Porcelana cacao at 70%, where delicacy matters more than intensity
Porcelana is one of the rarer names in chocolate: a Criollo-type cacao from south of Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo, named for the pale, sometimes almost white interior of its beans. They are naturally low in some of the compounds associated with bitterness and astringency, and this 70% gives a good sense of what that means in the finished chocolate.
It opens gently, with creamy cacao and a nuttiness that reminded me most of cashew. There’s an unexpected roundness for the percentage, without the darker bitterness or sharper edges I would normally associate with a 70%.
The flavours unfold gradually. Fig and strawberry bring a ripe fruitiness, followed by coconut and honey, with a citrus note close to orange marmalade appearing later. Nothing pushes particularly hard; one flavour seems to give way to the next as the chocolate melts.
The texture is exceptionally silky, with very little of the tannic dryness that can build in dark chocolate. The flavours become more nuanced as it goes, then linger surprisingly long after the chocolate itself has gone.
That’s where I began to understand some of Porcelana’s reputation. There’s no single dramatic flavour demanding attention, and eaten quickly it could perhaps seem a little understated. Give it some time, though, and there’s a great deal going on beneath that initial gentleness. It’s a rather different expression of 70% dark chocolate, and a fascinating opportunity to taste such an uncommon cacao.
The only reservation is the level of sugar, I would have liked to have tried it darker, at 80%, but this is an expensive cacao, in limited supply, so to make the beans go further I can see why 70% was chosen.
Overall Rating: 9 out of 10