We started Moruga Cacao as a company because we wanted to bring something to life that represented our values.

Striving for exceptional quality

We want cocoa to be treated with the same respect that wine, beer and coffee are treated with. Many chocolate experts believe that cocoa has the ability to "soak up" the aromas of its surroundings. Subtle notes of red berries, caramelized banana, mango and a heavy, earthy undertone are all results of the terroir and the environment in which cocoa grows.

Don't poison our customers

Refined sugar, lecithins, thickeners, flavorings, preservatives, colourants and other chemicals are used in the food industry to make products without rough edges for the mass market. Food designers spend a career designing food to be as addictive as possible. We think that's sick. We want to offer innovative cocoa products without unnatural additives. We only sell products that we would like to consume ourselves on a daily basis. We want to solve problems with innovative processes - not with even more ingredients.. 

Know the source

The cocoa industry is a dark place. Child labor, slavery, child slavery, unfair working conditions, land grabbing, soil erosion, corruption, violence and unhealthy working conditions come with an average chocolate bar. One of the biggest barriers to fairer cocoa production is the lack of information and control. Many large chocolate companies have already pleaded for fairer cocoa production, but as uninspired companies they lack the tools to control and implement their standards. We only rely on ourselves and deal directly with the farmers who source the cocoa from their land.

Think beyond certifications

"Organic" certification is often a bureaucratic act that neither small independent farms nor we as a young company can afford. In addition, certification institutions in cocoa growing areas are often corrupt and do not always guarantee what they stand for. That is why we work around certification institutions and hope to gain your trust in us by working as transparently as possible. None of our trading partners use pesticides or herbicides on their land.

Rethink colonial trade

For the cocoa from Trinidad, we decided to leave a large part of the value chain in the country of origin, although that means a higher risk for us. A small family business therefore roasts and grinds the cocoa collected by three independent farmers and delivers us a coarsely ground cocoa mass instead of a sack full of cocoa beans. That doubles the price we would pay for the unprocessed beans. This leaves twice as much money in the local economy. It complicates our work logistically and in terms of import bureaucracy, but we feel that it is worth the effort. We want to be a food company that thinks about its social impact on the other side of the value chain.

Protect our floors

Land is probably the most valuable and most overlooked asset that humankind can build on. For millennia, people have learned to care for the soil that feeds them. Unfortunately, modern farmers have often lost touch with their land, stimulated by rapid returns on investment or sheer hardship. In Trinidad, our three partners harvest cocoa from abandoned plantations that have not been worked for over 40 years. The jungle has now reincorporated them and thus restored a stable, balanced ecosystem. All the other cocoa we work with are grown in at least what is known as an agroforestry system. This is the name given to the mixed cultivation of various agricultural crops that are grown for food and wood production. This biodiverse system protects the local soil in a natural way from erosion and keeps all nutrients ready for future generations.t. 

Promote resilience

This mixed cultivation has other advantages: The farmers supply themselves with food for their own needs as well as crops for their financial needs and thus make themselves more resistant to global price fluctuations or pests, as they are not only dependent on the sale of a single crop.

Promoting diversity

We strive to be a company that is as diverse as the cocoa beans it works with. Our promotion of diversity doesn't stop in the country of origin, but continues throughout our company. We want to offer our customers a selection of cocoa products that are as diverse as the land in which they were grown and as different as the people who touch the cocoa at every stage of production. We admire the cultural diversity of the countries of origin of cocoa, which is why we have given our company a name that is linked to the source. We also encourage all of our employees to express their genuine personality. Our team should be like the mix of trees in an agroforestry. Taller trees give the smaller cocoa trees the shade they need to develop a high quality fruit.

Leave no trace

We try not to leave any traces. Not only that we source responsibly harvested raw materials, but also that we optimize our processes so that we generate minimal waste and emissions. As a company, it is always difficult to keep a balance between financial pressure and sustainable decisions. We have to accept that we cannot do everything differently from the start and from scratch, but we have to remain dissatisfied with the status quo. For example, our cocoa is currently being transported by air because ocean freight is currently taking too long. Some of our packaging consists of made of plastic, because plastic is currently. is the only material that is both light and aroma-true. With proper disposal and separation, plastic can be recycled up to 99%. Nevertheless, we are looking for better packaging that both has a better ecological balance and meets our quality standards..

Promote interpersonal connection

Cocoa has the incomparable quality of promoting empathy like no other plant. Shamans, yogis and healers all report the same effect of cocoa: It opens the heart and sharpens emotional awareness. With the advent of smartphones, social media, and an exponential increase in telecommunications, mankind is paradoxically experiencing an unprecedented state of isolation and loneliness. We want to create a space where people can meet personally, exchange ideas and spread their love for one another.

Support individual development

Most call cocoa a facilitator or supporter who helps them to walk the path of self-recognition, sustainable self-confidence and ultimately self-love. Only those who love themselves can spread love to those around them. We believe that much of the drama we see in the world today can be overcome by changing individual people's states of mind.. 

Support of structural change

We are convinced that individual satisfaction and structural fairness go hand in hand. Happy people are aware of their surroundings and want to treat the planet and those around them well. The support of individual people in development therefore creates a snowball effect.

Questioning the status quo

The status quo is by definition an imperfect state - because a better world is imaginable and therefore possible. That is the basic way of working in our company. We are educated and trained with many assumptions and then we begin to work in a system based on a certain set of values and assumptions. It is important for us to question these assumptions on a daily basis - because only in this way can we as a company really create added value.