Haiti 75% – Dark Chocolate

Haiti by Chocolat Bonnat, dark and multi-layered

Haiti by Chocolat Bonnat is a dark chocolate made from cocoa from the Caribbean island that gives the bar its name. It tastes full and chocolatey, with notes of coffee and dried fruit, and finishes with a bright trace of citrus.

Haiti is a dark chocolate from Chocolat Bonnat in the French town of Voiron, ground from the beans of Haitian smallholders and containing 75 percent cocoa. The 100-gram bar is part of the Grands Crus d'Exception, the single-origin range of the house.

Coffee, dried fruit and a bright trace of citrus

The first impression is full and dark, then comes dried fruit, and at the very end, a citrus note freshens up the profile again.

The texture feels dense yet melts smoothly, which is rarely achieved with such a high proportion of ground beans. Roasted notes and fruit lie side-by-side rather than one after the other, and that is precisely where the complexity of this origin lies.

For an afternoon coffee, the dark tones come to the fore, while dried apricots or figs pick up the fruity side. A glass of rum also stands up well, as its sugarcane tone captures the Caribbean warmth.

Take the first piece without accompaniment so that the citrus trace is even noticeable; it disappears as soon as something sweet is served alongside it.

Eaten on a slice of white bread with a few grains of salt, the picture shifts once again: the fruit recedes, the dark roasted notes come to the front and linger longer.

Beans from small farms in the highlands

In Haiti, cultivation is in the hands of small farms that open, ferment, and sun-dry their fruits themselves.

Chocolat Bonnat works there with Vétérinaires Sans Frontières, an organization that sends veterinarians to rural regions and helps farmers keep their animals and fields healthy. The label simply reads Chocolat Haiti.

Healthy farms also produce healthy trees, and because the harvest of each vintage is processed separately, the character of this island remains recognizable in the taste.

The fermentation takes only a few days, after which the beans lie in the sun to dry before embarking on the long journey across the Atlantic.

The island was one of the early cocoa-producing countries of the Caribbean but long fell into the background compared to the large growing regions of West Africa. It is only in recent years that its harvests have reappeared in single-origin bars.

What Grand Cru means for chocolate

Grand Cru comes from viticulture, where it refers to a strictly defined site; applied to chocolate, the term stands for a single origin.

Those who blend beans from several countries into a consistent mixture get the same result every year. Here, the house grinds each harvest separately, so that the soil, variety, and climate remain visible in the taste.

Small differences from year to year are thus part of the character of this bar. Store it in a cool, dark place, and this distinction will remain for months.

Anyone who places two origins side-by-side and compares them without a break will recognize what is meant by a site faster than any description could explain.

Caribbean and South America from the same house

Coming from the same island is the light Grand Anse, a milk chocolate with a salty finish, and from Venezuela the famous Chuao. Further bars from the house can be found in the Chocolat Bonnat collection.