Costa Rica Specialty Cacao & Chocolate Festival · Opening talk · Online in English
Terroir of Mesoamerican cacao
The opening talk of the festival is broadcast live from Costa Rica with simultaneous translation into English, for chocolate makers, buyers and specialists following the festival from abroad. It presents the taste profiles, chemistry and quality attributes of fine cacao from Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, alongside the genetics, history and growing regions behind them.
The session supports the case for Geographical Indications for Mesoamerican cacao, drawing on the Cacaos de Origen Mesoamericano project of FONTAGRO, which treats origin quality as technical, cultural and social at once.
The speaker
Dr. Carlos Eduardo Hernández
Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica
Dr. Carlos Eduardo Hernández is an agronomist, graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica (UNA), and holds a master's degree and a PhD in Food Science, both from the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST), Taiwan.
He is a professor and researcher at UNA's School of Agricultural Sciences, where he works on research and technology transfer in fermentation systems for the production of differentiated-quality cacao. He currently leads the FONTAGRO project "Geographical Indications for Mesoamerican Cacao".
His work is multidisciplinary: it combines applied optics to determine cacao quality profiles, functional metagenomics and the study of microbial diversity in fermentation, and volatile profile analysis by GC-MS/SPME; research lines that have led to a number of scientific publications. He is an IICCT-certified Level 3 cacao and chocolate taster.
The project aims to promote innovation based on local resources, protect biocultural heritage, and integrate quality analysis as a tool to add value to Mesoamerican cacao and to the people who produce it.
Terroir of Mesoamerican Cacao
A talk on the concept of cacao terroir, with emphasis on regions of Costa Rica and Honduras.
- Taste profiles, chemistry and quality attributes of fine Central American cacao
- Genetics, history and growing regions
- Guided tasting of samples, with emphasis on cacao from Honduras and Costa Rica
- Broadcast live from Costa Rica with simultaneous translation into English
Geographical Indications for Mesoamerican cacao
The Cacaos de Origen Mesoamericano project, funded by FONTAGRO and led from the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, is building the evidence base in Honduras and Costa Rica so that origin quality can be protected and rewarded. The talk presents its approach and first results. Read about the project at FONTAGRO ↗