The charms of Chocolate

Tell us about the main varieties...

For a long time, the vocabulary of Venezuelan farmers was used. In Spanish, they distinguished between local (criollo), foreign (forastero) and hybrid Trinidadian (Trinitario) cacao. This semantics can be picked up by any Spanish-speaking and cacao-producing country. Researchers today distinguish more than 25 hybridizations, often from research centers in each producer country. The cacao tree is as unfaithful as the tomato. The laws of the market distinguish "fine" cacao from "merchant" cacao, with price differences from one to five. It is possible to improve the yield and resistance to diseases-such as Ecuador's CCN-51-of the wonderfully aromatic Nacional Arriba, down to the lowyield, even if it's from the same country. Involuntary crossbreeding will be inevitable in the near future.

To you, what are the most beautiful cacao plantations in the world?

A few examples include the famous Porcelana of Maracaibo, the Trinitarion of the San Juan estate and the Nacional Arriba of the Esmeraldas estate in Ecuador.

Switching gears a bit, which alcoholic beverages are best paired with chocolate?

Generally speaking, certain alcohols: rum, cognac, whisky or even white spirits. As far as wines are concerned, the junction occurs with all the muté wines somewhat oxidized by ageing, such as Rancio, Maury, Rivesaltes, Porto, Xérès and so on.