Chocolarder Ottange Farm 74% Dark Chocolate Bar

The Ottange farm in Madagascar is the smallest of eight that make up the Mava plantation, recently acquired from state ownership and revitalised after a period of neglect.

This tiny farm – just 12 hectares – on the Rowena river is doing all the work on site to grow, harvest and process this outstanding ‘terroir’ cacao, and it’s some of the best we’ve tasted so far.

Tasting Notes

Early bursting fruit notes quickly giving way to roasted nut flavours with a light sourness. A pleasant caramel end rises from the sharp fruit and nut flavours to give a long lingering cocoa end.

Ingredients

Cocoa beans and unrefined raw sugar.

The Ottange Farm

Winner of the Cocoa of Excellence in 2017, the cacao produced by this micro farm in Madagascar has risen above the rest by virtue of being a single farm variety. Although eight separate farms make up the Mava plantation, which in total spans 1726 hectares, beans from each of the farms are fermented and dried onsite and separately.

Cacao flavour profiles are uniquely constituted according to environmental factors such as climate and soil: a small farm of skilled growers can highly refine and nurture the flavour of the cacao throughout the growing, fermenting and drying processes. The methods used by the Ottange growers are entirely traditional, using wooden boxes for fermentation before sun-drying the beans.