Chocolates El Rey

Chocolates El Rey is a Venezuelan chocolate manufacturer. The company uses only premium-grade, locally grown cacao for all of its products. One of the oldest chocolate manufacturers in Venezuela, El Rey is proud to still be a family run business.

Fair cacao exchange
El Rey offers gourmet chocolate made from fairly traded cacao beans, direct from growers in Venezuela. El Rey has managed to eliminate middlemen, known locally as “Coyotes”, who pay growers the lowest possible price. Aprocao, a democratic cooperative, pays above market prices for cacao. It also teaches growers how to sustainably manage soil, promoting natural cycles without chemicals, and how to ferment cacao to earn the best price.

History
1973 - The Zozaya family and the Redmond family become partners. The company changes from a family enterprise to a stock market listed company, which now has a new name: Chocolates El Rey, C.A.

1974 - First transformation of the company. The cacao processing technology is improved, and exportation of cacao derivatives such as liquor, butter and powder increases.

1975 - The Venezuelan government monopolizes marketing of cacao, to the detriment of generations of Venezuelans who placed their cacao at the top of the global market.

1979 - The construction of a new factory begins in Cumaná, Sucre state, with the intention of transferring operations there. At this time the city of Cumaná accounted for 60% of national production.

1980 - The government changes regulations to favour exporting the cacao grain. Chocolates El Rey is forced to abandon exporting, and focuses exclusively on the domestic market.

1989 - After a limited period of growth Chocolates El Rey, C.A. quickly reacts to less restrictive government laws, and begins selling to a new market economy. A second transformation in marketing soon takes place in the country, and is based on the better taste of Venezuelan cacao.

1995 - Inauguration of the new factory in Barquisimeto, Lara, where all industrial operations are newly integrated. A new international stage of the company begins with the first exports to the United States.

1997 - Mass consumption products are inaugurated and exports are made to Colombia, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Curaçao and Aruba.

1998 - Chocolate exports are made to Japan.

1999 - The Venezuelan mass market is explored with a new line of confectionery.

2001 - Chocolates El Rey, C.A. is awarded the ISO-9002 certification by Fondonorma, ratifying the company's high quality, in accordance with the requirements of the Venezuelan COVENIN ISO standard.

Types of Venezuelan cacao

 * Criollo: Grown in the foothills of the Venezuelan Andes, the Criollo variety is considered to have the finest flavour and aroma. In Pre-Columbian times it was exported by Spaniards to Central America, the Caribbean and Asia. Today Criollo is in danger of extinction, as it is gradually replaced by higher yielding and more disease resistant varieties. Criollo pods are typically deeply ridged, warty, and with pointed ends. When the Criollo beans are opened, the Cotyledons range from white to shades of pink. When properly fermented, Criollo beans dry to a tan colour and exude a distinctive chocolate aroma. Venezuelan Criollo are highly appreciated by chocolate connoisseurs for their lower levels of bitterness, astringency, and lingering taste.
 * Forastero: Is located in Western and Central Amazonia. The Cacao Forastero is a sturdy, disease-resistant Amazonian cacao. When cut open the cotyledons have a deep purple colour. This pigment is given by substances that impart a bitter, acid, and astringent flavour to the Forastero beans. Today, Forastero is the cacao of choice in the large commercial cacao plantations of Africa, Asia, and Brazil.
 * Trinitario: Is Born in the island of Trinidad from the crossing between Forastero and Criollo cacao. Since the eighteenth century, Trinitarios has been grown in Eastern Venezuela and sells at a premium in the cacao market.