Ocho is a craft bean-to-bar chocolate maker based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Being a craft chocolate maker means that Ocho imports the fermented and dried beans and make the chocolate from scratch. This includes roasting, grinding, conching and tempering the chocolate before moulding it into bars. Unlike big industrial chocolate makers we use simple equipment and our processes are very hands-on because none of our equipment is automated. We don’t blend any of our chocolate, so each batch is fully traceable back to the farmer co-operative where the beans were grown.
Ocho’s intention is to only use beans from Pacific countries to minimise the distance the beans travel before they are processed. Most of our beans come from Madang, in Papua New Guinea and are grown by small cocoa cooperatives owned by the farmers.
