To'ak Chocolate: Rediscovering sweet temptation

To’ak: The wickedly expensive chocolate from the Cognac barrel

We Swiss are proud of our chocolate which has made us world famous. Alpine milk with its juicy grasses and alpine flowers are supposed to give it a particularly delicious taste, making it the best chocolate in the world. Wrong! The tastiest chocolate is made in Ecuador. Even if Switzerland is not printed on the packaging, at least Jerry Toth and his co-founder Carl Schweizer are behind the brand To’ak, which means ‘earth and tree’. It is not the milk-giving, CO2-producing cow that causes a taste explosion when you sample the chocolate, but the extremely rare cocoa beans of the ancient 'Nacional' variety.

According to legend, the 'arriba' cocoa fruits were discovered during the 19th century by a Swiss chocolatier on his travels through Ecuador. Even then, he was impressed by the exceptionally rich and fragrant bouquet of the cocoa beans. From this moment on, the cocoa which was cultivated along the upper tributaries of the Guaya River, became the most sought-after chocolate among the European chocolate community. The cultivation area located between the watersheds of the Daul and Babahoyo rivers is comparable in size to Burgundy in France. The earth is volcanic in origin, lightly acidic, rich in clay, calcium and iron, which makes it ideal for cultivating 'Nacional' cocoa trees. The genetics of the 'Nacional' cocoa fruit, which was already in great demand back then, was mutated due to the dreaded witches broom disease of 1916 and the hybridisation of the local cocoa during the course of the 20th century, meaning that the 'Nacional' was regarded as having died out, until it was rediscovered. Cocoa farmer Servio showed Jerry Toth, a young American who was living in Ecuador and working to save the rainforest, and Carl Schweizer, an abandoned cocoa plantation where they discovered the plant.

It soon became clear that the re-discovered cocoa trees were 100% identical to the 'Nacional' cocoa plant which was believed to have died out. Its rediscovery provoked a minor sensation among the chocolatiers. Jerry Toth and Carl Schweizer recognised its business potential, founded To’ak and combined the saving of the rainforest with the re-cultivation of the 'Nacional' cocoa plant. It was clear to both of them from the outset that a sought-after limited natural ingredient such as this should not be used to produce an industrially manufactured chocolate. Only an exceptional chocolate which fulfilled the highest gourmet requirements of chocolate connoisseurs would do justice to the ingredient. The chocolate should provoke a unique explosion of flavour when tasted, much like wine or whisky. The idea was to keep the delicate 'Nacional' taste nuances as pure as possible, meaning that To’ak chocolate is made exclusively from organic cocoa paste and only a little cane sugar. The incomparable quality of the product is determined by the type and time of fermentation, roast period and temperatures, etc. For example, the aging process takes place in Cognac barrels that are 50 years old. Handling the raw ingredient in different ways creates different varieties of chocolate bars which can be ordered online in small quantities at respectable prices. The recipe remains a closely guarded secret.

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