Mexico Camino Cacao - Direct Trade - 2023 Archive

Origin: Mexico

Region: Chontalpa, Tabasco

Type:  Mix of Trinitario hybrids, local criollos and INIFAP selections

Certifications: Direct Trade

Harvest Year: 2023

Flavor notes:

It never fails to excite me when I have a new origin to announce.  It is twice the fun when I can't seem to stop eating the chocolate.  Check out the spider chart.  The flavor is as big and full as the chart indicates.

The aroma is deep, rich chocolate, plain and simple.  Likewise, the first impression when you take a bite is fudge like chocolate.  There are dark brown fruits.  They are the classics: dates and dried fig wrapped in a clean earthiness.  Like many dried fruits there is a low tangy acidity but it is soft, not sharp.   I get green leaf tobacco and an incredible sweetness.  

I was rather expecting a nut component but it just isn't there particularly.  In many beans, if there a nut flavor you have to be careful with the roast lest it create a harsh  bitterness.  There are hints of the smoothness of cashew but I find it more of an impression that the actual flavor.

The bitterness and astringency that are present are just delightful, keeping the chocolate engaging instead of off putting. The integration is elegant and smooth. Overall I find it devilishly approachable and also refreshingly satiating.

Camino Cacao was founded as an impact-driven company designed to push back against declining cacao yields and deforestation in Mexico while providing meaningful livelihoods to small producers with few prospects for long term client relationships. Carlos Azcuaga, one of Camino’s founders, has a passion for implementing agroforestry systems in cacao orchards and, with the help of consultants, has provided ~3000 hours of technical training and assistance in the field of syntropic agroforestry to the small holders in the area.

Many of the producing parcels are 60+ years old and have declining yields. The hope is that through a more holistic approach to farming, producers in Tabasco will achieve both economic viability and environmental sustainability. They are currently operating in Chontalpa, Tabasco but have plans to expand southward towards the border of Tabasco and Chiapas to aid even more small landholders.

Camino Cacao purchases cacao en baba from about 235 smallholders with 370
hectares of producing land near Chontalpa where it is then processed at their local facility.

With how strong and bold this bean is, you can approach the roast the same way.