Masonis makes one of his bars from Maya Mountain Cacao from Belize, one of two heirlooms inducted earlier this year. The Maya Mountain business, founded five years ago, is made up of a network of 309 farms in the region. MMC buys wet cacao beans from local farmers, ferments and dries the beans, and then sells them, mostly to small-batch chocolate-makers like Dandelion. The premium beans go for $5,600 per metric ton, which is approximately $2,600 more than the current world market price for cacao beans, and Maya Granit, managing director for MMC, says approximately $3,300 of the sale of each metric ton goes directly to the farmer. She believes HCP’s designation put Belizean cacao on the map.
http://www.newsweek.com/2015/06/05/why-does-your-chocolate-taste-so-bad-335178.html