have to go back to Peralta’s childhood. He was raised in the countryside of Ecuador: from childhood, he helped out by taking care of animals, sowing and harvesting. “They never used agrotoxins and didn’t join the Green Revolution,” he says, in respect to his family and their view on agriculture. He also remembers that they never ate anything processed and that they always had a “sweet tooth.”

His studies took him to Europe: first to Germany, where he highlights the “austere” character, then to Portugal, to the Lisbon of the 1990s, a city where he felt a palpable sadness and resistance to change. “I fled from all that and returned to Ecuador… and I realized that everyone there embraced [my] ideas,” he says.

After exporting organic products with his wife, they began working hand-in-hand with farmers to certify crops and to improve the quality of cocoa and farm conditions. At the beginning of Pacari, there were no chocolate bars, which arrived three years later. Instead, there were only nibs — pieces of roasted cocoa — that Peralta and Barbotó exported to the UK, Germany and the United States. Today, they sell their products in 40 countries and have gone from working with 50 farmers to involving some 3,000 families in production.

In these more than 20 years, Peralta has made a name for himself not only in chocolate, but as an entrepreneur of a brand that generates added value and a positive impact on the community in which it has been developed, helping to change the paradigm of cocoa production in Ecuador. His business model is even studied at Harvard University.

“Our criteria isn’t to help poor children. Charity is one thing and changing the structure of a country is another,” the businessman clarifies. He’s very critical of what is known as “fair trade.”

“Fair trade pays 5% more to farmers. We pay 75% more,” he affirms, without specifying figures. He also says that 50% of the value of one of the chocolate bars they produce returns to its country of origin.

It’s precisely these points that can influence consumers’ decisions. Hence the company’s attempt to appeal to conscientious chocolate-buyers as they ask themselves certain questions while browsing the supermarket shelf. “Eighty-five percent of cocoa [in the world] comes from people who earn less than €25 ($28) per family per month,” he adds.

Continuing the conversation about the practices of the cocoa industry, Peralta doesn’t overlook the current situation, which has seen the price of beans increase sharply in recent months due to scarcity. In January of this year, the cost per ton was around $4,200, but in April it surpassed $12,000, marking a historic record. This is a crisis situation, which Peralta attributes to climate change in conjunction with the lack of respect for production processes and nature.

“The mass industry has caused people to neglect cocoa trees. If a drought comes and affects specimens that are already old and tired, it finishes them off. Cocoa is very sensitive to climacteric production. We’re paying for the cheap chocolate of the last 30 years today, with the real risk that cocoa will become extinct. Nobody plants cocoa because nobody pays for it. Next Christmas, chocolate will cost 30% more,” he warns.

Peralta notes that he has also raised the prices of his chocolate bars. He has more than 60 varieties that are sold in Spain at €3.25 ($3.60) a bar in large stores, such as El Corte Inglés, as well as specialist shops, such as Club del Chocolate. He doesn’t want his chocolates to be an “unattainable product that can be bought in London for 25 pounds” and invites consumers to change their relationship with this sweet, to sit down and “value” it and worship it.

“Chocolate awakens unique sensations… the best side of human beings,” the chocolatier smiles. “If we all ate half-a-bar of chocolate [a day], the world would be a better place.”

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