I love bars that are beyond rich, lightly sweet, and over-the-top chocolatey. Perhaps that's why the Castronovo Tumaco Colombia 60% Dark Milk Chocolate Bar is a favorite among my Barometer favorites. The flavors of this ambrosial bar are honey, and caramel with hints of citrus in the top notes and delicate florals in the finish. 

The beans for this bar are from Tumaco, a remote region on Colombia's Pacific Coast. It's a land of many rivers lined with mangroves (salt-tolerant trees) and lush tropical rainforests where a native cacao variety grows wild. Tumaco is inhabited mostly by  Afro-Colombians who are descendants of escaped slaves. For years, they saw no choice but to engage in coca production and associate with narcotics groups in order to survive. That began to change when farmers realized they could sell their native cacao to the commodity mass market supply chain. They didn't earn much, but they could subsist without being chained to coca production

In 2011, Cacao de Colombia, a producer and marketer of premium chocolate that sources its cacao from small farms in Colombia's post-conflict regions, partnered with the farmers of Tumaco. Teaching them to ferment and dry cacao more efficiently yielded extremely flavorful results. Once they acquired the appropriate skills, the farmers were able to earn 70% more money by offering fine flavor beans to craft makers like Denise Castronovo rather than to mass market companies. We fine chocolate lovers are lucky to reap the delicious benefits!

• Silver Winner 2024 International Chocolate Awards

• Net Weight: 62 g. / 2.2 oz.
• Country of Origin: USA