Alto Piura – Peru 75%

Alto Piura by Chocolat Bonnat, bright and citrusy

Alto Piura by Chocolat Bonnat is a dark chocolate made from white Criollo, grown in a high valley in northern Peru. Despite the high cocoa content, it tastes bright, with notes of redcurrant and grapefruit, and remains almost free of bitterness.

Alto Piura is a dark chocolate from Chocolat Bonnat in Voiron, France, ground from Peruvian Criollo cocoa with 75 percent cocoa content. The 100-gram bar belongs to the Grands Crus d'Exception collection; on the wrapper, it is simply labeled Tablette Alto Piura.

Redcurrant, grapefruit, and little bitterness

The beginning is surprisingly light, with clear red fruit, and only then does the chocolate side join in.

Underlying the fruit is a citrusy freshness reminiscent of grapefruit that persists until the end. The bar has a fine, high snap and a clean melt, neither thick nor fatty.

Those who usually find dark varieties heavy will find proof to the contrary here, as the familiar intensity is absent.

It pairs well with light filter coffee or a fruity red wine; a strong espresso, however, immediately overpowers the citrus notes. It is a better choice after a fish dish or a light salad than after a heavy roast, because it brings little weight of its own.

Eat it at room temperature, piece by piece, and the bright fruit will remain until the last bar.

White Criollo from the high valley of Piura

The cocoa grows on the slopes of the Alto Piura Valley in northern Peru, where the Andes begin to descend toward the south. Piura is located near the border with Ecuador, in an area known for its ancient cocoa stocks.

The beans there belong to the white Criollo, an old family with pale kernels and few tannins, which is considered delicate to cultivate and yields low harvests.

It is harvested by the Quémazon community, which consists of twelve small producer groups; they pick the ripe fruits individually and over the course of weeks, as they do not all ripen at the same time.

Chocolat Bonnat grinds this harvest on its own, without blending in other origins, thus preserving the variety’s bright flavor profile. Only small quantities of this harvest reach Voiron each year.

Because the kernels contain almost no bitter substances, a light touch is required during roasting; otherwise, precisely that citrusy quality disappears.

Cocoa among other trees

In Alto Piura, the trees do not stand in rows but are scattered in mixed cultures among banana plants and timber trees.

The shade from these neighbors keeps the temperature down, the fruits ripen more slowly, and slow ripening brings more aroma into the kernel. At the same time, the ground remains covered, keeping it moist during the dry season.

For the farmers, this has a second reason: between harvests, the neighboring trees bear fruit, so everything does not depend on a single crop.

Store the bar in a cool place and in its closed wrapper, as the bright citrus notes evaporate faster than any dark roast notes.

Anyone placing this bar from Chocolat Bonnat next to one from a lowland origin can see the difference just by the color: here, a light reddish-brown; there, almost black.

Peru and other bright origins

The fruity Cacao Cusco comes from the same country, and the Los Colorados from Ecuador shows itself to be similarly bright. Everything else from the house can be found in the Chocolat Bonnat collection.