It’s been 2 years since the filming for the cacao documentary Piura Blanco in La Quemazón.

You still have to make your way across a wild river, the mosquitos are even hungrier and the cacao tastes simply incredible. It’s so good to return!

We had a total 48 hours in La Quemazón this time. Flying up from Cusco we stopped in Lima, touched down in Piura City and were picked up by Joe’s taxista buddy who raced us from the airport straight to La Pareja.

_{We hopped out in Buenos Aires (not Argentina) to take this beautiful reminder of our journey back to cacao heaven.}

Joe Huachez, who I met for the first time has been working with Don Nico at La Delizia since 2020. On my last trip I filmed Nico hand-roasting, grinding and making cacao balls all by manual labour.

Joe’s chocolate and infamous Passion Fruits are featured in Renacer’s bonbons, which are shown in the Piura Blanco documentary.

He’s a real dynamo and self-generating machine of pure joy. From the hotel in La Pareja we took the truck to his post-harvest facility, which is currently under construction.

The Huachez family has worked with ancient white cacao since 1850 and Joe is the 3rd generation of ‘Cacao Cultores’. He had the privilege of growing up with cacao and continues learning more every day.

What we noticed during our time is that everyone pulls on one string. People here work as a team. So we asked Joe and there are 2 groups he directly works with.

You have ‘La Delizia’ founded by Nicolas Guerrero. Part of the team is Nely, Jorge and Marina (his wife). They are all in the video above and in the photo below.

From right to left:

Don Nico, Joe Huachez, Humberto from Gibbs Chocolate, Nely, my mom Sonya, Marina, Adin and Bernabé.

Then there’s also ‘Piura Granos de Origen’, which is made up of multiple partners and collaborators. Joe, Adin, Nely, Bernabé, Mirian and Jirhet are some of the key figures.

Joe’s dad (above) and about 20 farmers are part of that second group and possibly among the most important ones. They collect cacao together in an alliance.

Their goal is to generate value and traceability. Additionally, they collaborate with their partners in pruning practices, fertiliser improvement and rehabilitation of cacao trees. Not to mention sowing of new plants in a sustainable and friendly way in line with the ecosystem.

At La Delizia the beans are evaluated and the best ones are transformed into chocolate.

That was our first half day in La Pareja and La Quemazón. More on cacao hybrids and the Piura Blanco Premiere in another post.

Hasta luego!