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.

Fazenda Venturosa is a 900-hectare cacao farm in Brazil’s southern state of Bahia. The farm is owned by husband-and-wife team Jim and Lola, a Texan rancher and a Brazilian cacao farmer. The couple lives on-site with the 25 families that help manage the land and process the cacao, which focuses on native Brazilian varietals. One of these varietals, the parasinho, is a transplant from the northern region of Para, and has become a great pull for the chocolate makers who work with their beans.