CandyLoverThe Chocolate Atlas

The Chocolate Atlas

Chocolate by origin

Like coffee and wine, cacao tastes of where it grew. Madagascan beans are famous for red fruit, Venezuelan for nut and caramel, Ghanaian for the deep, round flavour most of us think of as "chocolate". Pick an origin to read what makes it distinctive, then compare the bars.

Tropic of CancerEquatorTropic of CapricornMadagascarVenezuelaPeruVietnamGhanaEcuadorGrenadaIndonesiaDominican RepublicNicaraguaSão ToméColombiaMexicoCubaUgandaHaitiBrazilTanzaniaGuatemalaBelize

Pins are sized by how many chocolates we list from each origin. The shaded band is the tropics, where cacao grows.

A pile of freshly harvested cacao pods in yellow, green, orange and red, Madagascar Madagascar Sambirano valley, north-west red berries · citrus · bright acidity 25 chocolates · 40–100% Cacao beans drying on the patio in front of the church at Chuao, Venezuela Venezuela Chuao, Sur del Lago, Carenero nutty · caramel · gentle bitterness 20 chocolates · 44–100% A ripe red cacao pod on the tree Peru Piura, Cusco, the Amazon basin fruity · floral · mild 13 chocolates · 45–100% A cacao pod cut across, showing the white pulp-covered seeds inside Vietnam Ba Ria, Dong Nai, Tien Giang, Lam Dong spice · tropical fruit · honey 11 chocolates · 48–100% A farmer spreading cocoa beans to dry on raised beds in Ghana Ghana Ashanti, Western and Eastern regions classic cocoa · rounded · earthy 8 chocolates · 40–75% A heap of dried cocoa beans Ecuador Los Ríos, Manabí, Guayas ("Arriba") floral · jasmine · nutty 6 chocolates · 39–85% A ripe red cacao pod on the tree Grenada Grenada, "the Spice Isle" earthy · fruity · spice 5 chocolates · 60–100% Green cacao pods hanging from the trunk and branches of a cacao tree Indonesia Java, Sulawesi, Sumatra caramel · smoky · mild 5 chocolates · 32–75% A small cacao flower growing directly from the bark Dominican Republic Duarte, San Francisco de Macorís fruity · wine-like · cocoa 5 chocolates · 40–70% A ripe red cacao pod on the tree Nicaragua Matagalpa, Waslala, Río Coco caramel · nutty · fruity 4 chocolates · 50–75% Cocoa beans drying in the sun at Monte Forte, São Tomé São Tomé São Tomé and Príncipe, Gulf of Guinea cocoa · coffee · robust 4 chocolates · 70–75% A ripe red cacao pod on the tree Colombia Santander, Arauca, Tumaco, Sierra Nevada fruity · nutty · balanced 4 chocolates · 70–80% A Maya ceramic vase painted with monkeys and a cacao tree Mexico Soconusco (Chiapas), Tabasco earthy · nutty · spice 3 chocolates · 75% A heap of dried cocoa beans Cuba Baracoa, Guantánamo province warm spice · honey · tobacco 3 chocolates · 75% Green cacao pods hanging from the trunk and branches of a cacao tree Uganda Bundibugyo, western Uganda bright fruit · citrus · cocoa 3 chocolates · 70–78% A ripe red cacao pod on the tree Haiti Northern Haiti fruity · cocoa · mild acidity 3 chocolates · 60–75% A cacao pod cut across, showing the white pulp-covered seeds inside Brazil Bahia, Pará, the Amazon fruity · earthy · bold 3 chocolates · 70–75% Two ripe green cacao pods growing on the trunk, Côte d'Ivoire Tanzania Kilombero valley, Kyela bright fruit · citrus · red fruit 3 chocolates · 50–75% A carved Maya lidded vessel of the kind used for serving cacao Guatemala Alta Verapaz, Petén, Suchitepéquez earthy · fruity · nutty 3 chocolates · 47–75% A ripe red cacao pod on the tree Belize Toledo district, southern Belize fruity · nutty · mellow 3 chocolates · 72–82%

How we know where a chocolate is from

We only place a chocolate on the atlas when the maker names a single growing country or region — Chuao, Sambirano or Piura, say. Blends that combine beans from several countries are left off, because the point of a single origin is that you can taste one place. That is why 134 of our 1,293 chocolates appear here: most chocolate, especially milk chocolate and gifts, is made from blends.

We also list a handful of bars from Trinidad, Côte d'Ivoire, Philippines, Bolivia, Panama. We'll give those origins their own pages once we have enough bars to compare.