Antonino Allegra is a Sicilian chocolate maker who fell in love with Cape Town and decided to make it his home.
Passionate about creating chocolate from scratch using sustainably-sourced African cocoa beans with a strong focus on social responsibility, he found a perfect business partner in Ingrid Karera who, originally from Rwanda, travelled to Cape Town in 2010 with a dream to create a business with a strong social impact.
Ingrid and Antonino’s diverse skills perfectly complement each other and this collaboration defines the AFRIKOA brand – the perfect multicultural global synergy.
OUR VALUES
Whether you’re a farmer, factory worker or chocolate maker, we all strive to leave our next generation a better world to live in: these are the family values we base our business on.
From the cocoa farmers and their families in Tanzania who grow the cocoa beans we use, to the Karera and Allegra families who founded AFRIKOA chocolate, family values are the heart of what we do.
Most of the world cocoa are grown in African soil but they are exported to Europe and America to be turned into chocolate.
We believe in growing the art of chocolate-making within Africa, using the rich resources we have and supporting farmers and their local communities.
OUR PRODUCTS
Our chocolate is naturally organic, sourced from farmers who have been practicing organic farming for generations.
We use heirloom cocoa beans which have terrific overall balance: complex and intense, long and pleasant with a unique flavour.
Combined with locally-grown unrefined cane sugar they create our range of chocolates – no gluten, soy, GMO’s, palm oil or artificial flavourings or colourings.
If you’ve tasted our bean-to-bar chocolate, you’ll probably notice how different it is from the usual commercial chocolate brands: our chocolate flavour has many more dimensions to it with tropical fruit notes, dried fruit, coconut, raisins, acidity, floral or earthy notes.
Just like wine, these notes are all natural flavours present in cocoa.
The first African grown and produced chocolate to win a 2-star Great Taste Award – and silver and bronze at the International Taste Awards.
