Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company
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Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company is a chocolate company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Omanhene is famous for the milk chocolate that they produce. All of Omanhene's chocolate beans come from the lush forests in Ghana. The difference between Omanhene's chocolate from their competitor (according to their website) is that all Omanhene's chocolate bars are made and processed in Ghana, whereas other major competitors to buy the beans from a tropical country and ship them to countries like Canada or the United States to process and make chocolate bars.
[edit] History
The Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company was founded in 1991 by Steven C. Wallace and his brother, Jonathan. Steven was an AFS high school student and lived in Ghana for three months in 1978. However, when he was 29 (in 1991), he felt that he needed to go back to Ghana to contribute back to the country. He then decided to start a business, a chocolate business. The name Omanhene in the Twi language, means the "Paramount Chief". Omanhene chocolate is unique for several reasons.
First of all, it is a single source chocolate, using only beans from smaller family farmers in Ghana, so it is one of the few chocolates that can claim to be free of the taint of worker exploitation and slavery.
Secondly, it produces the chocolate in the same factory where the beans are processed into the main ingredients of chocolate (cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, and cocoa powder). Because of this, their chocolate has the opportunity to be made into a shelf stable finished product much sooner - without the degradation of ingredients that occur when cocoa liquor is stored and transported for months prior to being used to make finished chocolate.
Thirdly, although the product is not organic, beans from Ghana, due to the shade grown trees, and family sized farms, have a healthier profile with the strong likelihood of less pesticide use than is used in larger cocoa plantations common in other countries.
Fourthly, the factory workers and family farmers all have a stake in the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company, which did not need to change ANY of its business practices at all in order to be a model company, a fair trade company, and an early adopter of the UN Global Compact, and a favorite of the slow food movement in the USA.
Finally, they have an 80% cocoa solids Extra Dark Chocolate that is ideal for those who wish to use chocolate as a nutraceutical, for the health benefits found in cocoa liquor. This is because the cocoa liquor is fresher, more intense, from higher quality beans, and made into a bar with less sugar, than nearly any other dark chocoalte available.
