Biodiversity in Chocolate

There are 10 different recognized varieties of cacao, the defining ingredient in chocolate – and easily at least that many more varieties that haven’t yet been genetically defined. And yet, something like 85% of all cacao is made from one variety: Forastero. How do we know if we love chocolate if we’ve only ever enjoyed chocolate made from one cacao?

How to taste chocolate

Take small bites – like a quarter to a half of one of these coins.

Chew until that bite is broken up.

Let the broken pieces sit on your tongue and melt.

The smaller the bite, the bigger the taste.

What you’re tasting

Two chocolates made the same way, one chocolate made mostly the same way. All were made by the artisans at MUCHO, the Museum of Chocolate in Mexico City. They roast the cacao beans (really seeds); grind them with stone, blending in cane sugar to comprise 30% of the mass; pour the resulting chocolate into molds and let them come to room temperature to solidify. The cacaos used for the three samples you’re tasting here are: 

-              Centenario Aguamiel (a blend of Tabasco and Criollo cacaos from a family plantation in Tuxtla Chico, Chiapas)

-              Tapachula (Soconusco cacao from the Rayen cooperative in the Soconusco region of Chiapas)

-              Finca Siempre Viva Lavado (a blend of Trinitario and Criollo cacaos from an agroforest in Cárdenas, Tabasco)

* The difference in process is the seeds in the first two are pickled in the ferment of the cacao pulp whereas the cacao seeds in the third chocolate were washed clean of the cacao pulp.

Like what you’re tasting here? Check out Heirloom Cacao Preservation, a 1% for the Planet Environmental Partner, who is helping to preserve some of the rarest varieties of cacao on the planet.

You should also read Rowan Jacobsen’s newly released book, Wild Chocolate: Across the America’s in Search of Cacao’s Soul.

And go to Mexico City to taste more amazing chocolate from MUCHO, the Museum of Chocolate!