At Finca Chocolat, the harvest season is a rhythm we know well. Running from late December through early June, it’s a time when our team is fully engaged in the hands-on process of transforming fresh cacao into high-quality, export-ready beans.
Roughly every 10 days during the season, we harvest cacao pods at peak ripeness. Once collected, the pods are carefully broken open and the wet cacao beans are transferred to wooden fermentation boxes. Fermentation is a critical step—it’s where the flavor of fine cacao begins to develop. Our team closely monitors the temperature, timing, and turning of the beans, rotating them through a series of boxes over the course of several days to ensure a uniform and complete fermentation.
Once fermentation is complete, the beans are moved to our solar drying tables. Here, they will spend 7 to 10 days drying in the Belizean sun. Our goal is to reduce the moisture content to below 7%, carefully balancing sun exposure with ambient humidity to avoid over-drying or mold development. This slow and natural process helps lock in the complex flavor profile our customers have come to expect.
After drying, every bean is hand-sorted by our team to remove any defects. The finished cacao is then packed into hermetically sealed bags to preserve freshness and quality, and each bag is placed into a durable jute sack for added protection during shipment.
If you’ve seen photos from the farm recently, you may have noticed a new building going up in the background—that’s our new drying house. As demand for our cacao continues to grow, we’re increasing capacity to ensure we can maintain the same level of care and consistency at every stage of the process. While the 2025 harvest has gotten off to a slower start, we fully expect our original drying house to be full later in the season, with the new space playing an important role in supporting our growth.
From careful fermentation to meticulous drying and sorting, every step we take reflects our commitment to quality and sustainability—one bean at a time.