Suhum is a district in southern Ghana, about an hour outside of the country’s capital of Accra. The region is largely rural, with most villagers relying upon agriculture, mainly cacao. Due to government restrictions, throughout the country cacao must be processed individually by the farmer before being sold to an association, limiting locals’ potential to increase their income. This means that even if farmers can afford to become organic or Fair Trade certified, their earning potential is still limited by current market prices. Luckily, a regional cooperative in Suhum has partnered with cacao importer Uncommon Cacao to bring high quality, traceable Ghanaian cacao to the world, and bring a higher price to the cacao farmers.

Amelonado is one of those ten evolutionarily unique types identified in 2008 using samples collected throughout the Americas over the previous century. This particular cluster type represents a traditional cultivar believed to have been domesticated from the Brazilian Amazon, possibly near what is now called the Para River. It’s now one of the most common cacao cultivars in the world, and often held up as the typical example of a forastero cacao: deeply chocolaty & bitter, with strong earthy undertones and a large, round pod. Most of the cacao brought to Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries originally came from this cultivar type, leading to the Ghanaian varietal now known as the West African Amelonado.