Lindt & Sprüngli, in cooperation with the Swiss-Ghanaian start-up Koa, has revealed a chocolate bar that is sweetened with dried cocoa pulp. Koa uses the cocoa pod’s pulp, thus reducing food waste and providing cocoa smallholders with an additional income.

Hailed as a necessary step for sustainable and responsible chocolate, this innovative ingredient is the cornerstone of the new Excellence Cocoa Pure bar.

According to Lindt & Sprüngli, it is the first time a chocolate bar has been sweetened with dried cocoa pulp, which comes from small-scale farmers.

“2021 will be the year of the cocoa fruit. Using the cocoa pulp is key to sustainable, healthy and delicious chocolate,” says Anian Schreiber, co-founder and managing director of Koa.

Until now, the pulp that surrounds the cocoa beans could not be processed in cocoa-growing countries due to a lack of infrastructure and technology. 

In conventional cocoa processing, only a small part of the white pulp was used for fermentation. Koa has found an innovative way to gently process the cocoa fruit in close cooperation with 1,600 smallholders. 

“This is how we enable Ghanaian cocoa farmers to increase their income by up to 30 percent while boosting value creation in rural Ghana,” Daniel Otu, operations director at Koa in Ghana, explains.

Koa powder opens up new ways for chocolate
Koa’s “breakthrough” is being hailed as “a groundbreaking innovation.” Koa is the first company to launch Koa powder, the 100 percent natural and gently dried cocoa fruit pulp.

The tropical-fruity powder opens up new opportunities for chocolate and bakery products – whether it is to replac conventional, refined sugar, create new flavor experiences or demonstrate sustainable value creation in the cocoa-growing countries really means.

The first application from Lindt & Sprüngli’s new Excellence bar is 82 percent cocoa beans and 18 percent Koa Powder. 
Smallholders with farms of two to three hectares form the backbone of cocoa farming worldwide. More than 90 percent of cocoa comes from smallholders, 75 percent of which live in West Africa. 

In Ghana, the second-largest cocoa producer, around 800,000 smallholders cultivate mixed crops. The cooperation with Koa and the use of the cocoa pulp not only increases the income of smallholders by up to 30 percent, but it diversifies their income source.

Lindt & Sprüngli launched its sustainability program, the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program in 2008. A voluntary premium is paid per ton of cocoa beans purchased, which flows into the program.

At Lindt & Sprüngli, the beans come from the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program, as is with the new Excellence Cocoa Pure. 

“As young entrepreneurs, we are particularly proud to cooperate with the renowned Lindt Maîtres Chocolatiers and to share the same goal,” adds Schreiber. 

By 2030, Koa wants to establish a partnership with 80,000 smallholders and sustainably transform cocoa farming.

Excellence Cocoa Pure will initially be available next month in limited quantities in selected Lindt shops in several countries and Lindt’s online shop.