It is no secret that one of my favorite chocolate makers is Askinosie Chocolate, located in Springfield, Missouri. Not only is their chocolate incredibly delicious and complex, but the company is very focused on the cacao farmers and also on helping their own community with programs such as Cocoa Honors and Chocolate University. They have a wonderful program going on right now with 13 high school students and farmers in Liberia and in Tanzania.
This week, Askinosie Chocolate will auction a set of five of the first single origin chocolate bars made with cocoa beans from Liberia as a fundraiser to send the high school students of Cocoa Honors to Africa in the Summer of 2010.
The auction will be hosted on eBay and will begin on Sunday April 3 at 8 PM CST and end on Sunday April 11 at 9 PM CST. These five chocolate bars are not only the first single origin chocolate bars made with Liberian beans, but they are also the first and only chocolate bars that Askinosie Chocolate has made from those beans. This nano-batch was crafted from a one-kilo bean sample received from Lofa County,Liberia. The Liberian bar is bursting with notes of red berries and jasmine, hints of roasted cocoa and coffee, with a long lingering earthy finish.
All of the proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Cocoa Honors program, comprised of 13 students from Central High School, to travel to either Liberia or Tanzania in the Summer of 2010 with Shawn Askinosie, founder of Askinosie Chocolate. While there, the students, who have been working with Askinosie for several months on sourcing the beans and creating his next chocolate bar, will meet with their selected farmer group and perform a service project for the community.
A second auction will be held for their first chocolate bars made with cocoa beans from Tanzania.
Cocoa Honors is a program of Chocolate University. It is a neighborhood outreach of Askinosie Chocolate, consisting of a select group of students from Central High School in Springfield, Missouri USA. With the guidance of Drury University students, they seek to understand the cocoa industry within the context of the history, culture, and economy of Africa. Over 18 months the students will have a complete “bean to bar” experience by sourcing the next origin of cocoa beans with Askinosie.
Askinosie Chocolate is a small batch chocolate manufacturer sourcing 100% of their beans directly from the farmers. Shawn Askinosie travels to regions of Mexico, Ecuador, and the Philippines to work directly with the farmers and source cocoa beans for his chocolate. This allows the chocolate to be traced to the source and labeled Authentic Single Origin Chocolate. It also enables Askinosie Chocolate to profit share with the farmers, giving them a Stake In the Outcome™.
The Askinosie Chocolate mission is to serve their farmers, their neighborhood, their customers and each other; sharing the Askinosie Chocolate Experience by leaving the world a “better place than they found it”.