Idukki Hills, Kerala, India 70% Dark Chocolate

2019 Harvest

All organic ingredients.

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

Our tasting notes: Deep fudge aromas and flavor, creamy texture, fresh acidity of green apple, pleasant spicy hints of sea salt, cardamom and black pepper, finishing with an undertone of dried fruits, notably dark raisins.

Ingredients in this chocolate bar:

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

Healthy, Nutritious and out of this world delicious!

About the main ingredient, cacao!

In India, cocoa production is largely concentrated in the southern states, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra, and Tamilnadu as 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 grown and popular variety had reached Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese colonies in South and West Africa and South East Asia. Forastero being a high yielding and fast grown variety, it remains to be the best choice for the cultivators and also the right variety for the chocolate manufacturers. Most of the Indian farmers grow the Forastero bean for it grows well in Indian climatic conditions. Kerala Agricultural University is said to have come up with seven different cloned varieties of the Forastero type and extensive research is still going on in this direction.