tasting notes: classic dark chocolate, roasted almonds, and espresso

These beans come from the Asociación Cooperativa La Flor del Cacao Mantuano, a women-run cooperative in a tiny northern Venezuelan village. In 2012, we made the first single-origin bar ever produced from Mantuano, and it became an immediate favorite inside the factory and out. We purchased beans yearly until 2016, when ongoing political unrest disrupted trade, made eight final metric tonnes into bars, and bid farewell to this incredible origin we loved so much … or so we thought.

This year, we came upon a hidden stash of these extremely rare 2016 beans in our climate-controlled storage facility. Since properly stored cocoa beans are much like fine wine in that their flavors can evolve in wonderful ways over time, this discovery felt like finding a long-forgotten case of valuable French wine in a relative's dark, cool basement! Our Valencia team couldn't wait to make these beans into bars again, and everything we loved about previous batches is showcased in this special release.

Ingredients and Allergens

All of our single-origin chocolate is made with just cocoa beans and sugar; no added cocoa butter, lecithin, or vanilla. Our chocolate is free of soy, dairy, eggs, and gluten, and it is made in a factory that does not process nuts.

Weight

Two ounces (56g)

Learn More

Learn more about our cocoa beans and sugar — the region, the farms, and the producers.