I made five different percentages of dark chocolate from Ucayali River Cacao and here is what I found... — ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.com

There is one cacao that has suddenly popped up everywhere during the last year: Ucayali River Cacao. Chocolate makers are launching Ucayali-named bars everywhere, most staying within the 70% range, with just a few others venturing out beyond 70%.  Last year, just a small handful of makers were making Ucayali bars, including Sirene Chocolate (called the Tingo Maria bar) and Letterpress (Ucayali 70%), both winning international awards for their bars.See all those award stickers? This origin - and the chocolate maker - is a winner!Then this year, a slew of new chocolate makers won Academy of Chocolate (AoC) awards in the 2018 competition, including Daniel Haran, owner of Chocolat Monarque in Montreal, who just won an Academy of Chocolate Gold for his 80% Ucayali bar.  Goodnow Farms won an AoC Silver medal for its 70% Ucayali bar, Coco Chocolate Company of Kingston, Ontario and Letterpress of California won 2018 AoC Bronze for their 70% Ucayali bars, as did Lemuel Chocolate, and I can't even keep track of all the other Ucayali River Cacao wins. I did not submit any of my Ucayali dark chocolate bars, because they are not a part of my product line-up, but seeing the list of winners, I wished I had because the flavour of the beans stand out above many other cocoa bean origins.So why are the beans so darn good?Ucayali River Cacao (URC) lets the farmers do their farming thing, and URC takes care of the rest, so the cacao is treated with the same high quality fermentation and drying techniques across the board. A consistent product is produced from an inconsistent bean. URC works to produce the best cacao by picking up the wet beans from farmers in the region every 30 days, then centrally processing it for a consistent flavour and streamlined process. Often, if each farmer were to try to ferment their own beans, the results could be less flavourful, because many small farmers do not have enough beans to fill a fermentation bin at once, and therefore optimal temperatures can not be reached during fermentation for a good flavour profile. In addition, fermentation and drying are additional skills the farmer must learn, which reduces their time to concentrate on producing good cacao on the farm and increasing production. URC solves this problem for farmers and they pay farmers a price higher than market value to encourage future efforts in farming.Experimenting with the beans...So starting last Fall and again this winter, I got a few 5kg bags of Ucayali River Cacao and experimented. The smell upon opening the bags, was that of pure cacao heaven. Each raw cocoa bean has its own aroma when you open the bags, and the Ucayali River Cacao had a wonderful aroma unlike any I have smelled before. I had to stop myself from entirely immerging my head in the bag to get a long, wonderful whiff. The beans were beautiful, and nearly no strange bits in them. They were easy to sort and lovely to work with. And so, having heard the wonderful flavour of this cacao, and based on the look, a hand-done cut test and the smell, I decided to apply a very light roast to all the beans, because I really wanted the bean flavours to shine through on my first experiments. I made a 70% immediately, and added a solid amount of cocoa butter just to ensure I made the same recipe as a few other chocolate bars that I had on hand, in order to get a good origin taste comparison. As chocolate makers, we all have our own 'cocoa butter philosophy' and I like the original French-style creamy mouth-feel for a 70% chocolate bar (although my philosophy on cocoa butter is dependent on the cocoa bean itself - after experimenting, if an exceptional beans shine, I usually try a new batch with no or less cocoa butter to feature more of the bean favours).  In this 70% bar, where I applied a light roast, the fruity flavours were quite noticeable, with a lemon tang and strong cocoa notes, with some woody undertones. At 70% cocoa solids, it was certainly packed with a flavour punch.Then I made a 100% with no cocoa butter added, just the beans refined for 2 days in the stone melangeur. Then I made an 85% Ucayali dark chocolate with 5% cocoa butter, and immediately followed that with a 90% Ucayali dark chocolate with 10% cocoa butter. My reasoning was that a bean with a lot of acidity might need a little more cocoa butter at a high percentage in order to calm down the acidity a bit, and give the taster a more enjoyable experience with less sugar. As many regular chocolate tasters reduce sugar from their diets, and turn to 90% and above dark chocolate, it can be difficult to find bars that are not so extreme and bitter in flavour. I wondered if the Ucayali could be a good option at a high percentage for that new-to-extreme-dark-chocolate person. So if you've been following closely, you'll know that both the 85% and the 90% dark chocolate bars contained 80% beans, but just had varying amounts of cocoa butter and sugar. And I tell you, I was surprised by how different they turned out in favour.The 90% turned out to be elegant, mild in flavour, creamy in texture and overall had that delicate feel of a Porcelana or Soma's CSB Chama bar, but with some after taste of bold fruit flavours. The added cocoa butter really softened the edges, giving the chocolate a palatability of something a little sweeter than the average 90% bar. However, it was less interesting than the 85%, which offered a bold fruitiness and strong notes of citrus acidity that hit the palate upfront, with cedar and wood notes also rounding out the flavour punch.  The 100% dark chocolate bar was a good solid-tasting unsweetened bar, which could have stood up to some of the best 100% dark bars on the market, with some fruit notes and a distinct taste of roasted cacao, BUT also oddly less interesting than the 85% and 90% bars. What I learned from the 100% was that the Ucayali River bean really shine when a little sugar is added to highlight the flavour. As chocolate makers, we are continually pushing the limits, but we must remember that sugar has always been used as a way to highlight cocoa bean flavours, and not be afraid to use a little more if it enhances the experience of the chocolate by the greatest number of people.Finally I made a milk chocolate bar....I also decided to make a 68% dark-milk chocolate bar, which had only 13% sugar in it. I figured it would highlight the flavours of the bean, while introducing a nice melt-in-your-mouth feature to the chocolate. The result was a very delicate, creamy milk chocolate, with not a strong 'terrior' flavour of the cocoa bean. The delicate nature of it was quite nice, and could be addictive, but I wondered if a 50 to 60%, light on the cocoa butter and strong on the beans, might have been a better composition.This 68% Ucayali milk chocolate bar was more dark than milk, but with a delicate creamy mouthfeel and taste.So what did I learn...I learned that a little sugar goes a long way when it comes to some beans. These beans are truly flavourful because they have been treated just right, and they taste great on their own, and made into a very dark and unsweetened chocolate, but their flavours truly shine when a little sugar is added, about 15% to 30%. With that, the chocolate comes alive and really begins to tell its story.Find Ucayali origin chocolate bars and beans near you...You can find Ucayali River Cacao origin chocolate bars all throughout North America now, so just check the website of the producers for a chocolate maker in your area, at: https://ucayalirivercacao.wordpress.com/Check out an event by the Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute (FCCI) taking place in Canton, MA on June 19th: https://www.instagram.com/p/BjYAoD8DQLG/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=tog4eodt36we You can taste Goodnow Farms Ucayali chocolate bar, and other makers Ucayali bars, along with beer pairings, and meet the maker of Goodnow Farms.Learn more about the Ucayali River in Peru at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ucayali_River and this wonderful region that grows some of the best cacao in the world.Find the beans from Juan Gonzalez from the Mexican Arabica Bean Company in Toronto: https://www.mabco.ca/.The Ucayali beans...roasted.

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