At the Source: My Visit to the Cacao Farms of Côte d’Ivoire

I grew up in Côte d’Ivoire, a country whose name is inseparable from cacao on the international stage. Yet cacao was never a defining part of my personal identity or daily life. I understood its economic importance, but I had never developed an intimate relationship with the land, the fruit or the people behind it.

That began to change with the creation of Le Cacao Noir.

From Tulsa, thousands of miles away from Côte d’Ivoire, I started building a contemporary brand inspired by Ivorian cacao. As the vision evolved, I felt an increasing need to understand cacao beyond chocolate and the other finished forms in which we usually encounter it.

Before deciding what Le Cacao Noir could eventually present through its collaborations, I wanted to return to the beginning.

During my recent trip to Côte d’Ivoire, that desire brought me to the cacao farms.

Returning With a New Perspective

This was not a return to a childhood memory. I had not grown up visiting cacao farms or learning how the fruit was cultivated and transformed.

Instead, I was discovering an important part of my country with a new sense of curiosity as an Ivorian, but also as the founder of a project still defining its relationship with cacao.

That distinction is important to me. I do not want to romanticize the experience or suggest a personal connection that had always existed. Le Cacao Noir is also the story of developing that connection: looking more closely at something I had previously known from a distance and choosing to understand it with greater intention.

Before Chocolate, There Is the Fruit

Entering the farms offered a completely different perspective from encountering cacao in its finished form.

Beneath the trees, cacao existed as a living fruit. The pods grew directly from the trunks and branches, each one containing the beans from which many transformations would eventually become possible.

Seeing cacao in its natural environment revealed the distance between the fruit and the chocolate we recognize. Before the work of the chocolatier, before the presentation and before the tasting, there is the tree. There is cultivated land, time, knowledge and human labor.

The visit allowed me to see that the story of cacao does not begin with the finished creation. It begins quietly, long before most consumers encounter it.

What the Finished Creation Conceals

We usually discover cacao at the end of its journey. We see chocolate arranged in a box, cocoa powder prepared in a cup or a finished creation presented in a carefully designed setting.

The stages that came before are often invisible.

By the time cacao reaches the consumer, little about its appearance reveals the environment from which it came or the many hands and forms of expertise involved in its transformation.

That distance became more tangible during my visit.

It also deepened my appreciation for the work of chocolatiers. Their expertise is part of a much longer chain one that begins with the cultivation and preparation of cacao and continues through a precise understanding of flavor, texture and transformation.

Le Cacao Noir does not seek to replace that expertise. The project is being developed through collaborations with chocolatiers, artisans and other creative partners who each bring their own knowledge to the process.

My role is to connect those forms of expertise through a shared vision and to create a contemporary way of encountering Ivorian cacao.

A Direction for Le Cacao Noir

The visit did not give me a finished product. It gave me a clearer direction.

Le Cacao Noir is still taking shape. Its universe will continue to develop through storytelling, experiences and carefully considered collaborations. Before exploring everything cacao could become, I needed to encounter what it already was.

Visiting the farms allowed me to begin that process from the right place: with observation, curiosity and respect for the people whose work precedes every finished creation.

This journey marked the beginning of a more personal relationship with Ivorian cacao. It reminded me that building an entire universe around it also requires the humility to return to its source.

Le Cacao Noir may be taking shape in Tulsa, but part of its story begins here, beneath the cacao trees of Côte d’Ivoire.