Paccari Los Rios 72%

Dark chocolate made from cocoa from Ecuador – sourced from the Los Ríos region.

From cocoa tree to chocolate bar, made in Ecuador.
They proudly state this themselves. Why is that a good thing? The idea is mainly that more value remains in Ecuador itself. Of course, the chocolate still has to make its way to us in Europe, but now as a fully finished product.

We definitely support the idea that producers in the country where the cocoa originates also make the chocolate. Especially when those producers are able to make delicious chocolate. There are, after all, many producers in South America or Africa who make chocolate but—let’s put it kindly—don’t really succeed at it, at least not to our taste. Paccari is absolutely a company that does manage to create something excellent on site, just like Marou does in Vietnam.

Tasting note from the maker: an intensely chocolatey, spicy-nutty, and mineral flavor with a woody note.

Ingredients: Organic fine cocoa Arriba Nacional from Los Ríos, organic whole cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, emulsifier: organic sunflower lecithin, cocoa content at least 72%.

Awards: 1 star at the Great Taste Awards 2017. Silver at the World Finals of the International Chocolate Awards 2016 & 2017.

Paccari also lists a whole range of qualities, perhaps because they find it important, and of course also as a bit of marketing: organic, luxury flavors, soy-free, no artificial ingredients, gluten-free, pure Ecuadorian Arriba cocoa, high in antioxidants, socially responsible, vegan.

We started selling it specifically because a customer recommended it, but we later also noticed: this chocolate unexpectedly won a silver medal at the World Finals of the International Chocolate Awards.