Yep, you guessed it. This is the third part of "The discovery of small chocolate companies" (check out Nouri and Rebel Chocolate if you haven't already!).
We are very happy to have discovered such valuable and unique firms and we are very proud to feature them on our blog.
Once again I'll introduce you to a small chocolate brand that definitely deserves more credit and visibility: Afrikoa.
This company is the first bean-to-bar company in South Africa to do direct trade!
Its vision is what made us fall in love with it, and it really represents an all-around important life lesson:
“While direct trade is a challenge very few chocolate makers undertake, we believe in it because sometimes the right way isn’t always the easiest way”
How did you start your chocolate company?
After 25 years of being a pastry chef and chocolatier, I decided I wanted to make my own chocolate from bean to bar. Back then there were no courses you could go on so I taught myself through trial and error. It was during a cocoa-sourcing trip to farm in Kyela, Tanzania when the idea of AFRIKOA was born. I tasted the cocoa beans and was so impressed and the farmer asked me if I was going to buy them. He was expecting me to buy the beans right there and take them with me back to Cape Town. It was while explaining the complex process of importing cocoa beans that I suddenly thought, ‘surely it doesn’t have to be this complicated’ and so we started AFRIKOA based on the idea of direct trade and creating a brand that would hero Africa, its farmers and its cocoa beans.
What do you love the most about this industry?
I love that the chocolate industry has so much freedom. There is no right or wrong way to make chocolate. The most important thing is that you make somebody happy.
What do your customers prefer? Dark, milk, or white chocolate?
At the moment we don’t make a white chocolate but generally our customers prefer dark chocolate.
How do you promote your products?
We have 240 stockists around South Africa and we mainly promote our brand through social media and by word of mouth.
Do you think social media networks nowadays are important for a firm? If yes, how so?
Yes it is extremely important. It gives us direct contact with people who enjoy our chocolate so we can communicate with them and get feedback. That is invaluable!
What is a milestone that you accomplished in your company?
We recently won a 2-star Great Taste Award for our 55% semi-sweet dark chocolate. We are the first African company to do so and the first South African chocolate to win. We’re also the first South African bean to bar chocolate to do direct trade.
What do you want to communicate to your customers?
That chocolate has no borders and it doesn’t have to come from a specific place to be good. It’s time that Africa being the biggest producer of cocoa, can start to be recognised as a producer of quality chocolate.
What’s your favourite chocolate recipe?
Brandy chocolate truffles made with AFRIKOA 70% dark chocolate.
How important is customer feedback to you and do you use it in your company?
It is very important. We listen to our customers feedback. For example, we got lots of feedback that our customers wanted a darker milk chocolate so we improved our 27% milk chocolate and added more cocoa to make it a 37% milk chocolate.
Afrikoa is built on great values and was created with a big and meaningful vision, just like we love our chocolate companies; they care deeply about both the cocoa farmers and about their clients, committing themselves to deliver a high quality product through direct trade.
The packages are beautiful and not only the chocolate is delicious, but Afrikoa also shares many yummy recipes on their website.
Check out what customers say about it:
I'm not sure it can get any better than this!
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