Why is cocoa in Venezuela among the best in the world?

It is well known that Venezuela has some of the best cocoa in the world. And not only because it has perfect climatic conditions for its harvest, with a tropical climate and abundant rainfall, but also because Venezuela is home to some of the most complex, fine and appreciated cocoa varieties in the world, such as the Criollo cocoa.

These varieties are characterized by their complexity of flavors, with floral, fruity and nutty notes, which are not found in other types of cocoa in the world. This type of cocoa is one of the finest and rarest varieties in the world because it has a delicate and aromatic flavor, with less bitterness and more smoothness than other varieties.

But Venezuela was not always a country that grew and processed cocoa. That is why today we will talk about cocoa in Venezuela and the importance it has always had.

Let’s get started!

The origin of cocoa in Venezuela

Although cocoa is a tree native to the Amazon and was already present in the region we are talking about today, the local populations only used the cocoa pulp, without processing the seed into chocolate.

The techniques of cultivation, planting and processing of cocoa into chocolate were brought by the Spaniards throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. And not only the cultivation techniques, but also one of the most exclusive varieties of cocoa found in Venezuela, the criollo cocoa.

Part of the cocoa that was later cultivated in Venezuela and brought by the Spaniards from Mexico is a descendant of the cocoa that the Mayans and Aztecs cultivated. The Mesoamerican cultures considered cocoa a sacred food and used it as currency and in ritual ceremonies. That is why they went to so much trouble to domesticate and cultivate a variety of cacao that was as aromatic and less bitter as possible. To give you an idea, Montezuma’s royal coffers had more than 900 million cocoa beans stored and guarded by guards.

Cocoa and chocolate during the Spanish colonial era

And how did this cocoa get to Venezuela?

When the Spaniards arrived in Mexico and decimated the population, they began to look for new cultivation areas in the new lands that were part of the Spanish crown. In the beginning, these new cultivation areas were administered by the Spaniards and cultivated by the local population and later by African slave labor.

During the colonial era, Venezuelan cocoa became one of the main export products to Europe due to the exquisiteness of criollo cocoa. Cocoa consumption began to grow in Europe and Spain introduced slave labor from Africa to cultivate the fields, including one of the most famous areas of Venezuela where one of the best cocoas in the world is found, Chuao, which is why this area still has an Afro-American population to this day.

In addition, it was discovered that in the area south of Lake Maracaibo they also planted a cocoa with white beans and smooth bark, which they called “porcelain”, because of its similarity to that material. So they also decided to plant plantations of this cocoa, thus extending along the entire Venezuelan coast.

But this growing demand also led some local people to sell it at a better price to the Dutch who were settled on the island of Curaçao, so in 1728, the Spanish Crown decided to strengthen and regulate its control over trade in its American colonies to prevent cocoa from ending up in other hands, and to this end founded the Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas based in San Sebastián, in the Basque Country. This trading company was granted an exclusive monopoly on the trade of Venezuelan agricultural products, especially cocoa, to Spain. In other words, neither free trade nor the exploitation of cocoa was possible without it passing through the Basque company.

And although this regularization made some improvements in the infrastructure of the country and expanded the area of cultivation of creole cocoa to other regions of Venezuela, this development was made on the basis of exploiting the local population and controlling their trade, so that due to all the revolts against this monopoly, eventually the Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas ended up disappearing.

Cocoa in Venezuela after its independence

The cocoa harvest in Venezuela remained quite active for many years, however, production was drastically reduced during the 19th and 20th centuries due to the following factors:

• Due to the internal wars within the country during the Venezuelan Independence
• The beginning of coffee plantations in the country, which became a very popular and demanded crop.
• Competition from African cocoa, which began to be cultivated during the 19th century and has been gaining market share ever since.
• The discovery of oil, which turned out to be quite lucrative.
• The pollination of the Criollo cocoa with another cocoa species from Trinidad, less aromatic and more bitter, the Amelonado cocoa, thus creating a new hybrid cocoa species, more productive and resistant to pests but less aromatic.

To this day, Venezuela continues to be a benchmark for quality cocoa. And although its production volumes are not as high as other Latin American countries, we do find 2 of the best criollo cocoas in the world: Chuao criollo cocoa and Porcelana cocoa from south of Lake Maracaibo. These two aromatic criollo cocoas are among the most coveted in the world.

Growing areas in Venezuela

Beyond the Chuao and Porcelana cocoa, Venezuela has almost one million hectares of cocoa available for cocoa cultivation, which are divided into the following areas:

1. North Coast:
   • Barlovento (Miranda): East of Caracas, near the coast. This region is known for its trinitario and criollo cocoa.
   • Caruao (La Guaira): Just north of Caracas, along the coast.
   • Chuao, Ocumare de la Costa, Cata and Choroní (Aragua): A little further west, on the coast, surrounded by mountains and jungle, famous for its high quality cocoa.
2. East:
   • Río Caribe (Sucre): On the northeast coast, next to the Caribbean Sea, a region known for its Trinidadian cocoa.
3. West and Andes:
   • South of Lake Maracaibo (Zulia): Southwest of Lake Maracaibo, near the Andes.

Mérida and Táchira: In the mountainous region of the Andes, in the southwest of the country, bordering Colombia.

We are waiting for you at Kina Chocolates

We hope you enjoyed this brief article about the history of Venezuelan cocoa. In Kina Chocolates we always try to give importance to all the work done by Latin American farmers to obtain a good cocoa.

So remember that if you want to know more about cocoa and chocolate we are waiting for you at Kina Chocolates.

A chocolatier’s greeting!