Venezuela
OCUMARE
Ocumare de la Costa is a small colonial town nestled between the Venezuelan Coastal Range and the Caribbean Sea with deep-rooted cacao tradition.
Cacao and fishing are the main livelihoods here. Once home to Indigenous communities led by a cacique known as Barriga, the town was colonized in the 17th century under Spanish captain Lorenzo Martínez Madrid and incorporated in 1731.
Since the 1600s, Ocumare has been renowned for its prized Criollo genetics and light-coloured beans. In 1940, Manuel Palama began an ordinal series of hybrid crosses numbered 1 to 100; Ocumare 61, 15 and 67 rose to international fame.
Ocumare strains now form part of the genetic base of hybrid cacao worldwide, from Venezuela’s Amazon and Río Caribe to Nicaraguan Trinitarios. Even the renowned Java Lightbreaking shows traces of Ocumare ancestry.
TERROIR
Between the Coastal Range and the Caribbean, 25 miles north of Maracay, with a unique coastal-rainforest climate.
Today 58 local farmers grow cacao in a hillside agroforestry system under shade trees, intercropped with other crops and free of chemical fertilisers or pesticides. Ocumare de la Costa is located at the edge of Henri Pittier National Park.
Cacao and fishing are the main livelihoods here. Once home to Indigenous communities led by a cacique known as Barriga, the town was colonized in the 17th century under Spanish captain Lorenzo Martínez Madrid and incorporated in 1731.
Since the 1600s, Ocumare has been renowned for its prized Criollo genetics and light-coloured beans. In 1940, Manuel Palama began an ordinal series of hybrid crosses numbered 1 to 100; Ocumare 61, 15 and 67 rose to international fame.
Ocumare strains now form part of the genetic base of hybrid cacao worldwide, from Venezuela’s Amazon and Río Caribe to Nicaraguan Trinitarios. Even the renowned Java Lightbreaking shows traces of Ocumare ancestry.
TERROIR
Between the Coastal Range and the Caribbean, 25 miles north of Maracay, with a unique coastal-rainforest climate.
Today 58 local farmers grow cacao in a hillside agroforestry system under shade trees, intercropped with other crops and free of chemical fertilisers or pesticides. Ocumare de la Costa is located at the edge of Henri Pittier National Park.
Silva Quality
Special Selection
Flavor Profile
Peach, walnut, brioche, yellow fruit, minerality
QUALITY & PROCESSING
Variety:
Trinitario & Criollo
Fermentation Process:
Centrally fermented, 5–6 days in wooden boxes
Source:
Several farms around the village of Ocumare
Drying:
Natural sun drying on patio
Producers:
58 local farmers
Traceability:
100% traceable supply chain
We believe that the difference between traceability and transparency is published and verifiable data for each and every step in our supply chain.
