Tasty Heirloom Chocolate Varieties: The Next Thing in Terroir

A big thank you to Susie Wyshak of FoodStarter for this great review of her experience in tasting our new HCP Heirlooms.
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February 5, 2017 by Susie
What if all wine, coffee or beer tasted the same?Oh yes, there’s a time and place for the kind of predictability you get from a familiar taste (and / or buzz) experience.

But just as wine and coffee and beer have evolved to be all about taste and terroir, so is chocolate—thanks to the Heirloom Cacao Preservation Fund (HCP).

A group of chocolate industry veterans started the HCP in a quest to save interestingly flavored cacao varieties from going extinct, much as Slow Food’s Ark of Taste does the same for other foods around the world. Like many of these efforts to save heirloom foods, this project has some great side effects not only for craft chocolate lovers but for farmers in cacao-growing regions.

Heirloom designation rewards cacao farmers for cultivating rare and interesting strains of cacao for which they could make a much higher price vs. growing the opposite: “generic” tasting beans designed for the commodity market.

And, making cacao a more lucrative crop increases the chance younger generations will want to stay local and make a living as growers.

Heirloom cacao designation is for the creme de la creme.Growers who believe their cocoa beans offer a flavor profile beyond the usual can apply for evaluation for possible heirloom cacao designation.

They put their beans into the hands of experts from the likes of Guittard Chocolate (family-owned chocolate makers since the 1800s)……..READ MORE on FOODSTARTER!