Chocolate of the Day
Cacaosuyo
(Produced by Theobroma Inversiones SAC)
70% Cacao Piura Select Dark Chocolate (bar)
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: .88 oz. (25 g.) in total bar
Calories: 130 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $4.25 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order
Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Peru Theme Weeks.
Today's Cacaosuyo 70% Cacao Piura Select Dark Chocolate (bar) was produced by Theobroma Inversiones SAC (Lima, Peru).
The company is dedicated to making chocolate using cacao fruit/beans grown in the land of the "Four Suyos"* of Peru, a term that recalls a rich cacao history dating back to the Incan Empire. Through these chocolates, one can experience a very important cradle site for cacao in the Americas, where it's believed that centuries ago the Inca people shared cacao with their allies, but kept it a secret from outsiders.
Today's 70% cacao dark bar is the last of four conveniently sized (single-serving) different Cacaosuyo bars featured this week, and was made with prized "white" cacao beans grown in the Piura region of northwestern Peru--a region that includes semi-tropical forests in the east and coastal beaches to the west.
This chocolate had true chocolate aroma with a faint dried fruit, molasses, lightly wine- soaked raisin and citrus (Meyer lemon peel) notes. The bar was relatively thin, allowing easy and rapid access to the texture and flavor. It had a creamy melt and mouthfeel.
Flavor notes were similar to the aroma notes mentioned above with a slight hints of malt/cereal and green nut and a very light citrus astringency (throat tickle). This bar was relatively suave and sophisticated: well balanced, flavorful yet tastefully subtle.
The maker's tasting notes read as follows: The "...flavor you are about to experience is a product of a combination of meticulous harvest and post-harvest processes. We are confident that this bar, with its light citrus and nutty notes, will be a pleasant discovery."
Ingredients: Cocoa paste (Theobroma cacao L) and sugar.
*The Four Suyos refers to Incan empire Tawantinsuyu's Four Suyos (similar to counties or regions) that surrounded Cuzco: Antisuyo (east, forest/wild area), Chinchaysuyo (northwest), Contisuyo (west) and Collasuyo (south). The Empire at its heydey occupied most of Peru, and parts of what is now Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Argentina.
Centuries ago, the Spanish named the Peruvian city of Piura, after the native Quechuan word "pirhua," meaning "abundance." The Peruvian region of Piura overlapped with the Incan suyo known as Chinchaysuyo. (Chinay or Chincha means ocelot in Quechua.)
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