Woodblock Chocolate Teams With Cocoa Research Center

Woodblock Chocolate, a bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturer in Portland, Ore., has collaborated with the Cocoa Research Center at the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine, Trinidad, to create a chocolate bar made from more than 2,400 types of cacao representing the efforts of the International Cocoa Genebank. 

There are only 65 pounds of this chocolate in existence and the bar, called Trinidad Fundare, will sell for $100 with all proceeds going to the maintenance of the Genebank’s living library of cacao, representing one of the most diverse collections of cacao varietals in the world. 

Established in 2010 by husband and wife team Charley and Jessica Wheelock, Woodblock Chocolate is one of the pioneers of the American craft chocolate-making movement. The manufactory in Southeast Portland houses all the equipment needed to roast, conche, age and temper chocolate, including a refurbished peanut roaster from 1910 and other machines cleverly retooled to help transform the raw cocoa into some of the best chocolate.

Woodblock Chocolate’s relationship with cacao from Trinidad began before the Cocoa Research Center collaboration, when Wheelock first traveled to the Gran Couva region of Trinidad. As a result of this trip, Woodblock Chocolate became one of the first and only chocolate-makers to use cacao from this region in the United States.