Cacao bean producer and ethical chocolate maker from Brazil, based in NYC.

_{We are dedicated to the future of cacao and the craft of chocolate making. We supply high quality organic cacao beans from Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest to bean-to-bar makers, and unique bars to chocolate lovers.

We are, from tree-to-bar.}
_{_{_{In a country where aging tree, crop diseases, pests, and political instabilities are determing factors in the agricultural cycle, chocolate could represent a sweet solution: reforestation.
Varre-Vento aims to reimagine the food system of farming. We celebrate sustainable agriculture and we educate people on the importance of nature preservation. We have the potential to get people to rethink their eating habits, and to see the connections between how we eat and our heavy environmental footprint.}}}

_{We want to rethink/redesign the cacao supply chain, with focus on transparency, the environment and the finest quality beans and chocolate that we can produce.}

Farmers who grow nature.

_{_{“I grew up not only learning the difference between yes and no, good and bad, or right and wrong. I grew up barefoot — touching, exploring and feeling the nature around me. I was taught how to plant, grow and harvest not just as an agricultural cycle. I grew nature, and to grow nature means to encourage more of it.Fazenda Varre-Vento is the way I choose to advocate for the ongoing deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Is has become the manifestation of my desire to imagine a new food system of farming — one that protects, rather than destroys.
One could say that the farming that produces the kind of food we really want to eat depends on the attitude of the farmer. Farmers who grow nature.”}}
_{- Leticia Sarmento, Co-Founder and Creative Director}

_{_{“There's a lot less rainforest in Brazil today. We want to change that.

Here, at Fazenda Varre-Vento, we have been cultivating our cacao trees within the Cabruca system for the last twenty years — a sustainable method where our trees co-exist in perfect harmony with the rainforest. This system protects the springs, flora and fauna that infuse our beans with the flavors of the forest, while preserving the forest’s habitat.

Producing high-quality organic cacao is my passion, beginning with my father’s interest in farming, and something that I now pass along to my daughter. Together, we hope to redefine the idea of what chocolate tastes like by providing exciting and diverse cacao beans from our rainforest to chocolate makers, while supporting the forest’s habitat.

By cultivating a taste for our family’s cacao beans we hope to keep the rainforest alive for generations to come.”}}
_{- Raimundo Fontes, Co-Founder and Farmer}

︎ STORY

Rich earthiness with nutty complex flavors.

_{ORGANIC/ Our very first batch of organic cacao beans was harvested during the Spring of 2017; with no use of pesticides or chemical additives, and grown within strict policies of fine-quality cacao farming techniques.

FOREST-FRIENDLY/ Cacao has played an important role in preserving the remainder of the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, due to the production of cacao using the Cabruca Forest System. “Cabrucated forest” is a term that relates to the traditional cacao planting methods of the southern region of Bahia. This system is characterized by the planting of cacao trees in the shades of the Atlantic forest trees; a unique agricultural model only seen in Brazil.

Cacao is naturally a rainforest plant that needs to be surrounded by a high-biodiverstiy; this will influence the actual flavors of the chocolate. For this reason, we make sure that even our fermentation process starts inside the rainforest (using banana tree leaves), so that we can get all the flavors and aromas provided by nature.

DIRECT-TRADE/ There is no “direct-trade” of bean-to-bar chocolate makers; chocolatiers and chocolate companies are not making agreements directly with the supplying farmer.

Eliminate the middle-men: We ask that chocolate makers that are interested in cacao beans place an order on our website and wait for its delivery.

Exclusivity: We will only sell our cacao beans to makers that align with our core values and company standards.}

︎ SHOP