Sirene Caramelized Pataxte 65% Dark Milk

This bar is truly unique and special. Read on...

Theobroma as a genus is native to the Upper Amazon Basin and includes over 20 species. Theobroma cacao (the one that makes the chocolate you are familiar with) and Theobroma bicolor (the one used in this bar) reached what is now modern Mexico presumably from the Pacific coast of South America by an ancient and long civilisation. The brave people who introduced this crop into Mexico might remain forever unknown but their legacy lives on.

One of the huge benefits of working directly with farms growing cacao is the availability of working with unusual and rare species or varieties. Cacao trees have many cousins, both in the same species as well as in different ones...

We are used to thinking of chocolate as brown or black, but Pataxte beans are pure white! They also have an especially floral flavour to them, which when combined with cacao – as Sirene did in this Caramelized Pataxte bar – can be quite a striking and interesting contrast. The deep rich chocolate-y notes set off nicely the light and floral Pataxte notes.

Cacao Variety

Trinitario and Amenolado blend.

Cacao Origin

Semuliki Forest, Uganda.

Located in Bundibugyo, Western Uganda, Semuliki Forest cacao is grown by over 3,400 organic smallholder farmers in the region, 52% of whom are women. Latitude Trade Co. (LTC), the company that processes and exports this cacao, is a registered B Corporation and operates a wide network of rural collection points where they purchase high quality wet cacao, paying at least 20% more to producers than other buyers in Uganda.

Ingredients

Organic cacao beans, Pataxte beans, organic cane sugar, organic cacao butter, whole milk powder.

Contains whole milk.