Ara Chocolat Nicaragua Maya Blanco 70% Dark Chocolate Bar
65 gram bar - Paris, France
You are in for a special treat!
Remember the trip that Eliza took to Paris? And going to ARA chocolate? Well, she tasted a little something in the works and wasn’t able to talk about it…
Well, it arrived, totally unexpectedly, and it is awesome.
The first thing you notice is that the chocolate is light in color, which is unexpected for a 70% dark bar.
Place a piece in your mouth and bite. And then let it melt slowly. Taste all the bits and pieces of this wonderful bean.
Mayo Blanco is a mono-varietal heirloom cacao that is native to the forests of Nicaragua. It had long been forgotten until 10 years ago when the process was started to recover its genetics.
Mayo Blanco is a pure Criollo cacao (100% of the beans are white), so the result is a very light brown chocolate. The shape of the pod, the color, the shape, and size of the beans, and the taste of the pulp are all different from other cocoa.
The cacao beans of this particular variety are flat (many Criollo varietals have round beans).
The fact that two cacaos belong to the same genetic family, like in this case Criollo, doesn't mean they have anything else in common besides being part of the same family.
The lightness of being, or in this case, the color of the chocolate makes you think it has to be milk. But it is not; the nose will tell you it is dark, the first bite and subsequent melt will pronounce a creamy delightful feel, that is rich, with enlightened shadows of flavor. And only at the very end will you get a touch of dry dark chocolate on the edge of the tongue.
If you didn’t know that this was just a bean, albeit not just any bean, you would swear that there is something else in there. Fruit? Vanilla? No, something just not identifiable.
This a masterful creation from just one bean. What amazing artistry!
ARA chocolate has been working with the farmers since 2022 to encourage them to keep planting the bean to perfect the process. Perfection has been achieved!
Like all chocolate, one person's nirvana can be another person's ho-hum. This review is based on our buds' best guess.
ingredients: cocoa nibs, unrefined cane sugar, cocoa butter