Tucked in the rolling green hills of Naranjito, Puerto Rico, sits Hacienda Terruño JS, a picturesque 9-acre cacao farm. Color-coded neat rows of small shrubby trees pregnant with the beloved oval pods grow under the warm tropical sun. The evergreens are carefully tended to by retired USDA Forest Service librarian Jorge Morales.
Morales, 63, is part of a quiet revolution rooted in heritage, culture, sustainability and love of the land. He is among hundreds of Puerto Rican cacao farmers who are turning their hobby into an art form. Since 2016, the cacao industry in Puerto Rico has experienced a massive resurgence with production growing by more than 3,400%, according to data from Chocolate Cortés.
Instead of selling beans to distant processors, many Puerto Rican cacao farmers focus on the local, celebrating terroir, using regenerative practices, developing nuanced flavors and creating bars that taste like Puerto Rico itself. These artisanal farmers and chocolatiers oversee every step: growing the fruit and harvesting the pods, focusing on specialty grades – beans prized for flavor and nuance rather than bulk – and positioning their crop for boutique chocolate makers instead of commodity traders. They ferment and mold finished bars and experiment with flavors – blending cacao with passion fruit, rum, coffee, guava and tropical spices – and they open their farms to visitors and chocolateries, where they serve innovative mixes directly to consumers.
This grassroots renaissance has attracted a curious community beyond farming circles: chocolate lovers, chefs and tourists seeking authentic experiences.
“In many ways, it’s a lab of trial, error and, ultimately, excellence,” says Morales of cacao farming in the Caribbean archipelago.
On weekends, Morales leads tours around his farm where visitors – locals and international tourists – learn how cacao transforms from bitter bean to glossy bar. Visitors taste the fruit from pods, watch the fermentation process and not only see how the beans transform but taste the finished product. Morales makes 60% to 100% dark chocolate that he sells on his farm under the name Tanibe. His tours end with a cacao ceremony of sorts: warm cups of hot chocolate prepared by his wife.
“I came into cacao farming by accident,” Morales says. Searching for something to busy himself when he retired, he visited a nearby nursery to learn the science of grafting trees.
“When I saw several rows of tiny glowing trees, I was stuck by their beauty,” he says. Morales learned that they were being grown as a part of a project between the U.S. Department of Agriculture Tropical Agriculture Research Station, which has conducted studies on cacao since 1955 and has one of the largest collections of cacao repositories in the world, and Chocolate Cortés, the oldest chocolate company on the island. Morales asked to be part of the effort.
The pilot project involved growing 10,000 trees by grafting 10 of the 300 varieties TARS has in its library in the western town of Mayagüez.
“Cortés Hermanos sponsored 10 farmers, and each would grow 1,000 trees,” Morales says. “If we were successful, Cortés was willing to buy the product for its premium chocolate brand, Forteza.”
Today, Morales is not only selling raw cacao to Cortés but also winning international accolades. In 2023, his cacao was rated among the top 50 in the world, and he took the silver medal in the Cacao of Excellence Global Awards. In February, he traveled to Amsterdam to pick up another award, the silver. David Valentín-Bayón, of Cacao Valent from San Sebastián, won the gold.
“For the competition, we are asked to submit 16 pounds of cacao,” Morales says. “I select bean by bean looking for certain characteristics – size, hue – very meticulously. When you send a sample chosen with such care, even visually, the first impression is impressive, and you know that there is quality in that batch.”
Morales says he was surprised to have won because he is relatively new to cacao farming and is self-taught, and it’s a global competition, where more than 50 countries with hundreds of years’ experience in cacao farming participate.
“It feels great because it is really a prize for consistency and perseverance,” he says. “It’s a prize for my dedication.”
But Morales says it’s also part of the plan.
“We have positioned Puerto Rico on the international stage for the quality of cacao that we are producing,” he says. “When I started this project, the mission was to compete at the international level in terms of quality not quantity because that was going to be impossible given the land mass of the archipelago. But we are well on our way to fulfilling our mission.”
The sweet story
Chocolate perfumes the air around Calle Fortaleza and Calle San José in Old San Juan as Blessie Casul prepares mocha coffee after mocha coffee out of her popular chocolaterie, Ferangi Chocolat. The mother of three was looking for something to do after the last of her children left for college.
“You can blame the empty nest for this chocolate shop,” Casul says. She was inspired to want to grow cacao after visiting Trinidad and Tobago on a cruise.
Ten years ago, she bought a farm and, while her trees were growing, Casul became a certified cacao sommelier and learned how to bake pastries. Today, she is a master chocolatier who makes and sells chocolate products including decadent dark chocolate brownies and a three-tiered cacao rum muffin she calls The Black Pearl, which resembles a tres leches cake, except it’s made with single-origin cacao from a local producer.
“I never thought I’d be a cacao farmer, never mind a baker and shop owner, but there is something very special about cacao that makes people happy, and I am so glad that I am part of that joy,” Casul says.
In fact, the Indigenous people of Central and South America and the Caribbean revere the fruit for its heart-opening properties. The Incas considered it the drink of the gods. Western science is catching up with Indigenous science as recent studies have shown that dark chocolate is good for cardiovascular health.
Ancestral history
Puerto Rico’s modern-day cacao story is rooted in ancient history. According to Christian Vargas García, TARS lead curator and plant breeder, the archipelago’s historic records of cacao go back to the 1700s. But, for centuries before European contact, cacao was woven into the tapestry of the region. Long before monoculture sugarcane and coffee plantations dotted the land, Indigenous people of the island, Taínos, revered cacao not only as nourishment, but as a drink central to ceremony, much like other Native nations of the hemisphere.
“It’s ancestral for me,” says third-generation cacao farmer Virgen Torres Gómez, owner of Cacao La PruVite in Luquillo. “My grandmother tended to several trees and every Sunday at 3 p.m., the entire family, friends and all our neighbors came over for hot chocolate, a piece of queso de bola and crackers.” In 2013, she planted more trees and today leads tours on her farm teaching visitors about the beloved fruit.
“It’s been an exciting thing to watch” says Vargas García, who expects to release TARS clone compatibility information this year. “It’s also been great for TARS to be part of this historic moment. We have an enthusiastic group of farmers in Puerto Rico who are rooted in a desire to care for the trees and win.”
Bean-to-bar eateries, shops and farms to visit in Puerto Rico where chocolate is the main attraction
Chocobar CortésA chocolate restaurant experience in Old San Juan offering everything from chocolate pancakes to chocolate martinis.
Hacienda Jeanmarie ChocolatCornerstone farm of the modern cacao revival offers bean-to-bar chocolate and tours.
The Love is SweetA bakery that offers freshly-baked pastries where chocolate is the star.
Hacienda ChocolatA woman-owned cacao farm and chocolaterie that offers blissful bean-to-bar experiences.
This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.
