Behind the Bar: Alejandro Zamorano
Revival Cacao’s founder, Alejandro Zamorano, on the significance of Mexican cacao and his desire to ‘restore it to its former glory’.
Some could say that Alejandro Zamorano’s path to cacao began hundreds of years before he was even born. On November 8th 1519, to be exact. Because it was on this day Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés met Moctezuma II in Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City) and was able to try chocolate, making him the first European to do so. Centuries later, Alejandro, who moved from his home country of Spain to Mexico’s capital, celebrates his birthday on November 8th. “If you go looking for coincidences,” he tells me, “you will find them.”
When we talk on Zoom, it was like chatting to an old friend, one who shares a common interest in chocolate, that is. However, our call proved that I had a lot to learn, not only about Alejandro himself, but also about the domestication of the cacao tree, thousands of years ago in what we now know as Mexico. There is no mystery behind the name of Revival Cacao, the company Alejandro founded back in 2017. Focused on “reviving Mexican cacao,” Alejandro tells me he has to “look back to move forward” within this industry. We talked for over an hour; I’d like to think that since our conversation, my cacao knowledge has somewhat improved.
Revival offers a range of cacao, but it is their first origin I was most interested in hearing about, Agua Escondida. This origin is what makes up our Hill St. 50% Dark Milk Bean to Bar, a rich, chocolatey tablet with layers of roasted pecan and molasses, balanced with fruity, citrus notes.
Before we got to discussing Agua Escondida, I asked Alejandro how he started Revival. He references the butterfly effect, outlining each chance encounter that led him to leaving Spain for Mexico, and in turn, leaving a career in Europe’s fresh produce industry for Mexican cacao. “I quit my job on a Friday,” he said. “The next Monday, I was in Mexico.”
The business didn’t have the easiest of starts but Alejandro persevered. “At the beginning, I wanted to launch a premium drinking chocolate brand,” he tells me. When his initial plan was no longer viable, Alejandro turned to sourcing and exporting the Mexican cacao that he believed had been forgotten by international chocolate makers, “we are reviving a tradition that was fading.” And so, Revival Cacao was born.
Agua Escondida is the first cacao origin Alejandro worked with and is consequently named after the farm that started Revival Cacao, supervised by a farmer named Malaquais. “He [Malaquais] gave us our small farm, a nectar of cacao and told us to harvest the cacao, ferment it, and try to sell it.” Grown in the Tabasco state of Mexico, Agua Escondida is now one of Alejandro’s most exclusive origins. In keeping with tradition, it is Malaquais who oversees the entire operation of Agua Escondida, including the neighbouring farms that also grow this specific origin. It is grown alongside complimentary crops such as bananas, plantain, pepper, hibiscus and lime in a 100% agroforestry system. This biodiverse environment is good for both the cacao and the farmers, who benefit economically and socially as a result. Alongside Agua Escondida, Revival’s other fermented cacao origins include Río Samaria, Sierra Madre, and Sak Balam.
Realising he could export Mexican cacao worldwide, Alejandro began collaborating with other small co-ops that wanted to ferment their cacao, “because it was unheard of.” Fermentation of harvested cacao beans is a process that reduces the bitterness of the raw bean, in turn allowing the flavour to develop before it is used by chocolate makers around the world. Unfermented cacao is often bitter, hence why it is not used in craft chocolate, but it does preserve original nutrients and has a deep rooted history in Mexican culture. At Revival, Alejandro sources both fermented and unfermented cacao, or “cacao lavado”, in the Tabasco and Chiapas states of Mexico. The unfermented cacao lavado is used in drinking chocolate, using Mesoamerican methods that, as Revival and Alejandro point out, are associated with the ancient “civilisations that first domesticated and revered cacao as a sacred tree and food” and are still popular in Mexico today.
Since 2017 Revival Cacao has grown considerably. Since partnering up with the sustainable cocoa trading enterprise, Crafting Markets, Revival Cacao have been able to broaden their exports to the European market, allowing them to develop relationships with businesses and chocolate makers like us here at Hill St.
When Alejandro told me about the “storm of coincidences” that brought him to Mexico City, it was hard not to call it fate. In fact, fate was the word he used himself after he revealed his coincidental connection to Hernán Cortés. But fate aside, Alejandro’s commitment to both Revival and the reputation of Mexican cacao is what has allowed him to succeed. Now, by “embracing traditional through modernity” Revival Cacao are determined to put Mexican cacao back in the forefront of chocolate makers' minds across the globe.
See our New Mexico Hill St. Dark Milk Bean to Bar here