Cacaosuyo Piura Milk

Cacaosuyo's Piura Select 70% is my all time favourite chocolate. And here is the Piura Milk, it was the overall winning milk chocolate of 2015 in the International Chocolate Awards

The aroma was instantly butter. This surprised me, I was expecting a darker flavour profile. The taste was metallic, then very banana, coconut sugar, molasses, banoffee, lime zest. The flavour and the flavour development was better when the chocolate was chewed

When I first tried this chocolate, an opera was playing in the background. Baring in mind I do not enjoy opera, it really disrupted my experience. No way could this do such a well-respected chocolate any justice, I thought. And so, with some trial and error, I was then searching for pieces of classical music that I could pair with the chocolate, and to essentially augment my experience too

Listening, tasting, pause ... repeat

Bartók's An Evening in the Village from his Hungarian Pictures (click here to listen) had satisfied me. The piece of music was very relaxed, it walked me through a Peruvian village. The melody was smooth, soft and at times playful, which reflected the chocolate itself, whilst also allowing the chocolate to sing its own notes

Cacaosuyo Lakuna 70%

Cacaosuyo are award-winning Peruvian chocolate makers using Peruvian cacao. They have a few different bars in their range, each being made with Lakuna or Piura cacao

Cacaosuyo use solely cocoa mass and sugar, no added cocoa butter (apart from their milk bars). This 70% Lakuna chocolate won 2 silver awards in the International Chocolate Awards 2014. However, when it comes to chocolate like this, flavour reflects each cacao harvest, so what it tasted like in 2014 doesn't necessarily mean it will have the same flavour profile two years later (similar, but not the same)

An aroma of vanilla, leather, green and metallic notes. The taste started tannic, developing into liquorice, clove, vanilla, pepper, root beer, cola and Dr Pepper®

The Lakuna was much like the Piura Select (which is my absolute favourite), but it wasn't as "rough minded". I felt as if the Lakuna beans had more fat than the Piura, and overall it was a lot softer than the Piura

Cacaosuyo, you are incredible

Cacaosuyo Piura Select

Cacaosuyo are Peruvian, distinctly not bean to bar but, tree to bar makers. They do not buy beans but select the trees where their cocoa fruit will be harvested, which confirms traceability and cacao type. They then supervise the harvest and when ready Cacaosuyo begin the fermentation process. This particular bar was made from organic white cacao beans from the Piura region of Peru. The 70g bar was £6.95 from Cocoa Runners. Cacaosuyo suggested I should come and visit them, why thank you

The aroma was acidy, black tea, green/earthy, a real dark depth to it, blackberry, prune and mango. At first I didn't pick up on the acid, but really it was so conspicuous. My God, it smells like chocolate in a wild, mineral-rich-soiled forest 

The taste was bitter, with then slowly a sweetness pouring in amongst 'cocoa' and earthen flavours. It then opened up tangy citrus notes and all those found in the aroma (listed above) and eventually came a chocolate flavour too. It was very chocolatey, contrary to what C-Spot suggested (a low CQ: chocolate quotient) 

SECOND BAR (6-7.12.2015) the taste was so fudge-y and liquorice WOW WOW WOW. The texture was softer

The texture was suede verging on sandy, far far from what other chocolate makers aspire to. Cacaosuyo do not add cocoa butter

At first I was not impressed, but it really grew on me. It felt like old-school chocolate. For example, if it were a blind tasting, I'd have thought this was the epitome of micro-batch craft chocolate. It reminded me of my own bean to bar chocolate, in that it had this 'down to earth' vibe, with its brazen texture and temper and its "no chill" flavour, of which is very acidic (a trait I love), thus separating itself from the silky smooth and more perfected flavour that chocolate makers who make 'bean to bar' tend to achieve. This is of course all down to the chocolate maker's preference; I am in no way degrading this approach of 'perfection'! Whatever it takes to make great chocolate - I'm in. The juxtaposition was to understand how 'old-school' this Piura Select really was...

I enjoyed this bar and so did many others, I was even told it was "one of the best bean to bar chocolates in the world"