50g (1.76 oz) | Duality Blend matured 9 Years
78% Cacao beans, cane sugar
As the “guardians” of Ancient Nacional cacao, we strive to protect and respect its legacy. This rare edition of chocolate, featuring a limited edition certified print from revered Ecuadorian artist Enriquestuardo, pays tribute to the ancient history and culture of Ecuador.
Buttery caramel, plum, honey, delicate cashew
The Story
The artwork featured in this Masters Series edition portrays pre-Columbian history as told through the mythical drawings, shapes, and artifacts of Ecuador’s ancient cultures. Enriquestuardo depicts the intricate roads, riverbeds, and sacred routes of the Amazonian people and connects it to the Jama-Coaque culture that populated Ecuador's coast. The central image represents a Jama-Coaque deity, the guardian of mysteries, secrets, and knowledge—all of which still linger in our collective unconscious and in the roots of the land’s ancient cacao plants.
For this limited edition of 500 units, Enriquestuardo etched the drawing onto a metal plate made of zinc and mixed his own ink to evoke the earthen red color of the ancient vessels once used to store cacao. He then sealed his work with a thin layer of liquid metal. The etching was printed on cotton paper at an old press in Quito. As a finishing touch, Enriquestuardo added fine details of gold leaf by hand to each print.
Enriquestuardo’s “Guardianes” spoke to us immediately. In Ecuador, cacao represents far more than a commodity. Over the course of thousands of years, cacao has been a way of life for many people. As tree-to-bar chocolate makers, with a close working relationship to the fruit of the cacao tree, we see ourselves as the guardians of Ancient Nacional cacao. Bringing this rare cacao variety back from the brink of extinction is our way of preserving an ancestral lineage that dates back over 5,300 years in Ecuador.
The chocolate we’ve chosen to pair with “Guardianes” is a blend between our “Light” and “Dark” editions from our 2015 harvest. While both editions come from the same cacao trees, each represents opposite ends of the flavor spectrum of Ecuador’s Ancient Nacional cacao. The resulting 78% Duality Blend is admittedly our most sublime expression yet. The single cacao bean in the center is a reminder of the singular power of the Ancient National cacao tree and the deep history it holds.
Caramel
Plum
Honey
Cashew
Nose: Tobacco, caramel, floral, woody.
Palate: Woody, buttery caramel, tobacco, honey, dark fruits, softly floral, earthy, nutty.
Finish: Honey, toffee, earthy, nutty.
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.