SAO TOME, Dec 8 — A morsel of chocolate sits on the tongue, and a strong yet subtle flavour starts to blossom.The chocolate tasting then expands into different flavours — ginger, coffee, pepper, sea salt — but underpinning each of these delights is an earthiness, a richness that comes from cocoa trees that grow in volcanic soil, wafted by the tropical Atlantic breeze.
Then, as competition mounted in the second half of the 20th century, the sector was almost wiped out. Many plantations were abandoned, and their fields and buildings were taken over by nature. The place gave its name to a brand of chocolate Martin created with his son. Its 82-per cent “Grand Cru” organic chocolate — with “hints of flowers, smoke, spices and fruit” — sells to online buyers in Europe for €6.40 a bar.
A worker makes chocolate at the Diogo Vaz chocolate factory in Sao Tome, November 18, 2021. — AFP pic“We have organic certification, but growing cocoa by itself won’t cover the costs,” Martin said. “We had to go for 100 per cent production,” taking charge of the entire chain from cocoa pod to chocolate.The farm moved from “a monoculture regime, whose cocoa prices were determined by world buyers, to exercising total control over our prices and boosting our cocoa in the value chain,” he said.
Corallo, an Italian from Florence, moved to Sao Tome in the early ‘90s and became a pioneer in developing top-of-the-range cocoa. Corallo’s chocolate has developed a growing and devoted international following, although he said that the logistics of exporting from a location more than 300km from the coast of Gabon were often a headache.