Hello friends, My name is Dan and my wife is Gaby, and we are the ones bringing the chocolates La Orquidea (Or-kee-dee-ah) to you. I am from Pennsylvania and Gaby is from Peru. I went to Penn State University, studied psychology, graduated, and went to Peru to see what life is like outside of the US. I lived there for about three years and came back to create Peruvian Chocolate.
While living in Peru, we were looking for a "real" chocolate bar, where you could taste the cacao, and found it in La Orquidea (Or-kee-dee-ah). These chocolates are produced in Peru with Peruvian cacao; this means that the cocoa beans do not travel half way around the world to be processed into chocolate, and then back across the Atlantic to you. Our kind of local may sound strange, but other chocolates get to see Europe before coming to the US.
Charity, no. Small Business, Yes
Improving living conditions for people here in the US and Peru is done through small business. We believe that charities do provide benefits to struggling communities, but that small business allows communities to be self sufficient. We feel that people want to work -to provide for their family- and when given the given the choice they will take the job rather than the handout.
La Orquidea chocolates are made by proud, hard working individuals who have come together to produce a premium product. La Orquidea has been producing chocolates for 10 years and is now being sold in the US.
You are the final link in our chain; with more consumers, more people find work in Peru. We want you to know what drives us to improve and grow. We are working to bring you a product of the highest quality at a fair price. As we grow, those around us grow, benefiting Americans with jobs here in the US.
The people at La Orquidea produce smaller batches of specialty chocolate to ensure the best quality rather than largest quantity. Great care is taken to produce the chocolate, and we care greatly about how what we do affects the world around us. We believe in small business and know that you will appreciate the quality products we provide.
What do you want to support when you buy?
Aside from purchasing a great chocolate, your purchase makes a difference in a very real way. San Martin is the region of Peru where the chocolates originate. La Orquidea, our brand, has a fund that goes to the protection of rainforest in that area. A species of bear, the spectacled bear (oso de anteojos), lives in this region and has a better chance at survival with conservation efforts like ours. We, at Peruvian Chocolate and La Orquidea, recognize that as a business we have a responsibility to the communities where we operate. We might not be able to change the world, but we can improve our piece of it. When you buy our chocolates, you expand our influence in this conservation effort.
We want to thank you greatly. You are the reason we are here. We believe in you, and we thank you for believing in us.
