In 2014, ChocoSol began sourcing cacao beans from the Zorzal private reserve in the Dominican Republic. This cacao is grown on a 1,019 acre bird sanctuary and organic cacao demonstration farm in the northern mountain range of the Dominican Republic. A key species of birds that makes use of the sanctuary is the endangered Bicknell’s Thrush (Zorzal de Bicknell), a rare migratory songbird native to Quebec and Vermont. Embodying the intercultural and transnationality that is fundamental to ChocoSol, our Bird Sanctuary chocolate celebrates the Bicknell’s thrush migration from the maple forest gardens to Quebec and Vermont to the cacao forest garden of the Dominican Republic. Made with Zorzal cacao and sweetened with Canadian maple sugar, this bar includes a touch of sea salt to represent the ocean passage of the birds. As Zorzal Cacao say, “it turns out that chocolate, a culinary force in its own right, can also be a force for international conservation!”
