11/14/2025
Premiering at this weekend:
NUA, meaning “spiritual mother” in the Shuar language, honors the sacred relationship between cacao, the land, and the Indigenous people who have cultivated it for over 5,500 years. The cacao used in these bars comes from the Yachak Ancestral Cacao Project in Ecuador’s Zamora Chinchipe province—one of the oldest cacao-growing regions on Earth.
In November 2024, I led a USAID-supported, three-week field project in southern Ecuador’s Zamora Chinchipe province, where our team provided hands-on training to Shuar Indigenous farmers and growers. We demonstrated roasting and processing methods that empower them to transform their exceptionally rare cacao into higher-value finished chocolate. The experience strengthened our commitment to connecting these origin communities with fine-flavor chocolate markets here in the United States.
Building upon that initiative, we launched “NUA”, a special project dedicated to uplifting the Indigenous Ecuadorian Shuar cacao harvesters and expanding their access to the U.S. marketplace. I craft all chocolates for this project in Powhatan while ensuring the highest level of artisan quality and integrity in every bar while preserving the authenticity of the cacao’s Amazonian origin.
