The Bitter Truth About Chocolate

About the company:

SPAGnVOLA (pronounced as spang—vola): The name is derived from a 16th century voyage map of the island of Hispaniola, known today as the Dominican Republic and Haiti. In honor of the island Hispaniola, its people and culture, Crisoire and I dared to achieve the impossible. We have realized our dream - Hacienda de SPAGnVOLA - where the soil, seed, rain and sun consistently produce exquisite cacao beans. We utilize only the finest beans grown from our estate in Hato Mayor Del Rey, located on the eastern part of the Dominican Republic. It is there that you will find the purest environmental conditions resulting in the richest organic soil found on mountain slopes that are endowed with plentiful rainfall.

We cultivate and process our own cacao beans the traditional way, by hand-picking perfectly ripened pods, fermenting them, drying them and grading them ourselves. We do this to insure that only the finest make their way to our artisan factory in Gaithersburg, Maryland (USA). Here, the cocoa beans are roasted and refined in small batches bringing out the flavor of the most exquisite premium chocolate.

Today, SPAGnVOLA represents the finest single-estate chocolates derived from the hands of farmers.  We believe that the finest chocolates in the world can only be produced by cacao growers, such as SPAGnVOLA, and from their respective geographical locations.  It is with this commitment that we have established a meticulous quality assurance through which SPAGnVOLA chocolate is processed.  Evolving from that process is a brand of chocolate that is specifically designed for the most demanding customers -- you.

About the host:

Paul Anthony Pumphrey has been an organizer and activist for over forty years. In 1998, Mr. Pumphrey co-founded Brothers and Sisters International (BASI) as a 501 C3 non-profit organization whose focus is economic development and human rights in the Americas, the Caribbean, and Africa.

Mr. Pumphery’s political work spans over four decades. In 1968, ‘78, ’83, and ‘88 Mr. Pumphrey was a deputy coordinator of crowd control for the Southern Christian Leadership’s (SCLC) Marches on Washington; and for the Stand for Children March in 1997. He volunteered with Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 bid for the US Presidency; and the Ron Daniel’s 1992 bid for the US Presidency.