Chuao Reserve

A smooth, low-bitterness single-origin bar from Venezuela's Criollo-heavy cacao — toasted almond and dried fig over a genuinely mellow finish.

A broken dark chocolate bar showing plain unbranded squares

The release

Venezuelan Criollo cacao is prized across the industry for unusually low bitterness and tannin relative to almost any other origin, which lets us run this bar at 68% and still read as smooth and rounded rather than sharp. The nut and dried-fruit character comes through cleanly because there's so little bitterness competing with it.

A slightly longer roast than our other single-origins, to bring out the toasted-almond Maillard notes this origin rewards.

Roasted cocoa beans from Brazil