The chocolate from Modica in Sicily, Italy, is a special type of chocolate that is made with cacao that is coarsely ground in stone mills. So the cocoa beans are not processed in classic conches as it happens normally. The stone mills do not grind the chocolate beans finely, and this gives this chocolate a special mealy texture. This bar from Donna Elvira, a well known chocolatier from Sicily in Italy, is made following the traditional recipe from Modica with cacao Carmelo 1 from the state of Tabasco in the southern part of Mexico. The variety of cocoa is called Almendra Blanca, or “white almond”. It is a rare and precious cacao because of its white and acid and very small seeds, most likely originating from Amazonia, which now only small growers continue to cultivate.

It is a perfect cocoa, capable of giving rise to a perfect chocolate. The jury of the International Chocolate Awards has awarded this Zero Dosage Carmelo 1 bar the Gold award in 2018 in the Rough ground plain/origin bar category.

Donna Elvira chose this cocoa to make their very first 100% chocolate: no sugar, only this extraordinary cocoa. And if a 100% deserves a Gold medal, it can only mean this: impeccable quality cocoa beans, without any defects, which Donna Elvira respected as much as possible in the roasting and grinding phases, to enhance all their characteristics.
Very few producers now continue to cultivate cacao Almendra Blanca in Mexico, because of the delicacy of these plants, which are difficult to keep intact and healthy. But the result is well worth the effort: in the mouth it is sweet and elegant, quivering with exotic fruit, so much so that it doesn’t need to be softened by sugar in any way.

If you’d like to learn how to taste chocolate and uncover all its flavors, explore the Chocolate and Cacao Flavor Profile Map from the international institute of chocolate and cacao tasting.

To learn more about the health benefits of dark chocolate, read my article The Powerful Health Benefits of Cocoa and Dark Chocolate.