A potentially important, even vital, (ad)venture.

Mesocacao represents the combined fortunes & futures of some Chocolate All-Stars:

Hugo Hermelink, notable cacaotero, whose Finmac Cacao Estate near Guapiles, Costa Rica + more properties has been featured throughout the premium niche, most recently by Potomac & Ritual.

Giff Laube -- ace cacáo hunter / grafting specialist, ex-Xoco Gourmet upon whose work Duffy launched his label with a rookie home run called Indio Rojo;

and Steve De Vries ('nuff said).

Joining this trio are a few enterprising enthusiasts intent on bringing it to market (Mark D. Harman, John MacDonald and company) .

They spotted a facility in a food processing hub of sorts for region -- Choloma of the Cortes Department, Honduras -- with enormous square footage available for a song, equipped with LLoveras gear originally installed in mid-90's.

Now they're planting a flag -- re-hoisting one really -- in the heart of Mesoamerica where chocolate culture arguably reached its zenith in the pre-Columbian era. A long time ago except in the memories of descendants who wish it could be so again.

The group hopes to reclaim lost ground ceded to an army of vapid clones & candy giants who learned & incorporated the worst lessons from the Spanish (just add more sugar) in a quest to revive cacáo's faded glory & nobility.

It's in everyone's interest that they succeed. For all the talk of the region's prime gene bank -- CATIE in Costa Rica -- hatching flavorsome hybrids (R1, R4, R6 + a several others among them), nothing truly winsome has been forthcoming to date.

Instead, the small artisan barsmiths on the continent… the Cyrilas, Dantas, CariBeans, ki'Xocolatls -- are the ones showing the way back to the future.

And yet another reason to support them.