CHIAPAS
MEXICO, SOCONUSCA, CHIAPAS
Our cacao beans from Soconusco could be described as a mixture of criollos and trinitarios (“trinitarios acriollados” as they call them), the beans when fresh are predominantly white and pink and the shape of the pods have the typical shape of Mexican heirloom varieties: corrugated skin and the typical "lizard" tail.

The roasted and deshelled beans display a wide range of colors and the resulting chocolate has very light tones, almost like milk chocolate.
This bean has a very chocolatey and nutty flavor upfront, the latter specifically like cashew and peanut butter. Fruit is present in the form of subtle date and raisin notes, whereas astringency and acidity are almost nowhere to be found, which in turn heightens the impression of a natural sweetness. There are also some light woody and citrus notes that definitely take a backseat compared to the other flavors. It is a very flexible bean withstanding very different roasting profiles as long as they are not too high, which could turn the nut component bitter. This bean is espeacially suitable for top-notch "dark" milk chocolates.
Soconusco cacao in Chiapas has been continuously grown for the last millenia, the Mokaya people among the first to make chocolate in history in 1900 BCE. More than 4000 years later Soconusco cacao is reaching new heights with Miann in New Zealand