Porcelana 75% – Dark Chocolate

Porcelana by Chocolat Bonnat, light and silky

Porcelana by Chocolat Bonnat is a dark chocolate made from one of the rarest cocoa varieties in the world, grown on Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. Its light-colored beans contain almost no bitter compounds, which is why the bar remains soft and aromatic where other dark varieties become harsh.

Porcelana is a dark chocolate from Chocolat Bonnat in the French town of Voiron, ground from Venezuelan fine cocoa with a 75 percent content. The 100-gram bar contains a single harvest from the Grands Crus d'Exception line; the wrapper simply says Chocolat Porcelana.

Fine melt instead of a sharp edge

The snap is clean and dry, yet in the mouth, the piece quickly transitions into a soft, almost oily melt.

Where other dark varieties start with a roasted sharpness, this one begins subtly and only gradually opens up to light fruit and a hint of caramel. The flavors shift multiple times without any one of them masking the others.

A light coffee without milk pairs well with it, as does a glass of port wine, whose sweetness picks up the fine bitterness. Stronger companions, however, would overwhelm this bar; it is too delicate for that.

Let a single piece melt without distraction, as the nuances are tightly packed and lost when chewing.

It finds its place after a light dessert, where stronger varieties would long since be too much. A glass of water in between resets the palate and lets the second piece taste just like the first.

Beans as light as porcelain

The variety owes its name to its almost white beans, whose color is reminiscent of porcelain and which remain light even after roasting.

This Criollo line is among the oldest cocoa varieties in existence, but yields tiny harvests: a single crop often produces only around a thousand kilograms, picked by hand. For decades, it was therefore considered as good as extinct.

Its origin lies in the hot lowlands of Lake Maracaibo in western Venezuela, where cocoa was cultivated even before the arrival of Europeans. Chocolat Bonnat receives only a few sacks from there each year.

Because the light beans contain hardly any bitter substances, a light touch is required during roasting; too much heat would take away exactly what makes them so sought after.

The fact that this line appears again today as its own bar is thanks to a few producers who have preserved old trees and patiently cultivated them.

Why this bar seems so little bitter

Bitterness in dark chocolate comes from the tannins in the bean and from the roasting process, and both are low in this variety.

This is why the bar tastes milder than its high cocoa content would suggest, making it suitable even for those who otherwise prefer lighter varieties. The sweetness remains in the background, as sugar is far behind the cocoa in terms of quantity.

Store it in a cool place and in its sealed wrapper so that the delicate aroma does not escape. Served at room temperature, it shows significantly more than when fresh from a cold pantry.

Because cocoa butter becomes soft at body temperature, the piece loses its clean snap as soon as it is held in the hand for too long. It is better to break it along the paper and take the pieces out one by one.

Venezuela in other bars

The famous Chuao and the bolder Puerto Cabello come from the same country. You can find the entire assortment in the Chocolat Bonnat collection.