Idukki Hills, Kerala, India 70% Dark Chocolate

Provenance: Idukki Hills, Kerala, India.  50 grams.

Our tasting notes: Deep fudge aromas and flavors, creamy texture, fresh green-apple acidity, pleasant spicy hints of sea salt, cardamom, and black pepper, finishing with an undertone of dried fruit, including raisins.

Ingredients in this chocolate bar:

Trinitario and Forastero cacao beans, organic cane sugar, and organic cacao butter.

About the main ingredient, cacao!

In India, cocoa production is largely concentrated in the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra, and Tamil Nadu, as an intercrop along with coconut, areca nut, oil palm, and rubber. There are four different varieties of cocoa beans: Forastero, Criollo, Trinitario, and Nacional. Criollo and Forastero varieties originated in the Amazon basin, but Forastero, being a fast-growing and popular variety, had reached Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies in South and West Africa and Southeast Asia. Forastero, a high-yielding, fast-growing variety, remains the best choice for cultivators and the right variety for chocolate manufacturers. Most Indian farmers grow the Forastero bean because it thrives in India's climatic conditions. Kerala Agricultural University is said to have developed seven cloned varieties of the Forastero type, and extensive research is still underway in this area.