Domori was founded by the creative mind and passion for nature, gastronomy and cocoa of Gianluca Franzoni. In 1993, after finishing his studies in Business and Economics, Gianluca arrived in Venezuela, where he fell in love with the magic of cocoa, deciding to develop a business model to reposition fine cocoa on the market.
For three years he lived in the field, experimenting with different varieties and post-harvest processing in order to preserve biodiversity and prevent the extinction of extra-fine CRIOLLO cacao.
The name DOMORI is a homage to seventeenth-century Venice, a symbol of trade, travel and adventure.
Domori means "due mori" - in English, two moors -, the two Moors being two bronze statues depicting two shepherds who strike the hour on a huge bell located at the top of the Clock Tower on a rooftop in Saint Mark's Square. The name Domori is the one Venetians affectionately use owing to the bronze colour of the metal.
The two Moors are very similar but not the same: one of the two, the one on the right, does not have a beard. Owing to this detail, the bearded Moor is called the “old man”, the other one is the “young man”.
A very specific detail contributes to this attribution of roles: the Moors mark the hour by striking the bell with their hammers (with the same number of strikes as the current hour) but in a certain way. The Old Moor strikes the hour two minutes before the correct time, to represent time past, whereas the Young Moor strikes it two minutes afterwards to represent the future.
In Franzoni’s imagination, the "Domori" are two beans browned by toasting, cocoa and coffee...the old Moor is the coffee bean and the young one is cocoa!