Kakoa - 82% Cacao Criollo Dark Chocolate, Criollo Pichucalco, Chiapas (bar) - April 2, 2026

Chocolate of the Day

Kakoa
82% Cacao Criollo Dark Chocolate, Criollo Pichucalco, Chiapas (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: 2.11 oz. (60 g.) in total bar
Calories: 327 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $13.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar & Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #17 of Chocolate & Mexico Theme Week(s).

Today's 82% Cacao Criollo Dark Chocolate, Criollo Pichucalco, Chiapas (bar) was made by Kakoa (Rio Chico, Mexico City, Mexico). 

Aroma and flavor notes included: relatively intense dark chocolate with complex fruit (concentrated cacao fruit; cacao fruit pulp syrup); nut (dark, slow-roasted almonds); and faint dark chocolate fudge cake.

Texture: This well-tempered bar broke with a snap. It had a smooth texture and melt with occasional very tiny crunchy (likely cacao nib) fragments--and a faint, fruit astringency in the finish.

This chocolate had a relatively bold aromatic (lightly roasted) cacao--as well as condensed cacao fruit--flavors. However, despite the deep, dark intensity, the bitterness and acidity levels were quite low. All of the taste, without the harshness in the flavor or finish, thanks to the single origin criollo variety cacao in this well-executed bar. 

This bar belongs in a criollo chocolate flight, or a chocolate tasting that features cacao fruit notes. Kakao has captured authentic cacao fruit pulp in their chocolates; and I'm very grateful. Today's 82% cacao bar yielded a deep, dark, whole cacao tasting experience that I found satisfying and inspiring (where was the farm? what did the raw cacao taste like?). No dancing, light, fruity notes; but a more profound, condensed essence of total cacao.

I appreciated the short list of (just two) quality ingredients, including single origin Mexican cacao from Hacienda Napana in Pichucalco in Chiapas, Mexico. 

Of Coatis and Cacao in Chiapas

This bar's packaging was adorned with an illustration of a coati, a small mammal (related to raccoons) that lives in Chiapas in cacao-growing areas. The Aztec name for coatis in the Chiapaneca jungles/forests is Pitzotl. Pitzotlcalco in the nahuatl language means "place of the pitzoltl"...and thus the name Pichucalco--where the cacao for this bar was grown. (And yes, coatis do sometimes eat cacao pulp, melons and other fruits.)

Maker's Tasting Notes: "Nuts and almonds with a touch of fruit"

Ingredients: Cocoa Beans and Sugar

Allergen-related information: (Contains: Milk.) May contain milk and tree nuts. (Manufactured in a facility that also processes milk and tree nuts.)