Ranking: Chuao Comparison

Chuao is a region of Venezuela renown for its extremely high quality cacao beans. The cacao trees in the plantations in Chuao are primarily pure Criollo, although there are some hybrid Trinitario as well. In any case, this is supposed to be the source of perhaps the best chocolate anywhere.

For several years, Amedei had an arrangement to purchase all of the cacao beans from several of the plantations there. This exclusive deal kept many others from producing Chuao bars. However, some have managed to do so, and the following is a comparison of the four Chuaos I've been able to get my hands on.

Apparently Pralus recently released a Chuao bar that I hope to buy soon. Based on one image on Pralus's website, it may be made of Trinitario cacao. In any case, I'll post an updated Chuao comparison once we try Pralus's bar.

Notes:

• None of these bars use an emulsifier.
• The color of all the Chuaos were close to the PANTONE 19-1015 Bracken, though two were medium browns and two were darker.
• There isn't a list price for the Amedei or Bonnat, so I used pricing from Chocolopolis for them instead.

chocolate maker	Amano	Amedei	Bonnat	Coppeneur
Lindy's rating	***	****	****	***
Richard's rating	***	****	***	***
cocoa solids	70%	70%	75%	70%
added fat	cocoa butter	cocoa butter	cocoa butter	(none)
sweetener	cane sugar	cane sugar	sugar	cane sugar
flavoring	vanilla	vanilla	(none)	(none)
color	medium-dark brown	medium brown	medium-dark brown	medium brown
aroma	coffee, earthy(musty), hint of coconut	raspberry	earthy(musty, soil), roast, hints of molasses and allspice	plum, sweet, berry
taste	strong blackberry, plum, hint of earthy	initial honey, strong cherry	roast (smoky), blueberry, strawberry	plum, tart, hint of ginger
melt	less smooth	creamy	less smooth	creamy
length	short	medium	short	short
finish	slightly dry	mildly acidic	faintly fruity	tart
size	56g ~ 2.0oz	50g ~ 1.8oz	100g ~ 3.5oz	50g ~ 1.8oz
price per bar	$9.95	$13.00	$9.99	$7.95
price per ounce	$4.98	$7.37	$2.83	$4.51

Overall, Lindy and I would both rank these excellent chocolates (in order from best to very good):

1. Amedei
2. Bonnat
3. Coppeneur
4. Amano