About Fábrica Santa Clara
Santos has spent a lifetime in cacao. José Carlos joined Cargill's cacao operation in Ilhéus, Bahia at 19, and stayed for 28 years before stepping out to build the small processing facility in Itabuna that now bears his name. Forty-some years deep in the industry, he reads the volatile cacao market by feel — long enough to know exactly what almonds, nibs, liquor, and bars should look and taste like at every step from harvest to finished good.
Santos's facility in Itabuna is where Agroverse cacao gets its first shaping after farmgate. Cacao almonds from Paulo's farm become 8-ounce nibs in kraft pouches, or move further into liquor and finished bars — each conversion documented on the Agroverse Cacao Processing Cost sheet alongside the photos that Santos and Matheus capture at the production line.
"My joy is seeing my client satisfied," he said. "Making a product — nibs, liquor, chocolate — with all the love, all the feeling, all the affection. The best is when the buyer likes it." That care shows up in the audit trail: every batch of Agroverse cacao that lands on a shelf in California or Oregon was first shaped by hands that have been in cacao since the early 1980s.
Inside the facility — bean to bar
Three short clips filmed on-site at Santos's Itabuna facility, walking through the processing pipeline that turns Paulo's farmgate cacao into finished Agroverse bars.
1 — Roasting
Paulo's farm beans go into the roaster: 25 minutes at 125°C, then cooled to ~55°C before inspection.
2 — Winnowing & Cracking
The winnowing-and-cracking machine separates husks from nibs — the ingredient that becomes liquor, bars, and 8-oz pouches.
3 — Melanger to Bars
Tempered to 29°C, poured into molds, set in the fridge — six glossy bars per batch, ready for the Agroverse crop pouch.
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