There are 33,000 varieties of cocoa. Let that sink in. 33,000, from just two original varieties. Mother nature plays her part and they all taste different. So much affects how a cocoa nib tastes, from year to year. Sun, wind, rain, humidity, etc. Like any crop, it is affected by changing conditions. And so, each year, even cocoa from the same farm, can taste subtly different.
Why are we telling you all this?
Consumers love choice, but we also don't love change. It's why brands exist, right? We know and love a product, so we stick with it. But this presents a problem for chocolate companies. How do you make your product taste the same, bar after bar, if the cocoa you use changes so much?
The answer is that you massively overprocess the cocoa beans, mix varieties, add flavourings and add additives. And each year, this is what major chocolate companies do. That way you can ensure something that starts out life as a bean growing in a pod, tastes identical in a plastic wrapper. Just like chicken nuggets, you end up with a Frankenstein of a product, hardly reflective of the original ingredients, but available uniformly everywhere.
At Chocoholics, we're different. We always use the same recipe and process to make our chocolate, and we will always source single origin Peruvian nibs, but we accept and celebrate that our product may taste subtly different each year. Because it is supposed to.
So, don't panic. Our chocolate will still taste incredible. But, our process accommodates the slight variances in taste each year. And that's exactly what mother nature intended.
So, we'll keep doing our process. She'll keep doing hers. And you can keep enjoying the result.