Rakiraki - Fiji 70% Dark Chocolate

2023 Harvest

Provenance: Nunokoloa, Rakiraki Province, Fiji.  Bar weight: 50 grams.

The first aroma is intense chocolate, warm cinnamon dates and toffee. The flavor is bold and thick with layers of the same dried dates and mellow, bitter spices. The acidity is higher that some years yet totally offset and balanced with inherent sweetness and chocolate. The entire profile is of deep, low toned fruits, not the bright acidic ones. There is also a crème brûlée caramelization, just on the edge of too far, that is a sharp tangy shot to the senses and lends a glorious bitter (not too much) counterbalance to the sweetness. An incredibly fragrant and glorious chocolate experience.  

Ingredients: Forastero amelonado, trinitario cacao beans, cane sugar and cacao butter.

Healthy, nutritious and out of this world delicious.

About the main ingredient, cacao!

These beans come from cacao lovingly cared for by the farmers in Rakiraki, a district in Fiji's Ra Province. The province has several hundred small holder cocoa farmers interplanting with coconut. The fermentation takes place in once central location.

Ra is located about halfway between Suva and Nadi when traveling along the Kings Road, on the northern coast of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island. Prominent landmarks include Navatu Rock in Vitawa village, believed to be one of Fiji's oldest human settlements. Pottery excavated at the base of the rock has been dated to around 1000BC.