Taza Chocolate
Taza Chocolate is a Mexican-inspired stoneground, organic chocolate manufacturer based in Somerville, MA, USA. The factory was founded by Alex Whitmore in 2005 and is home to over 40 different products that can be found in 2,800 retail stores across the country.
Alex Whitmore founded Taza Chocolate in 2005 after a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico where he first encountered stone ground chocolate. He learned from a molinero in Oaxaca authentic Mexican techniques, such as how to grow cacao beans and how to hand-carve granite millstones. The first batch of Taza Chocolate was created in Whitmore’s kitchen, using simple and traditional Mexican processes with stone mills.
After building out a factory space in Somerville, Massachusetts in 2006, Whitmore acquired a mix of traditional and vintage machinery, including stone mills from Oaxaca, an Italian winnower from Dominican Republic, and a Barth Sirocco roaster from Italy. The cacao beans were initially bought from brokers, but Whitmore later traveled through Central and South America and the Caribbean in search of farmers who could work directly with him. Whitmore and his co-founder and wife, Kathleen Fulton, have maintained a Direct Trade relationship with every cacao grower from where they source the cacao beans.
Taza Chocolate is sold across the United States and in certain countries abroad.
Taza Chocolate uses Certified USDA Organic, non-GMO cacao that grow directly from the trunk and branches of cacao tree. These are located in the ‘Cocoa Belt,’ a range of land 20 degrees north and south of the equator. Most of this cacao comes from the Dominican Republic, Belize, and Bolivia. During the harvest, farmers cut the pods from the tree and collect them in pules where they are cracked open and the beans and fruit removed. After being removed from the forest, cacao beans go through a fermentation process. The mass of beans and fruit is packed in large wooden boxes arranged in three levels and last over six to seven days to ferment. The beans start fermenting on the top level, and after two days, the contents are agitated and transferred to the second level. The process finishes when the cacao reaches the ground level, or when acidity and residual sugars have reached desired levels. After being fermented, the beans go through a process of drying that takes up to eight days. Within this process, the beans are spread out to dry on large wooden decks, which helps excess moisture and undesired acids evaporate. Once dry, the beans are then packed into sacks and shipped to the Taza Chocolate factory.
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