Kokoa Kamili is a cacao fermentary in Mbingu, a village in Tanzania's Kilombero Valley. It buys wet beans directly from local farmers at one published price, ferments them for six days in a three-tier cascade of boxes, and sun-dries them on raised tables for five to seven days.
Its beans are used by craft makers including Dandelion Chocolate and Raaka, whose bars from it are known for bright, fruity flavor.
Most chocolate wrappers name a country. The good ones name a place smaller than that, and one name keeps appearing on bars from makers who otherwise have little in common: Kokoa Kamili. Kokoa Kamili is a fermentary, the people who turn fresh cacao into the dried beans a maker can work with, and their work is a big part of why those bars taste the way they do.
A village a long way from a paved road
Kokoa Kamili is based in Mbingu, a rural village in the Kilombero Valley in Tanzania's Morogoro Region. The name is Swahili for heaven. The village sits roughly 60 kilometers from the nearest tarred road or electricity grid and 10 to 15 hours' drive from Dar es Salaam, past Mikumi National Park. On one side of the valley rise the Udzungwa Mountains, known for their birds, primates and elephants.
Buying beans wet
Smallholder farmers usually ferment and dry their own beans in small batches, and quality swings from farm to farm. Kokoa Kamili buys the beans "wet" instead, straight out of the pod, which it says pays farmers more than they would earn doing the processing themselves. It buys at the farm gate, at its own facility and at buying stations in nearby villages, only directly from farmers, with no agents or middlemen. There is one well publicized price and the scales are certified, so everybody knows what a kilo is worth.
| Step | What it does |
|---|---|
| Buy | Wet beans, direct from farmers, one published price, certified scales |
| Drain | A partial drain overnight before fermentation |
| Ferment | Six days in a three-tier cascade of boxes lined with banana leaf and rice sacks, temperature monitored |
| Check | Each day's lot is evaluated, and lots that miss the standard are kept out |
| Dry | Five to seven days on custom sun-drying tables, raked constantly |
| Grade and blend | Hand graded, then blended so the first bag in a container matches the last |
Why it tastes the way it does
Fermentation is where chocolate flavor begins. Yeasts and bacteria work through the sweet pulp, the pile heats up and the bean inside starts building the compounds that roasting later turns into chocolate. The ICCO notes that turning the mass adds air and that drying has to go slowly, or acids get trapped in the bean. A cascade does the turning by moving beans from box to box, and Kokoa Kamili's long, raked drying is the slow part done right.
The result is cacao that makers describe in fruit words. Dandelion's Kokoa Kamili 70%, roasted gently, lists guava, Turkish yogurt and fudge. Raaka uses the same beans unroasted for its 100% bar, and calls it creamy and bright with a tingling fruity bite.
A good bar to learn from
Taste two bars made from Kokoa Kamili beans by two different makers, and you are tasting one fermentation through two roasters. It is one of the clearest lessons in what a maker adds and what was already there when the beans left Mbingu.
Questions
Where is Kokoa Kamili?
In Mbingu, a village in the Kilombero Valley, Morogoro Region, Tanzania, roughly 60 km from the nearest tarred road. Mbingu is Swahili for heaven.
How does Kokoa Kamili ferment its cacao?
In locally built boxes lined with banana leaf and rice sacks, arranged as a three-tier cascade. Beans drain partly overnight, then ferment for six days with the temperature monitored.
How does Kokoa Kamili pay farmers?
It buys wet beans directly from farmers at the farm gate, its factory and village buying stations, with one well publicized price and certified scales.
Which chocolate bars use Kokoa Kamili beans?
Among others, Dandelion's Kokoa Kamili, Tanzania 70% and Raaka's 100% Cacao, both sold on the makers' own sites.
