The Rarest Name in Chocolate
Criollo accounts for 0.001% of the world's cacao. Here is what that means in a single bar.
By Fatima
Most chocolate is made from Forastero, a hardy variety that produces well and travels far. Criollo is something else entirely. It accounts for just 0.001% of global cacao production, not because no one wants it, but because it is extraordinarily fragile to grow. What makes it worth the effort is the absence of tannins, the compounds responsible for the dry, gripping sensation you sometimes feel at the back of the throat. Without them, the chocolate sits differently: creamier, rounder, with a natural sweetness that needs no disguise.
Domori sources its Criollo from Venezuela, where the maker established what the archive records as the largest Criollo plantation in the world, partly to bring a variety that was nearing extinction back into production. This bar, at 70% cacao, is the direct result of that work. It has one score in the archive so far, and that number will mean more with yours beside it. Open it slowly. Notice what is not there.
*By Fatima Al-Rashid*