Baianí Chocolates, Brazil

Baianí chocolate bars carry the tradition of the Pinheiro and Aquino families, both part of the cacao farming tradition in Bahia since the end of the 19th Century. Owned by the Pinheiro family since 1973, Santa Rita farm, is where Vale Potumujú is located.

Both born in Bahia with a talent and acting as professionals in music, the story of their married life together began when Juliana joined Tuta Aquino in New York where he ran his own recording studio, and eventually they, worked together to release 2 full Bossa Nova albums for Juliana. Upon returning to Brazil, Juliana pursued a gastronomy degree while Tuta continued pursuing his own music carreer and production company, Doremix. During Juliana’s education, the couple began to relive precious childhood memories of cacao harvesting and processing. They decided to revitalize Juliana’s father’s farm, Fazenda Santa Rita-Vale Potumuju, which had been severely affected by the Witch’s Broom disease outbreak from suspected bioterrorism in the early 1990’s.

With their eyes on the specialty cacao market, Juliana started quality testing Tuta’s post-harvest protocols by making small batches of bean-to-bar chocolate. After two years in development, their chocolate caught the attention of experts and they decided to commercially launch Baiani Chocolates in 2018. Each year since, Baiani has won top awards in competitions spanning the globe.