Maya Mountain Cacao

Belize

MAYA MOUNTAIN

Flagship, award-winning, organic cacao with balanced fruit and chocolate notes.

Founded in 2010, this centralized fermentation put Belize on the craft chocolate map as a pioneer in the social enterprise model.

The country’s first exporter of high-quality, centrally fermented cacao to the U.S. Today, they work with 420 smallholder farming families in the Toledo and South Stann Creek districts. Most of these producers are Q’eqchi’ and Mopan Maya, for whom cacao production goes back generations.

Maya Mountain Cacao’s 100% Belizean Maya team processes all cacao at a centralized facility where three unique stages of sun drying create optimal flavor. Maya Mountain Cacao is focused on building long-term, transparent partnerships with farmers and producing uniquely delicious cacao that supports the communities of southern Belize.

TERROIR

Belize’s rich history of cacao production, combined with the country’s stunning limestone karstic landscape and lowland tropical rainforest, created the perfect storm of flavor that was waiting to be fine-tuned through centralized post-harvest. While ancient criollo can still be found deep in Belize’s nature reserves and small private plots, the vast majority of cacao cultivated by the smallholder Maya farmers in the south are Amelonado-dominant hybrids and other Upper Amazon Forastero hybrids. Maya Mountain Cacao is intercropped with hardwood trees, banana, mango, avocado, and coconut.

Founded in 2010, this centralized fermentation put Belize on the craft chocolate map as a pioneer in the social enterprise model.

The country’s first exporter of high-quality, centrally fermented cacao to the U.S. Today, they work with 420 smallholder farming families in the Toledo and South Stann Creek districts. Most of these producers are Q’eqchi’ and Mopan Maya, for whom cacao production goes back generations.

Maya Mountain Cacao’s 100% Belizean Maya team processes all cacao at a centralized facility where three unique stages of sun drying create optimal flavor. Maya Mountain Cacao is focused on building long-term, transparent partnerships with farmers and producing uniquely delicious cacao that supports the communities of southern Belize.

TERROIR

Belize’s rich history of cacao production, combined with the country’s stunning limestone karstic landscape and lowland tropical rainforest, created the perfect storm of flavor that was waiting to be fine-tuned through centralized post-harvest. While ancient criollo can still be found deep in Belize’s nature reserves and small private plots, the vast majority of cacao cultivated by the smallholder Maya farmers in the south are Amelonado-dominant hybrids and other Upper Amazon Forastero hybrids. Maya Mountain Cacao is intercropped with hardwood trees, banana, mango, avocado, and coconut.

2022 Maya Mountain Farmgate price

$3.21 USD

This is the actual price paid to the cacao producer for their product (typically on a per kg or per lb basis) when they sell it to the first buyer.

Farmgate price is often paid for "wet" or fresh cacao, recently harvested and scooped out of cracked pods for sale. Wet cacao loses 60-70% of its weight during fermentation and drying, typically reaching 7-8% humidity before it is sold.

Uncommon calculates farmgate price for each cacao supplier based on the specific weight loss conversion percentage provided to us by the supplier, and we report farmgate price on a per kg dried equivalent basis for all cacao beans we source.

Pictured is Feliciana Kib Coh sorting cacao beans

2022 Maya Mountain FOB price

$5.49 USD

This is the price paid by Uncommon to our partners for cacao transported and loaded onto a ship for export.

Uncommon then covers all of the costs of shipping, freight charges, insurance, import, domestic logistics, warehouse ingestion, customs and duties.

Free on board (FOB) is an international shipping term that represents the seller's responsibility for bringing the cacao over the rails of the export ship.

Diane Coy shows of freshly printed jute sacks

2022 Maya Mountain Average sales price

$8.23 USD

This is the weighted average price per kg for cacao sold to the premium & ultra premium chocolate makers who purchased it during this year from Uncommon Cacao.

Pictured to the left is Diane Coy the managing director at Maya Mountain.