Our existence is condensed into a collection of moments, experiences, anecdotes, and conversations. For us, it is the latter that makes things happen; memorable events that you never forget, events that transcend, that mark the difference and change the world. At Luker Chocolate, we believe that memorable conversations do not happen just anywhere. Ours, for example, have taken place under a tree.
Most of the people that work here grew up under cocoa trees, just like the thousands of farmers that work with us today spend much of their lives in their shade. At Granja Luker, our cocoa research centre, visitors from all over the world have been able to have hot chocolate for breakfast under gigantic legendary trees, many of which they have planted with their own hands.
But why do we place so much importance on the trees? Because the great conversations of our grandparents and parents on the future, those from which they found inspiration and made transcendental decisions, did not take place in an office with them dressed in a suit and tie; quite the contrary, they took place under the leaves of trees as they wore their ponchos and hats.
In our Cocoa Forest in Necoclí, we have been witness to the shade of the mythic Campano; an old tree that has sheltered different communities for generations, from the indigenous to the cocoa farmers, offering a space in its shade where people could sit to converse. We have dreamt, laughed, and cried under this tree. We have found something relating to our humanity, we have connected with our roots, culture, and history.
It is under this tree that we have forgotten our titles and our social condition, we have been equal; we have been sincere, we have confessed our greatest secrets and happily shared our differences.
We have been chocolatiers in Colombia for 113 years and, even so, sometimes we forget that it is thanks to a tree that we can do what we do. There are no cocoa trees in Switzerland, in Belgium or France. They are here in Colombia, and they are part of our history.
We hope that the readers of this blog find an open space in which to talk and to share and build ideas. A safe place, where they can take off their masks as though they were under the shade of a great tree.