Kivu Origins / Quality

Quality you can check, not just claims you can read.

Every lot carries a record. Enter a lot code below and see exactly what we hold on it — the same record that travels with the shipping documents.

Lot Traceability Explorer

Try a sample lot code, or enter the code from your bag tag or contract.

Sample codes:

This explorer runs on demonstration records. On the live site it reads from our lot register, and contracted buyers see plot polygons, farmer lists and laboratory bulletins in full.

Control points

Where quality is actually decided.

Harvest timing

Pods cut at colour break, opened within 48 hours. Late opening starts uncontrolled fermentation inside the pod and flattens the final cup.

Pre-fermentation sorting

Diseased, germinated and flat beans removed before the box, not screened out afterwards when they have already contaminated the mass.

Fermentation — 6 days

Specific wooden boxes, banana-leaf cover, turned every 48 hours. Box number, cluster and start date recorded per lot.

Drying — 11 to 14 days

Raised racks under shelter, thin spread, hand-turned. Sheltered drying is the single biggest defect-reducer in a region with unpredictable rain.

Moisture

Manual checks through drying to a 6.5–7.5% target at bagging. Above 8% invites mould in transit; below 6% makes beans brittle and raises breakage.

Cut test

300 beans per lot, cut lengthwise, scored for fermentation and defects. This is the number a chocolate maker actually wants before they taste anything.

Laboratory analysis

Physical and organoleptic analysis in DR Congo, with verification analysis in Uganda along the export corridor. Both bulletins are supplied.

Storage

Ventilated, palletised, off-floor storage with humidity monitoring, segregated by lot. No mixing after the cut test.

Container inspection

Cleanliness and odour check before loading — a single contaminated container can taint a full consignment beyond rescue.

How to read our cut test

We report the same six figures on every lot, so you can compare lots against each other and against your own intake standard.

Well fermented

Brown, fully fissured beans. Our target is 85% minimum; our lots typically run 88–92%.

Purple / partly fermented

Under-fermented, astringent. Tolerable at low percentages; a signal of fermentation time or turning discipline when it climbs.

Slaty

Grey, unfermented, compact. Contributes bitterness with no cocoa character. Max 3%.

Mouldy

Internal mould, the defect with the largest sensory penalty and a food-safety concern. Max 3%.

Insect-damaged / germinated

Storage and handling defects. Max 3% combined with flat beans.

Bean count

Beans per 100 g — a size and yield indicator. Max 100, meaning larger beans and better nib yield.

Documents supplied with every shipment

Certificate of originPhytosanitary certificateAnalysis bulletin — DR CongoVerification analysis — Uganda300-bean cut test reportGeolocation data packPacking list with lot codes and seal numbersBill of ladingCommercial invoiceWeight and quality survey (independent, on request)

Come and look

We would rather you verified this than believed it. We host buyer visits to the farms, the fermentation stations and the Beni warehouse, and we open our documentation to third-party audit. If your compliance team needs a specific protocol followed during a visit, send it ahead and we will work to it.

Arrange a visit
Start a conversation

Send us your specification. We will send back a lot that matches it.

Tell us your target profile, volume and destination port. Our export desk replies within two business days with available lots, a cut-test report and an indicative offer.