Origin remains

Long before it became chocolate, cacao already had a story of its own. Its earliest known uses date back more than five thousand years to South America, long before anyone thought of it as a sweet treat.

Different cultures across the Americas turned it into a drink and brought it into their ceremonies. Among Mesoamerican peoples, its seeds were even used as a means of exchange. Centuries later, it crossed the Atlantic, reached Europe and changed form once again, becoming the chocolate we know today.

At Surarquía, we believe that changing form does not mean forgetting where you come from, which is why we wanted to share what happened when a new version of this material arrived at our workshop. Developed from cacao by-products as an alternative to other leathers, it arrived like any new material: we smelled it, touched it and tested small cuts before deciding what to make with it.

When we opened the package in the workshop, we could smell it before we even touched the material: the scent of real chocolate, the same scent as cacao beans, which the finished piece retains.

Working with it was a different process. Its softness makes it feel closer to a textile than traditional cowhide, and cutting and sewing it calls for a different touch, more careful and slower.

That same softness led us to embroider it by hand, piece by piece, a slow process that connects with the brand’s roots, with Colombia and Venezuela, the two countries we came from before arriving in Barcelona.

From that process came a small collection: a one-of-a-kind Bucket, hand-embroidered with gold-plated beads, and ten special-edition mini versions, all sharing a pattern inspired by our roots. Each piece holds that journey of more than five thousand years within an object you can hold in your hands.

A portion of the sales from the entire collaboration, including the charms, goes towards supporting people affected by the earthquake in Colombia and Venezuela. This material travelled from South America into our hands and now, transformed into a piece, can give something back to that same place.

Cacao has changed form many times over the last five thousand years: from bean to currency, from currency to chocolate. This texture is its latest form, and it still carries the scent of its origins.

Handcrafted in Spain.