Bahia is one of the largest states of Brazil, located in the east, along the Atlantic coast. Once a monarchial stronghold dominated by slave-centric agriculture and ranching, Bahia is now a domestic manufacturing center and the focal point of Brazil’s re-entry into the fine cacao market. The region was once the largest cacao producer in the country, so reputed that a portion of southern Bahia was nicknamed “Cacao Coast.” Unfortunately, bioterrorism in the 1980’s devastated the country’s crop over the course of just a decade. In the early 2010’s, a number of family farms took it upon themselves to revitalize the local fine flavor cacao industry, which continues to grow annually.

Vale Potumujú (also called Fazenda Santa Rita) is located in Arataca municipality, in Brazil’s southern state of Bahia. The owners, Tuta and Juliana Aquino, are direct descendants of two traditional founding families of cacao farms in the state of Bahia, dating back as far as the 1890’s. Their large cacao farm is right in the middle of the Mata Atlantica, one of the rain forests with the highest biodiversity on earth. They’re proudly the growers, processors, and exporters of their own farm’s cacao, as well as the owners of Baianí Chocolate, made in the city of São Paulo. Right now the couple is also working to map the different types of endangered hardwood trees on their farm, aiming to plant over 5 thousand seedlings in the next few years.