A Bronze medal at the International Chocolate Awards, from cacao Bonnat rescued and replanted in the Peruvian Amazon. Origin & Craftsmanship Madre de Dios is the least populated department in Peru and one of the most biodiverse places on earth — Amazon lowland pressed up against the Bolivian and Brazilian borders, hot and humid the year round, better known internationally for its gold mines than for anything grown there. What survives in it, in scattered stands, are endemic cacao trees of considerable age, and Bonnat's contribution has been to identify those trees, propagate them, and put the resulting beans through a house that has been roasting cacao in Voiron since 1884. The method has barely moved in that time. Félix Bonnat opened the workshop; his grandson Raymond invented the Grands Crus in 1984, single-origin bars from guaranteed provenance, at a moment when almost nobody else was making them; Stéphane Bonnat, the fifth generation, added the Grands Crus d'Exception, of which this is one. The chocolate is conched long and finished with generous cocoa butter, which is why a Bonnat bar melts the way it does rather than snapping and sitting on the tongue. Three ingredients, no lecithin, no vanilla. Flavour Profile Opens blond and sweet rather than sharp — this is a 75% that reads considerably lighter than the number suggests. Red fruit and a soft floral top note, almost no acidity, then a full, buttered body that spreads rather than concentrates. The finish is the point: exceptionally long, evolving as it goes, and quiet about it. Award & Recognition Bronze, Plain/origin dark chocolate bars — International Chocolate Awards, European, Middle Eastern & African Bean-to-bar Competition 2019. Tasting & Pairing Guide Let a square melt on the tongue rather than chewing it — the cocoa butter content rewards patience, and the length only shows up if you give it thirty seconds. Pair it with a washed **Ethiopian or Kenyan coffee**, which meets the florals halfway; with **toasted walnut or a hard sheep's-milk cheese** for contrast, since the low acidity needs something with grip; or with an **aged Tawny Port or Banyuls**. Avoid tannic reds — there's nothing here for them to fight. Summary Bonnat is the oldest family chocolate house in France and the one that invented the single-origin bar as a category. Madre de Dios is the house at its least showy: a rare Amazonian cacao, saved from disappearing, handled in the traditional French style. For anyone who finds most 75% bars too austere, this is the argument against that.
