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Introducing T.cacao - a new brand by To'ak | To'ak Chocolate
Behind the Scenes at To'ak 2 min read

Introducing T.cacao - a new brand by To'ak

Jerry Toth

24th of January 2019

To'ak is launching a new line of products under the brand name T.cacao. Our value proposition is to provide drinking chocolate and other cacao-based products of the very highest quality to a broader community of people. 

Why?

On an emotional level, T.cacao is our way of paying tribute to the ancient roots of cacao and to the origin story of To’ak. On a more practical level, it resonates with the way we—as daily users of cacao—have learned to integrate cacao into our personal regimen for health, energy, and well-being...plus the occasional indulgence, which is an equally important part of life.

T.cacao is also our opportunity to have a greater impact among cacao growers in Ecuador and throughout the industry. We've always made it a point to pay our farming partners the highest prices in the world, but the extreme micro-batch nature of To’ak has limited our scope to an intimate group of growers. By sharing our precious cacao with more people, we're able to multiply our impact. And in the process, we plan on saving he world’s most prized cacao variety from extinction.

drinking hot chocolate

At the same time, quality continues to be the hallmark of everything we produce. We strictly limit ourselves to organic, single origin, Heirloom Nacional cacao from Piedra de Plata and other valleys where this special variety can still be found. Cacao from the very oldest Ancient Nacional trees is still reserved for To’ak, but the rest of the Heirloom Nacional cacao produced in these privileged appellations is still within the uppermost echelon of quality in the entire world. T.cacao is the channel through which we can share this cacao with a wider base of chocolate connoisseurs and believers in the power of cacao. 


Origin Story

People have been drinking cacao for thousands of years before the first chocolate bars were ever produced. And the people who founded To’ak were drinking cacao in a bamboo house in the middle of the Ecuadorian rainforest for years before the company was even conceived. In fact, it was the aroma and the clean energy of home-brewed cacao that gave rise to this entire project.

Lifestyle

As To’ak has grown as a company, our team has also steadily grown in size. Drinking a morning cup of cacao has become a positive force in the lives of nearly everyone that works with us. At this point we feel compelled to share this lifestyle, along with our privileged source of cacao, with a greater community of people.

Conservation

From the very beginning, we have made it our mission to be stewards of the rarest and most prized cacao variety in the world. Here in Ecuador, we have learned that our greatest tool in conserving true Nacional cacao is to provide cacao growers with an economic incentive to protect and reproduce this historic heirloom variety before it goes extinct. Revenue from T.cacao allows us to pay our farming partners the highest prices in the entire industry. This is the driving force behind this new brand.

T.cacao

The name T.cacao is derived from the tree-like T found in To'ak's logo. It’s also the abbreviated species name for the tree at the center of this entire project, which is: Theobroma cacao.

Cacao drink