Cocoa Future Collaborative

06/12/2026

06/12/2026

There’s something magical about turning a few simple ingredients into a summer ritual. 🧊🍫

This Iced Cacao Latte is creamy, refreshing, and endlessly customizable. Whether you enjoy it with dairy or plant-based milk, lightly sweetened or bold and intense, it’s a delicious reminder that cacao can be enjoyed far beyond the chocolate bar.

You can travel the world by tasting 100% Dark Chocolates for this recipe with:

Mashpi Chocolate, Ecuador
Mission Chocolate and Baianí Chocolates, Brazil
Belú Cacao, El Salvador
Definite Chocolate and Cacaoteca, Dominican Republic
Chocolat Madagascar, Madagascar
Maraná and Cacaosuyo, Peru
Auro Chocolate, Philippines
Belvie and Marou, Vietnam

We’d love to celebrate your cacao creations with our community. 🌿🍫

✨ Recreate this recipe at home.
📸 Share it in your stories.
🏷️ Tag so we can see and share your creation.

Because cacao isn’t just an ingredient, it’s an experience.

🍫🧊🌱🍫

06/04/2026

What makes chocolate... chocolate?

Many of us grew up thinking sweetness is essential. But long before modern candy bars existed, people were enjoying cacao in many different forms.

Sugar can be delicious. But it's not what makes chocolate chocolate.

At Cocoa Future Collaborative, we believe chocolate education starts by reconnecting with cacao itself, the ingredient that began the story.

In fact, if you look at the Cocoa Future makers, you'll find three interesting approaches:

No sweetener at all → 100% cacao chocolate. → like .
Sweetened with cacao fruit → like AWKI Purity
Sweetened with alternative sweeteners → like Belú's monk fruit chocolate

This is a great reminder that chocolate existed long before refined sugar became common, and that cacao itself offers far more possibilities than most people realize. 🍫🌿

What do you think? Could you enjoy chocolate without sugar?

🍫🌱

05/27/2026

Cool, creamy, and incredibly simple. 🍌🍫☀️

This ""Banana Chip Nice Cream” with Cacao Nibs is one of our favorite summer cacao recipes - naturally sweet, refreshing, and full of cacao nibs for that perfect crunch and pure cacao flavor.

A beautiful reminder that cacao can be enjoyed in simple, everyday ways beyond the chocolate bar.

You can find Cacao Nibs for this recipe with:





We’d love to celebrate your cacao creations with our community. 🌿🍫

✨ Recreate it at home
📸 Share it in your stories
🏷️ Tag so we can see and share your version

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05/06/2026

☀️ Summer's coming and we're kicking it off with some fun and play.

We went straight to the experts at enjoying summer: kids! 🧒👧 With help from their parents 🎥, we asked them some questions about chocolate. ❓Every response is awesome, sometimes hilarious, and guaranteed to bring a smile. 😄

Most of us met chocolate as kids. No questions asked, just magic in our mouths. ✨ But there's a whole world between where cocoa grows along the equator 🌍 and where most of us unwrap it in the US & Europe 🍫. Cocoa beans arrive on our shores 🚢, but what happened before that? It's a total mystery to many adults and kids alike!

That gap between growing and knowing is something we think about a lot at Cocoa Future Collaborative. 🤎

Today, we hear from Aviel. He knows chocolate doesn't start as a bean, but where does it start? A tropical fruit on a tree 🌳, in an interdependent ecosystem , tended by people deeply rooted in the land. 🌱🤲

The story is simpler and more beautiful than the distance makes it seem. We're bringing the story back to where it begins - one kid's fabulous answer at a time. Follow along in the coming weeks!

04/29/2026

Our hearts are SO full from the DC Chocolate Festival. 💗

We’ve worked together A LOT online - and finally got to meet in person. I couldn’t stop hugging them 🤗 - they’re real! 😂 so fun to step off screen. 📺

Elmer at .chocolate - grateful for your persistence in all ways - in farming, crafting, innovating, traveling... So glad you and your amazing chocolate finally made it! Nayely - we missed you!

Priscilla at - your warmth and welcome is beautiful. It was a gift to meet you and taste the few morsels that were left. Kimberly - hope to meet you soon. 🙏🏼

Iyin at ’s - what fun to hear your creativity and ideas brewing. I’m excited for so much more to come!

Peng, Lu, and Marisol - your hospitality and support were truly harrowing. Thank you for all of the ways you bring our industry together.

Estelle at - you are equal parts delight and brilliant focus. It was awesome to finally meet you IRL.

And to the growing friendships with so many creating a better cocoa future - , , , , , , , - love being on this journey with you all. 🥳

04/25/2026

So excited for our first time ! Over the moon to see so many industry colleagues in real life!! chocolate

04/05/2026

When Jesus began his public ministry, Luke tells us he went to the Synagogue on the Sabbath and read this from the scroll of Isaiah.

18“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” .. “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

✝️ As we celebrate Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection this Easter, we pray that He receives ALL that He died for - in cocoa, and in our world. 🙏🏼🌍

04/02/2026

And we close the tasting with Conexión Chocolate from Ecuador. 🇪🇨🍫

This 55% dark couverture brings together coastal and Amazonian cacao in a smooth, versatile expression - nutty, gently sweet, and crafted for both creativity and everyday use. A final reminder that chocolate is not only tasted in a bar, but enjoyed through all of the possibilities we create with it.

Founded by Jenny Samaniego, Conexión embodies collaboration, direct trade, and connection - linking farmers, makers, and kitchens in a shared story of origin and purpose.

A fitting ending… that invites a new beginning. ✨ Find this incredible, origin-made all-women tasting kit on our website.

03/28/2026

Next in the tasting: Luji’s Chocolate from Nigeria. 🇳🇬🍫

This 62% dark chocolate infused with suya spice brings bold West African flavors to life, smooth cocoa layered with ginger warmth, nutty depth, and a gentle cayenne finish. A chocolate that tells a story far beyond taste.

Founded by Iyin Akinlabi-Oladimeji, Luji’s is rooted in a simple but powerful idea: chocolate should be made where cacao is grown. By crafting chocolate at origin and investing directly in farmers, each bar becomes part of a larger system of value, impact, and future harvests.

One bar. One seedling. One step toward a more equitable chocolate industry. 🌱✨

Find Luji's Dark Spicy Suya at lujischocolate.com and in our ""Celebrating Women in Chocolate"" tasting.

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