RouteMindo

Mindo Chocolate: Farm to Bar in the Cloud Forest

Mindo sits in the zone where Nacional cacao is grown — the cloud forest villages supply cacao beans to several excellent artisan chocolate makers; the Mindo chocolate experience, combining cacao farm visits and bean-to-bar production, is one of Ecuador's finest food activities

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Mindo Chocolate Factory
Mindo Chocolate Factory - a small artisan chocolate maker in the village - offers tours of the entire process: fermentation, drying, roasting, grinding and tempering of Nacional cacao into bars; the tasting at the end of the tour reveals the extraordinary flavor complexity of Ecuadorian cacao
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Nacional Cacao in the cloud forest
Nacional (Arriba) cacao varieties grow in the warm, humid valleys below the Mindo cloud forest at 600-1200m; the beans' extraordinary taste — floral, fruity, with hints of jasmine — is the result of cocoa genetics and the microclimate of the cloud forest
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Cocoa farm visit
Several cacao farms near Mindo offer visits — walk through the cacao plantations, see the pods in various stages of maturity and taste the white cacao pulp (sweet and tropical in taste) before the beans ferment; the fresh pulp experience is only available at origin
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Artisan Chocolate Tasting
The artisanal chocolate tasting at the Mindo chocolate workshop – comparing different cocoa percentages, different origins and different processing styles – reveals how the same base ingredient produces dramatically different flavors; Mindo 70% bare compared to European 70% shows the power of origin
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Cloud Forest and Cacao Ecology
The cacao tree is an understory forest species — it grows naturally under taller forest trees; the shade-grown cacao in the Mindo area preserves forest cover and biodiversity while producing premium beans; the ecological adaptation of fine cocoa production to forest management is significant
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International Chocolate Awards
Ecuador's cocoa – particularly from the Mindo and Esmeraldas regions – has won international chocolate awards consistently; the combination of the exceptional taste of the Nacional variety and Ecuador's skilled fermentation tradition has placed Ecuadorian chocolate at the top of the world's fine chocolate market