As cacao-producing countries increasingly seek to strengthen their own capacity around flavour evaluation, processing innovation and quality assessment, shared sensory methodologies are becoming an important tool for connecting producers, researchers and markets.
This is one of the objectives driving the work of Desiana Nuriza Putri and Rista Anggriani, researchers from Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) in Indonesia and PhD researchers at Ghent University in Belgium, who recently joined the Cacao of Excellence laboratory in Perugia, Italy, for advanced training in cacao processing and sensory evaluation.
Their work forms part of the Viruos Team Indonesia Project, a collaboration between Ghent University and Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM). The initiative brings together researchers, producers, chocolate makers and local communities to support inclusive and sustainable cacao innovation in Indonesia.
Supporting the research are experts from ICCRI — the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute — including Ariza Sari, post-harvest and sensory expert and member of the Cacao of Excellence Technical Committee, and Hendy Firmanto, cocoa processing and technology expert. Together, the team is working to strengthen how Indonesian cacao flavour and quality are understood, evaluated and communicated more consistently across markets.
At the centre of the training is the Cacao of Excellence methodology for sensory evaluation and cacao quality assessment, developed through years of collaborative research involving scientific institutions and cacao and chocolate professionals across producing and consuming countries.
By training with shared sensory evaluation methodologies and reference frameworks, the Indonesian research team aims to strengthen its capacity to better understand, evaluate and communicate cacao flavour and quality in ways that can support producers and chocolate makers in Indonesia.
As Ariza Sari explains:
“We found that Indonesia has never had knowledge of the fate of Indonesian cacao beans and their use in consuming countries. We do not fully understand the quality criteria and sensory expectations of cacao beans on the international market.”
“We want to fix the existing gaps between Indonesian cacao farmers, chocolate crafters, and the international market we export our beans to. We want to understand market expectations in order to align, adapt, and better communicate the value of our cacao.”
Their reflections point to a broader challenge across the cacao sector. Producers, buyers, chocolate makers, researchers and technicians often work with different references and vocabularies for describing flavour and quality. Without shared methodologies and sensory reference points, it becomes more difficult for producers to consistently communicate the qualities and potential of their cacao across markets.
Importantly, harmonisation is not about standardising flavour. Quite the opposite. By evaluating cacao under shared preparation and sensory evaluation conditions, flavour diversity becomes more understandable, comparable and visible.
For the Indonesian team, this training represents more than technical learning. It forms part of a longer-term effort to connect research, producer knowledge, processing innovation and flavour evaluation in ways that can strengthen opportunities for Indonesian cacao producers and chocolate makers.
The collaboration also reflects a growing recognition across producing countries that strengthening local capacity around flavour evaluation and quality assessment is essential for producers to better understand, communicate and position the qualities of their cacao within international markets.
Through collaborations such as this, Cacao of Excellence continues to support the development of shared methodologies, sensory training and quality evaluation tools that help producers, researchers and markets speak the same language around cacao flavour and quality.
