Founded 1991 | ||
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Headquarters Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States | ||
United nations global compact and the omanhene cocoa bean company
Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company is a chocolate company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Omanhene's chocolate beans come from the forests of Ghana. The difference between Omanhene's chocolate and their competitors (according to the company website) is that Omanhene's chocolate bars are made and processed in Ghana, whereas competitors buy the beans from a tropical country and ship them to countries like Canada or the United States to make chocolate bars.
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History
The Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company was founded in 1991 by Steven C. Wallace and his brother, Jonathan. Steven was an AFS high school student and lived in Ghana for three months in 1978. However, at the age of 29 (in 1991), he returned to Ghana and started a chocolate business. The name Omanhene in the Twi language means the "Paramount Chief".
Omanhene chocolate is a single source chocolate, using only beans from smaller family farmers in Ghana. It produces the chocolate in the same factory where the beans are processed into the main ingredients of chocolate (cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, and cocoa powder). Because of this, their chocolate has the opportunity to be made into a shelf stable finished product much sooner - without the degradation of ingredients that occur when cocoa liquor is stored and transported for months prior to being used to make finished chocolate. The product is not organic.
The factory workers and family farmers have a stake in the Omanhene Cocoa Bean Company.
The company was an early adopter of the UN Global Compact.