Located in Moravia de Cutris, in Pocosol de San Carlos, the La Dorada San Luis farm offered up some of the best cocoa from Costa Rica at the 15th annual International Cocoa Awards in Paris.
The sample ranked among the 50 best in the world at the International Cocoa Award (ICA) at the recent Salon du Chocolat.
The 42 hectare farm in Alajuela produces some 500 metric tons annually.
Participation in the competition is based on cocoa rather than processed chocolate, the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO)Â can standardize the chocolate making process and judging can focus on the quality of the cocoa.
For the International Cocoa Awards, cocoa producing countries are invited to submit well-prepared fermented and dried bean samples, which reflect genetic and geographic origins of their regions.
These are processed into liquor for evaluation by six sensory analysis experts, who select the 50 best samples, which are then processed into chocolates. These samples are evaluated by 33 expert jury members, including professional chocolatiers and sensory evaluation experts.
For the 2013 International Cocoa Awards, 15 chocolates were selected and celebrated at the Salon du Chocolat, including associations in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Madagascar, Togo, Malaysia, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, Bolivia and Venezuela.