Óbolo Chocolate

Óbolo is the result of a three-month vacation in Chile – which ended up being several years – and a subsequent trip throughout Latin America discovering its people, its culture, its ecosystems, its flavors, aromas and colors. It is also the result of three years working in the Ecuadorian jungle with cocoa-producing communities, and ten years of work at the international environmental conservation organization The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Chile, from which Mark Gerrits was able to continue exploring the corners of Latin America.

Based in the country since 2003, Mark -an American- continued to cultivate his passion for chocolate, his strong ties to Latin America and his deep interest in connecting his values with environmental and social sustainability. Over time, he became aware of the void in Chile regarding chocolate making: they are in South America, close to the Amazon, which is the point of origin of cocoa. So why not go and look for cocoa beans, bring them to Chile and make an authentic, pure and excellent quality chocolate that also has a smaller carbon footprint than chocolates imported from other parts of the world? It was thanks to questions like these that Mark set himself a personal challenge: to prove that it was possible to make world-class chocolate “made in Chile”.