Meet the European chocolate connoisseurs celebrating Kerala’s cocoa
The Hindu
An Italian couple is leading the production of high quality cocoa from Idukki in Kerala that is making its way to makers of artisanal chocolates in Europe and the US
Spending six months with cocoa farmers in the hills of Idukki, in 2015, was just the beginning of Luca Beltrami’s journey. “They wonder how I am still around,” says the Italian, looking back at his six-year stay in Udumbannoor, where he founded, a small cocoa post-harvesting unit, Go Ground Beans & Spices Private Limited, with his wife, Ellen Taerwe.
More importantly, he built a fraternity of cocoa farmers that is now producing a steady output of high-quality cocoa that is finding its way to chocolatiers in Europe and the US.
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