In 1987, our grandfather Elena Delacroix planted 50 cacao trees in the misty slopes of Ecuador's Napo Valley. She carried with her a simple belief: that the world's most extraordinary chocolate begins with a reverence for the earth and the hands that tend it.
That first grove — no larger than a tennis court — produced beans of such extraordinary character that a small group of local chocolatiers took notice. Word spread slowly, then rapidly, through the networks of artisan chocolate makers who hungered for beans with depth, clarity, and soul.
What began as a family experiment became a family calling. Over the next decade, Elena and her husband Mateo expanded their cultivated area to 80 acres, introducing rare cacao varieties from Madagascar, Venezuela, and Papua New Guinea — each carefully matched to the microclimates of their estate. By 2001, Terroir Cocoa was producing beans that would soon win international acclaim.
Today, the Delacroix family's estate spans 200 acres of volcanic highland, cultivated with organic methods passed down through three generations. Our beans are fermented, dried, and roasted in small batches — always by hand, always with intention — producing single-origin chocolate that carries the distinct fingerprint of our terroir in every bite.
But the story of Terroir Cocoa is not only about the beans and the chocolate. It is about the people — our farming family, our fermentation masters, our concheurs, and the communities that have grown alongside us over nearly four decades. It is about the mountains that cradle our groves, the volcanic soil that nourishes every root, and the rain that falls in gentle sheets each afternoon, carrying the scent of blooming cacao flowers across the valley.
Every bar we make carries this story. Every taste is an invitation to understand the extraordinary journey from a single cacao pod to the chocolate in your hands. We believe that chocolate should tell a story — and ours begins beneath the canopy of a 37-year-old cacao tree in the Napo Valley, where everything started with love, patience, and the soil itself.