Three Guatemalan brothers decide to dream and make the decision to invest in machinery to transform cocoa into chocolate, without imagining that a few months later in Guatemala they would announce the first cases of covid infections, a situation that became a challenge.
They managed to bring high-quality chocolate to a new market and also created a new consumer culture due to the lockdowns and mobility restrictions that the country implemented during 2020.
“It was a challenge, but we did not give up, we began to use virtual platforms to make ourselves known and get customers who would consume our final product or our confectionery product,” says Pablo Matute, co-founder of Sero Chocolate.
Currently, the venture is a supplier of raw materials for renowned Guatemalan restaurants, chocolatiers and pastry chefs, in addition to being the authors of two chocolate bars that won silver medals at the AVPA awards in Paris in 2022.
The main differentiator of Chocolate Sero
The raw material of entrepreneurship is fine aroma cocoawhich allows the use of minimal ingredients and highlights the natural flavor of cocoa, without limiting users to innovate and offer chocolate products with new recipes.
Chocolate Sero maintains the origin and flavor of cocoa from the area where it is grown. It offers single origin chocolate from the following departments:
- Suchitepequez
- Upper Verapaz
- Izabal
- Peten
According to the founders, another differentiator of the brand is the type of cocoa roasting, they investigate what is the best roasting process for each origin of cocoa.
Flavor, conservation and development proposal for Guatemala
Entrepreneurs do business through direct alliances with cooperatives, private farms, and cocoa-producing collectives around Guatemala.
“Our dream has been to produce a chocolate that meets world quality standards grown, processed and designed in Guatemala,” says Matute.
He adds that part of the dream is to educate Guatemalans about the diversity of unique flavors of chapín cacao and its potential for sustainable economic development and mitigating climate change.
They consider that, by working directly with producers, they have managed to make changes in the traditional cocoa marketing model, allowing producers to pay double per kilogram of cocoa compared to the international market.
“We see with great enthusiasm that cocoa farmers receive a fair payment for their crops, this has a positive impact for their families and their communities, and also for local biodiversity, since fine aroma cocoa, which is what we use in Sero Chocolategrows in the shade of native forests and the new demand will promote maintaining and expanding forests”.
