12 November 2012
Claudio Corallo could be a character out of a Werner Herzog movie. Born in Florence in 1951, at the age of twenty he took a shine to Africa and changed continents. After taking a specialist course at the Istituto Agronomico per l’Oltremare, he set off in 1974 for the Congo (called Zaire at the time) to take part in a cooperation project, and later found a job in a company that traded coffee. After a few years he quit and decided to become a producer in his own right: he bought two small and remote coffee plantations in the heart of the Zaire forest (to reach them the last 95 km had to be traversed on foot), and embarked on a career as an entrepreneur. He fulfilled his dream. In the meantime he was joined by his wife, and his children Niccolò, Ricciarda and Amedeo were born. They stayed in the Congo until 1993, when they decided to move to the archipelago of São Tomé and Príncipe, in the middle of the Gulf of Guinea, where they acquired an abandoned cocoa plantation. And so a new adventure began. They started to produce cocoa and chocolate (as well as coffee). The best in the world. An adventure that continues today: raw and toasted beans, pure cocoa mass, loucuras de café com chocolate, Napolitains, bars. True delights for the palate. Once you’ve tried them, you’re hooked.
On the road between Yoky-Elolu and Yalifafu (Zaire), 1985.
On the Lomela River, between the plantations of Lomami and Yoky-Elolu (Zaire), 1986.
The Congo River between Kinshasa and Mbandaka, boat Otraco, 1974.
Raw and toasted beans.
Napolitains.
Loucuras de café com chocolate.
Claudio Corallo