Pacha de Cacao is the new drink you really want to try
When you think of a cacao drink, you probably immediately think of hot chocolate, but Pacha de Cacao is not a brown drink and it doesn’t taste anything like chocolate either. The cacao juice is more like a tropical fruit drink, and that’s how it tastes too. Very smooth and very delicious! Apart from the taste, the story behind this drink is also remarkable.
Pacha de Cacao’s cacao juice is made from the cacao fruit. It looks like a small rugby ball, has a thick skin, beautifully white fruit (pulp) and brown seeds, which we call cacao beans. The beans are sold to make chocolate, while the pulp is often thrown away. What a waste! Cacao pulp is incredibly delicious and packed with magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and vitamin B.
The world of cacao
Pacha de Cacao was founded by Marika van Santvoort. After studying Human Rights, she ended up working for an NGO in Cameroon, where she discovered cacao and the problems surrounding it. When she was working on a waste-streams project in Ecuador in 2017, a farmer gave her a glass of fresh cacao pulp juice. She decided to do something with it, and after more than two years of development, the product was ready to enter the market. She named her brand Pacha de Cacao (which literally means: world of cacao).
Win, win, win!
Cacao juice is not only good for you, but also for the cacao farmer. The cacao market has become rather skewed. Demand for cacao beans has been rising like a rocket for forty years, but farmers see very little of that growth. It has resulted in poverty and other misery. Pacha de Cacao brings a positive message to this sector.
Pacha pays farmers for the pulp, giving them an additional source of income and making them less dependent on volatile cacao prices and local middlemen. It helps them earn a living wage. A new product made from the same fruit is also good for reducing food waste. Win, win, win!
The pulp is pressed locally and then made into juice. It is 100% natural and you can drink it as it is, but you can also use it in smoothies or cocktails/mocktails, or make sorbet with it, for example.
Pacha de Cacao is available via pachadecacao, and a 250 ml bottle costs €3.
Also read:
- Help, the chocolate industry is overflowing with misery
- An ode to white chocolate with crispy rice
- White Nutella exists and we’re sharing the secret recipe
Image of cacao fruit: Pacha de Cacao
