By Rosanna Di Turi (@Rosannadituri)
There are some fruitful determinations. The family who makes Canoabo chocolates can prove it. They started planting cocoa, then they initiated with their chocolates and last December they opened a chocolate shop in Valencia.
It all started with the father’s decision. Luis Morales, a Chilean-Venezuelan industrial engineer who decided to dedicate himself to the land, after his retirement from the glass industry.
Thanks to the great possibilities that the good Venezuelan cocoa offers, in 2012 he decided to bet on that good fruit in the town Canoabo, Carabobo state. He began an old cocoa plantation, recovering a part of it with cocoa from different provenances. Also, he planted diverse fruit trees: soursop, caimito, oranges and lemons, among others.
Six years ago he was joined by his son Rodrigo, who resigned to his job to dedicate himself to this family business. Thus, they began to reproduce Trinitarian cocoa with Criollo blood. Many of them came from the area being recovered. Once the plants were obtained, the inevitable question was asked: why not make their own chocolate? They looked for the proper machines and got boxes to ferment and, in March 2015 they started to fill the shelves with Chocolates Canoabo, which they monitor the whole process.
“We harvest the cocoa, ferment it and make the chocolate that we learned by trial and error.” “Tree to bar squares that represent a town,” It is Canoabo chocolate, Rodrigo says. Additionally, they offer a tour to show visitors the whole process, from the care of the cocoa plant, through the fermentation of the grain up to the making of chocolate.
In December 2016, they opened a chocolate shop in Las Chimeneas Shopping Centre in Valencia, managed by Carolina Morales, Luis’ daughter and Rodrigo’s sister, who also left her job last year, after a long career in the hotel industry, to dedicate herself to creating the bonbons made with the chocolate produced by her family and fillings made with fruits from the Canoabo crops.
Chocolates Canoabo are available in specialized chocolate stores in different cities of the country, including Caracas, Merida, Porlamar and Valencia. The weekend tours can be booked by the e-mail chocolatecanoabo@gmail.com
* Twitter: @chocolatcanoabo
* Instagram: @chocolatecanoabo.
* The Valle Canoabo shop is located in Las Chimeneas Shopping Centre in Valencia.
