If you go to http://www.felchlin.com you can see a new couverture from Bolivia, called Cru Sauvage. They claim it is the first chocolate made from wild cacao. According to B. Bartley in the book The Genetic Diversty of Cacao and its Utilization, the cacao plants i Beni in Bolivia are survivors of old plantations and not wild cacao. It seems like the variety is an Amazonian amelonado with purple cotyledons, an indication of forastero family.

Could be interesting to try it anyway, not many Bolivian chocolates around.

Who has fair trade chocolate from Bolivia?
Are there anyone who provide Felchlin in bars in Sweden?

I’ve heard rumors of retail bars in the past, and I’ve seen presentation boxes with four large napolitans, each one about 15g in size perhaps. Included were: Arriba 72%, Madagascar 64%, Maracaibo Clasificado 65%, and a Maracaibo Creole 49%.

It’s just a marketing ploy. Nacional is often regarded as a fourth subclass of cacao because of its similarities to Criollo and Forastero. It shares properties of each, i.e. the plant itself is hearty and robust, while the flavor is delicate. Apparently, Felchlin is using this to their advantage and twisting things around a bit.

I think that Felchlin is also trying to promote their use of cacao that was not grown on a plantation. It is probably grown in the wild – the forest, nature, whatever you want to call it – but of course, it is tended and cared for by human hands.

Yes, the term “Criollo” actually means “indigenous,” but this was used before the distinctions among all three (or four) types were made. In context, this usage is obsolete and very confusing for people, so I do not see the point as to why someone would still use it.

I’ve tried it and it sure is Felchlin but I still prefer Maracaibo Clasificado 65%.

“Porcelana: The Holy Grail of Pure Criollos” (Maricel E. Presilla)

The Cru Sauvage is now available in the US through Pure Origin (Clay Gordon), and he was kind enough to send us a sample. The chocolate has a wonderful roasty aroma, luscious mouthfeel and a really nice bouquet of fruit flavors on offer, especially towards the finish. All in all a really nicely composed chocolate, if a bit too sweet for my taste at 68%.

As far as origin, it seems likely that the trees are some wild Forastero variant rather than a truly wild Cacao species like Bicolor…Still the region is really unique, and the chocolate shows it.