The chocolate market has exploded with bars labeled “single-origin.” Their wrappers rival French wine labels in complexity, listing tasting notes and places of origin, but we didn’t know much about these bars. To learn more, we talked to experts and tasted 14 bars from 13 countries: Belize, Mexico, Ecuador, Madagascar, Guatemala, Venezuela, Fiji, Vietnam, Ghana, Papua New Guinea, Haiti, India, and Tanzania.
No two bars we tasted were alike. Some were floral and fruity; others were fudgy. Some blew our minds with flavors of shiitake mushroom, tobacco, and grape. Textures varied, too; bars were “crisp,” “snappy,” “velvety,” and “creamy.” Read on to find out which kind you might want to try.
A Brief History of Cacao
The cacao tree () is native to the upper Amazon basin region of Central and South America. It was highly prized by the Olmec, Mayan, and Aztec civilizations. When the Spanish colonized the Not only were bars incredibly diverse
