Equateur 75% – Dark Chocolate

Equateur, floral chocolate from Ecuador

Equateur by Bonnat is a dark chocolate with 75% cocoa from Ecuador, made from the noble Arriba Nacional. Fine and floral, with clear hints of honey and a smooth, long finish. Only cocoa, cocoa butter, and sugar.

Equateur 75% is a single-origin dark chocolate from Bonnat in Ecuador. Its cocoa is an Arriba Nacional, famous for its finesse and often compared to the Criollo. The long conching process brings out the floral honey notes of the 100-gram bar beautifully, without masking them with bitterness.

Flowers, honey, a smooth finish

Equateur tastes fine and floral, with clear honey notes and a delicate, never harsh bitterness.

The aromas are quiet and elegant, more of a suggestion than a force, carried by a soft, long melt. For a 75 percent bar, it is surprisingly mild and round, almost like a fine hint of floral honey on a dark background. It has a clean snap and a strikingly bright, sunny color.

It is thus a chocolate for quiet connoisseurs who prefer the refined to the intense. Pure, or paired with a light coffee or a glass of white wine, it reveals its floral side.

At room temperature and allowed to melt slowly, the flowers and honey reveal themselves in their full breadth. Cream cheese with honey or a mild goat cheese makes for a surprisingly lovely accompaniment.

Arriba Nacional, Ecuador's noble cocoa

The cocoa for Equateur is an Arriba Nacional, one of the most famous and finest cocoa varieties in the world.

Arriba grows in the valleys of Ecuador and is known for its floral, almost perfumed aromas; it is only through long conching at Bonnat that they fully blossom. Equateur was one of the very first Grand Cru bars that Bonnat introduced in 1984 for the house's centenary. At Bonnat, it is counted among the Grands Crus Historiques; in French, it is simply called Chocolat Equateur.

True Arriba Nacional has become rare today, as many plantations grow higher-yielding varieties. All the more reason to appreciate that Bonnat has remained faithful to this old, floral cocoa since those first Grand Cru bars.

No nut traces, vegan and pure

The bar consists of only three ingredients: cocoa, cocoa butter, and sugar, with no soy lecithin and no emulsifiers.

This makes it vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free, and completely free of nut traces, so even those with nut allergies can enjoy it without worry. About 25 percent of the bar is sugar, the rest is pure cocoa; this fine bar needs nothing more.

Long-conched in Voiron since 1884

The Chocolaterie Bonnat was founded in 1884 by Félix Bonnat in Voiron and is today run by the fourth generation, Stéphane Bonnat.

Stéphane selects his beans himself and processes each origin individually, bean-to-bar, conched for around 20 hours. Especially with a cocoa as fine as Arriba, this long, slow kneading makes all the difference, as it brings to the fore the delicate floral and honey notes that a shorter conching process would swallow. Félix Bonnat began roasting his own beans as early as 1884, and for over 140 years, it has remained in family hands.

The fruity-fine journey continues with the Los Colorados, also from Ecuador, and the spicy Ceylan. But Equateur is the most floral of them all, a chocolate like a bright Sunday morning, when you take your time.