Finest Cocoa
The bean to bar philosophy ensures our chocolate tastes extraordinary. It allows our Lindt Maître Chocolatiers to carefully select the highest quality cocoa beans from the world's most renown regions. Lindt & Sprüngli are passionate about building a sustainable supply chain - which is why we founded our Farming Program.
We are proud to be one of the few chocolate makers to have complete control over every step of the process. This means we can guarantee that our products are crafted with pride, passion and expertise from cocoa bean to chocolate bar (or praline or truffle!).
Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program
At Lindt & Sprüngli we care. Not just about the quality of our chocolate – but our farmers and their communities too. That is why we founded our Farming Program. This incredible program allowed us to implement a traceability and verification system for every cocoa bean to ensure that we only ever use the finest ingredients in our chocolate. At the same time, we are able to work directly with our cocoa farmers to help them – and their communities – thrive. We are proud to be a bean to bar producer and will continue to use our passion for chocolate to help build a fairer, more sustainable, world.
How We Select Our Cocoa Beans
At Lindt & Sprüngli we are dedicated to selecting and blending only the finest, sustainably sourced, cocoa beans from the top cocoa growing regions around the world.
The flavour of a cocoa bean depends on a number of factors, including: where it grows, the time of year, the environment and the harvesting process. We see the beauty in the uniqueness of every cocoa bean and proudly nurture our treasured ingredients in accordance with their individual needs.
Our chocolate is the result of years of dedication; finessing the formulas for our recipes – which will always remain a closely guarded secret. We have honed the art of chocolate making, creating masterpieces that deliver chocolate perfection every single time.
Our Four Cocoa Bean Varieties
Criollo - a highly prized cocoa bean harvested only by luxury chocolate producers. This rare bean accounts for just a fraction of the world’s cocoa harvest and offers a beautifully aromatic flavour to our chocolate.
Trinitario - a hybrid of the aromatic Criollo and earthy Forastero cocoa varieties - named after Trinidad, its place of origin. Trinitario adds a fine, full bodied, flavour to our chocolate.
Forastero - a high-yielding, fast growing, variety which is the most prevalent cocoa variety - making up for around 90% of the world’s cocoa. Forastero adds a robust, earthy undertone to our chocolate.
Nacional - an incredibly rare genetic blend of Forastero, Criollo and Trinitario cocoa (at Lindt we have created our own unique blend). This Ecuadorian variety adds rich, floral notes to our chocolate.
Finest cocoa, by the numbers
Number of cocoa beans it takes to create a pound of chocolate.
Average number of cocoa beans in a single cocoa pod.
Approximate number of cocoa beans a cocoa tree produces annually.
3 Fundamentals for Flourishing Cocoa Trees
Lindt & Sprüngli’s bean to bar journey begins at the farm. This is where we ensure that the cocoa trees have the ideal conditions to help them flourish and produce the finest quality cocoa beans for our luxury chocolate:
Warm weather: cocoa trees thrive in high temperatures – ideal conditions range between 18 to 32 degrees celsius.
Substantial rainfall: hydration through rainfall is the most important climatic factor for strong cocoa tree growth.
Plenty of shade: cocoa trees flourish in their natural environment – the Amazonian rainforest – where they are surrounded by natural shade.
“The unique taste of Lindt chocolate comes from the careful selection and blending of high-quality cocoa beans from the world’s best regions.”
-Lindt Maître Chocolatiers
Where do cocoa beans come from? Take a peek inside the pod...
Cocoa Nib
