The terrain surrounding the remote village of Chuao in Venezuela is the locale of some of the world’s finest cocoa plantations. In 2000, Alessio Tessieri of Amedei Chocolate secured exclusive rights to the beans from the Chuao farmers’ cooperative.
After Tessieri’s coup, premium chocolatiers Valhrona and Pralus gracefully bowed out of the chuao business.
Just as Pralus and Valhrona were running out of their chuao supplies, French chocolatier Chocolat Bonnat began making their Chuao bar. Do Bonnat’s beans come from farmers in the Chuao valley who are not members of the cooperative? Or did Bonnat manage to secure a significant stash before Alessio Tessieri’s coup?
That mystery may never be solved. Nor may the scale of Bonnat’s chuao stash ever be known.
When we were at Monde Chocolat the other day I decided to solve another mystery. How does Bonnat’s Chuao bar stack up against Amedei’s, considered by chocolate connoisseurs to be the finest in the world?
The answer is admirably, at least from my perspective. Bonnat’s Chuao contains more cocoa-75%, compared to Amedei’s 70%–and they favor a darker, longer roast, almost to the point of over roasting. The result is a deeper flavor containing coffee, tobacco, and molasses, with fewer dark fruits, but without the refined strawberries and cream top note of the Amedei.
The Bonnat is a smooth chocolate, with a good melt, a slightly waxy snap, and a lingering but not overly opinionated length.
Overall, Bonnat’s bar is a more rustic interpretation of the chuao bean than is Amedei’s, but still very appealing.
Available at Monde Chocolat in Vancouver.
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