With its revamped packs, Ecuadorian chocolate brand To’ak is looking to broaden its target consumer.
To'ak’s new Signature edition is looking to make its Grands Crus range more accessible, target a wider audience and rally cocoa producers to preserve the Nacional cocoa tree. The brand’s original wooden boxes will remain, but the collections will now also come in a cardboard version.
For chocolate lovers, the savings are substantial: the Vintage 2015 Tequila Cask bar (50g), aged for three years in tequila barrels, retails for €51, while the Signature edition runs to €194 for the Origin Aged edition.
“With the Signature range, we are moving towards less confidential production," explains marketing manager Eddie Pezzopane. “We’re also working with certified materials on a systematic basis; our papers, for example, are chlorine-free, FSC-certified, incorporate recycled fibers and are produced from renewable energy sources.” And like the Origin wooden boxes, Signature boxes are designed for re-use: "All product information is printed on a removable paper sleeve that allows the bare box to be re-used once the chocolate has been eaten.” The rolled-edge box, made of pearlescent double-sided Fedrigoni paper, is hot-stamped with gold and silver leaf and printed using a technique combining offset and laser.
Supporting cocoa conservation
The brand's crus - considered to be the world’s most expensive - are exclusively produced in Ecuador using exceptional beans sourced from trees descended from the Nacional, an ancestral strain in risk of extinction and in which To'ak is reinvesting a portion of its profits in conservation initiatives. Co-founder of the brand and head of the Third Millennium Alliance (a rainforest protection foundation), Jerry Toth has created a genetic bank of cocoa trees in the Jama-Coaque ecological reserve. To date, 250 trees have been replanted there and 200 more are slated for this year.
