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2022 Transparency Report

TAZA CHOCOLATE DIRECT TRADE CERTIFIED CACAO

We are chocolate pioneers.

Taza makes stone ground chocolate that is seriously good and fair for all. From farm to factory, we do things differently.

We do things transparently. 

It starts with Taza Direct Trade. We said no to opaque supply chains and low-quality cacao. We created the chocolate industry's first third-party certified Direct Trade cacao sourcing program, to ensure quality and transparency for all. We have real, face-to-face relationships with partners who respect the environment and fair labor practices. They provide us with the best organic cacao, and we pay them prices significantly higher than Fair Trade. In fact, you can see exactly what we pay them, right here in our 2022 Annual Cacao Sourcing Transparency Report.

Taza Direct Trade means more money for our partners, the best cacao for us, and seriously good chocolate for you.

Taza 2022 Direct Trade Metrics: 2405 Farmers Benefitted, 819 Female Farmers Benefitted, 4116 Hectares Certified Organic, 100% Cacao Grown in Agroforestry Systems, $937,260 paid for cacao, 286 Metric Tons of Beans Purchased

THIRD PARTY CERTIFICATION

We’re serious about transparency and trust. To guarantee the integrity of our Direct Trade program, our five Direct Trade claims are independently verified each year by Quality Certification Services, a USDA-accredited organic certifier based in Gainesville, Florida. See our five verified claims here

YEAR IN REVIEW

By Alex Whitmore, Taza Chocolate Co-Founder and CEO | December 2022

Taza co-founder and CEO Alex Whitmore with Stephen Ashia, Executive Director of ABOCFA

Alex with Gualberto Acebey Torrejon and Adriano de Jesus Rodrigues from ÖKO Caribe in June 2022.

Friends,

One of the things that most excites me as a craft chocolate maker is meeting our ingredient producers. Most chocolate consumers in the US have never even seen a cocoa pod before, let alone tasted cacao fresh off the tree. I feel fortunate to be able to engage with this unique farming community in my line of work as a chocolate maker. Most people don’t think of chocolate as a fruit or vegetable, but that is exactly what it is: a slurry of ground fermented seeds from the cacao fruit with dried cane juice. It sounds so weird when described that way, but that is the basic thing we call chocolate.

We have been publishing our annual Cacao Sourcing Transparency Reports for twelve years now, and sourcing cacao directly from farmers for even longer. After knowing nothing about cacao for the majority of my life, it has become a seemingly endless revelation to work with as an ingredient, and I learn some fascinating new detail about it almost every day. 

Here at the factory, the entire Taza team is eager to continue supporting organic and regenerative cacao production so we can keep making our unique and bold stone ground chocolate products. Now go do your part and help us eat some of this chocolate!

Yours in transparency,

Alex Whitmore signature

Alex Whitmore
Co-Founder and CEO

 

OUR PARTNERS

 Map of Taza Chocolate grower partners in Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Ghana

 

2022 PARTNER REPORTS

 

 

 

Dominican Republic

ÖKO Caribe Cacao

ÖKO Caribe Cacao

View Report

Dominican Republic

Finca Elvesia

Finca Elvesia

View Report

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