The 90% bar sits at the edge of pure cocoa and its intensity, with just enough sweetness to let the flavors develop. It’s a fruity, tangy chocolate — like an underripe apricot, or the tiniest blueberries in the box. Notes of candied orange emerge too, alongside a controlled bitterness and a faint smoky touch. As usual for Pacari’s Raw series, this is an excellent chocolate — one that asserts a clear direction while leaving room for nuance.
Little surprise! I bought this chocolate in Quito… yet it is Argentinian, from the Misiones province bordering Paraguay. It appears to be a limited edition, as the Arapegua cooperative—better known for mate production—no longer offers it in their shop.
Of great gentleness, this chocolate slowly reveals its flavors — give it time, let it melt unhurriedly. Then one likes to imagine the dessert it sketches: chestnut cream, pear, and vanilla. This bar was made deep in the Amazon forest, in Yasuní, one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet — now threatened by the oil reserves it hosts.
It’s not written on the box except in the ingredients, but this chocolate bar is enhanced with pieces of cocoa and grains of salt.
Camilo’s is a bean-to-bar chocolaterie from Rosemère. I met them at an artisan market. The cocoa comes from the Reserva Zorzal in the Dominican Republic.