Chuncho Urusayhua 73%

“This little small-batch bar packs tremendous flavour, so expressive of the Peruvian beans. Excellent texture and melt, ethically sourced and all packaging recyclable or compostable. Everything an artisan bar should be, plaudits to @CocoaRetreat”, Andrew Baker, author of From Bean To Bar, A Chocolate Lover’s Guide to Britain (Twitter review 9/12/22).
Delighted with my Chuncho Urusayhua 73%, a new limited edition bar. 
This Chuncho chocolate is made from a tiny Peruvian bean (pictured top, compared with Ecuadorean Mono Bravo below) packed full of cacao butter, making the chocolate deliciously creamy with very little astringency.  A great variety for a slightly higher cacao content bar.
The natural flavours open with cranberry and blueberry, which stay as apricot notes deepen and become jammy, next come gentle maple syrup and cereal notes and the full creaminess of the chocolate, finishing with a light cashew nut taste. 
The Chuncho cacaos that can be found in Cusco, Junín and Ayacucho, are not a homogenous group, rather a range of different varieties.  The cacao pods are small and so are the beans. 
Years ago, this Urusayhua rare genetic varietal was on the edge of extinction due to growing numbers of abandoned farms. Thanks to support from craft chocolate makers, farmers saved these trees from being lost forever, and now more than 90 families are actively growing this uniquely flavoured bean.
Cacao Latitudes who sourced this variety for me, work with Original Beans and several local organizations to economically incentivize the growth of this scarce and vital varietal. By giving the community the resources necessary to reforest their cacao farms and improve the ecosystem, this this endangered cacao can be preserved and cacao diversity promoted in the long run.
Contains: Organic cocoa beans, organic cane sugar.