"I lost weight with real chocolate"
"I lost weight with real chocolate"
Sergi Codonyer, maker of the best African chocolate
I am 52 years old. I am from Barcelona. I am a social entrepreneur and I make chocolate. I am married and have three children, Eric (13), Claire (11) and Oliver (7). Politics? I am Obama and Michele's "Yes, she can" fan. Beliefs? No. I have lived in Africa for many years and I want to help Africans prosper.
Cocoa with tiger nuts?
Try it.
Hmm... very good!
You are tasting the best chocolate in the world.
Why is it the best chocolate?
What lies behind the production of cocoa and the making of chocolate.
Tell me about the production.
I prohibit the use of synthetic fertilizers and insecticides. There is a scrupulous selection of the best cocoa pods.
What the hell?
Inside each pod grow the cocoa beans, which are extracted with all the guarantees that they will not deteriorate.
What could deteriorate?
Leaving them on the ground, with insects, humidity, blows... As before. We teach the farmers to do it properly.
Local farmers?
I work with 2,888 local cocoa farmers, producing well-tended cocoa that is sublime. And in this way we save lives!
Why? How?
I pay nine dollars per kilo, three times more than others: we stop the impulse to emigrate, to get on a boat at the risk of dying!
Well yes, that is truly saving lives.
That's right: if Africa were more prosperous, Europe would not receive the current volume of African immigrants. And that's why I have set up my chocolate factory in Sierra Leone.
Why did you choose Sierra Leone?
Because it is the poorest country in Africa: if the project succeeds there, it could be successful in any other country! And we have already opened a second factory in Madagascar...
Their chocolate is called...
Organic Africa Chocolate.
Why organic?
Because it uses clean, organic, natural cocoa, a cocoa with which we make truly healthy chocolate.
Aren't other chocolates?
It's not chocolates you're eating: you're eating something else...
What do I eat?
Sugar! They roast the cocoa at a high temperature, alkalize it and add sugar. And that's why we eat chocolate with guilt, because it's not chocolate!
Aren't you exaggerating?
A Toblerone contains 64% sugar. A bar of Lindt chocolate contains 46% sugar. A jar of Nutella contains 55% sugar, 23% palm oil, 14% hazelnuts... and only 7.4% cocoa!
And your chocolate... is it chocolate?
Yes. Roasted at low temperature and not alkalized, and with zero sugar. And we only add ingredients such as passion fruit, or tiger nut, or turmeric, or spirulina...
And all this is healthier?
For a while I was at the plantation, eating our cocoa and chocolate every day and... do you know what happened to me?
What happened to him?
I lost 15 kilos in 18 months. Chocolate really does make you lose weight! It's high-quality calories and it makes you lean. I ate chocolate and walked. And my psoriasis was cured.
Wouldn't that happen with regular chocolate?
Plain chocolate? It only contains 10% cocoa! And its super-processed ingredients encourage you to eat more! And it worsens our serious obesity problem.
Against obesity, chocolate! And what other virtues does this chocolate of yours have?
It has other collateral benefits: our organic plantations favour the improvement of the environment, regenerating it.
Why did you grow organic cocoa?
After meeting Elisabet, now my wife, at a diplomatic dinner in Africa, I was working for Coca-Cola at the time.
Were you doing well?
Very well done! I worked in thirteen African countries and increased sales by 11%.
Do you have any regrets?
No, I helped many families prosper. But Elisabet, a humanitarian lawyer, pointed out to me the problems in Africa: deforestation, child exploitation...
And you decided to change your activity?
I decided to learn from farmers, to be their tool: I don't help them, I accompany them.
What do you like most about Africans?
In Africa, all children play! You give a child a bar of chocolate and he shares it with everyone. And they have a lot of respect for the elderly: they know that knowledge is there. They listen to adults. I see that they do everything out of love. And that is why I admire them.
Have you made friends with any peasants?
With many, like Moriba Barguna, which has achieved First Diamond cocoa, the highest category, the highest quality!
Isn't Sierra Leone a dangerous country?
There was war, no longer: I lived there with my three children, in spectacular nature. I took another piece of chocolate.
What's in this piece of chocolate...?
This one has coconut milk. That other one, dates. That one over there, matcha tea... Enjoy!
by VICTOR-M. AMELA