50g (1.76 oz)
75% Cacao beans, cane sugar
Single Malt Islay meets Ancient Nacional
Peat, roasted nuts, cranberries, caramel
Cacao's Story
An unlikely tale of two agings
Islay Cask Experiment #1: The 2019 Harvest
The weather in Piedra de Plata was generous and dependable throughout the 2019 growing season. Ironically, this is what makes this year extraordinary. Every other harvest year has had at least a few striking anomalies. Precipitation and sunlight tracked the monthly averages to a degree that we had never seen before.
For the chocolate, we used an especially soft touch during roasting and conching, keeping temperatures to a minimum. The result is a relatively gentle dark chocolate with lovely notes of mandarin, orange blossoms, nuts and coffee.
The Aging Process. We filled the original Laphroaig cask with small coins of our 2019 Rain Harvest chocolate and let it mature for four years. The end result was a rather fine chocolate, but a little too fine. The aging process had mellowed out the flavors and aromas more than we had anticipated.
2019 Weather Chart
Islay Cask Experiment #2: The 2021 Harvest
The 2021 growing season was relatively normal … until the final months. The latter half of the rainy season, which coincides with ripening and harvest time, was the wettest on record for Piedra de Plata. Excess rain during ripening and harvest time can lead to rot and other problems.
To mitigate this threat, farmers harvested early and often. Ultimately, it proved to be a plentiful crop.
For the chocolate, we chose a conching time of 18 hours, which is longer than in previous years. Conching involves mechanically churning the chocolate, usually in liquid form, at a temperature above the melting point. In this edition, it corralled the acidity, making for a fruit-forward chocolate with floral honey and nutty caramel on the midpalate, and grapefruit notes on the finish.
The Aging Process. We filled another Islay cask—this one especially peaty— with our 2021 Rain Harvest 18-Hour Conch and let it mature for two years. The end result was nearly opposite that of Experiment #1. The chocolate took on the cask aromas and flavors much more than we expected, making it too peaty and bitter.
2021 Weather Chart
Peat
Roasted nuts
Woody
Sweet berries
Nose: Woody, peat smoke, red wine, brown fruit.
Palate: Peat, roasted nuts, woody, sweet berries, seaweed, rich chocolate.
Finish: Tobacco, woody, sweet berries.
We are confident you’ll love our chocolate as much as we do. Please contact us if, for any reason, you’re not completely satisfied.
Our guarantee covers any reasonable dissatisfaction with the product and damage or loss in transit. The guarantee is valid for 30 days from the date of purchase, providing you have proof of purchase and a photo of any reported damage.
To make a claim, please contact us by phone, email, or chat.
We aim to ship your chocolate with the utmost care, ensuring it arrives quickly and in perfect condition.
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We’re using cacao trees to help restore forest on degraded agricultural land. It’s one element of a holistic regenerative agroforestry project that combines cacao trees with a diversity of tall native shade trees, fruit trees, and other food crops like bananas and plantains.
We’re doing this in partnership with TMA (Third Millennium Alliance), a nonprofit rainforest conservation organization that has been protecting and restoring forests in Ecuador since 2007.
For the full story, please read our blog article: Using Cacao to Reverse Deforestation.
We pay a farmgate price that is 3-8x the standard market price for “wet cacao" — well above the fair trade premium. To the best of our knowledge, these are the highest cacao prices on the continent.