Chocolate Tasting with the Kallari Cooperative

Tickets are $12; reserve yours on Brown Paper Tickets.

Join us for a workshop and tasting with Rebecca Roebber, an affiliate of the Kallari Cooperative. Rebecca, a student at the University of Oregon, has spent time working with a group of Quichua people from Ecuador's Amazonian rainforest who, with the help of volunteers, have created their own chocolate, known as Kallari bars (pronounced kai-YAH-ri). What makes Kallari chocolate unusual (or really, revolutionary) is that the cooperative both grows the cacao beans and produces the finished chocolate bar. That means they keep 100% of the profits from chocolate sales and are able to reinvest substantially more money in their community. The New York Times caught word of Kallari last November; read about it here.

Rebecca will talk about cacao growing, artisan chocolate production and the global chocolate industry. He will then lead a tasting of dark chocolates from around the world in order to give participants a sense of how each step in the production process affects the final flavor of a bar of chocolate.

This workshop is taking place at the Sunny Side Cafe, a fantastic local restaurant that serves a low carbon emissions breakfast and lunch menu. Tickets to the workshop are $12, the entirety of which goes to Kallari.

*Note: This workshop was originally going to be led by Enrique Cerda, a 23 year-old Ecuadorian chocolate maker and member of Kallari. Unfortunately, he was robbed of his passport on his way to the airport for this trip, and visa troubles at the U.S. embassy in Quito, Ecuador have prevented him from traveling to the U.S. Rebecca, a translator who has spent time working with Kallari in Ecuador, will be leading the workshop in his place.

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