It is said that Peruvian cocoa is one of the finest in the world, Gran Nativo and its incomparable range of aromas are proof of this.
This cocoa develops all its flavors in the Piura region, whose name derives from the word “Piruha” which means “abundance”. A bounty of so-called white beans, among the rarest and finest in the world, which give Gran Nativo its distinctive taste: fruity, sweet, without bitterness. Its real name is Piura Blanco. We have chosen to keep the name "Gran Nativo", in memory of our partner Luis Mancini. He was the first to select these exceptional beans from the Norandino cooperative and to import them to Europe. We had the chance to meet him and visit the cooperative with him in 2019.
Today, Original Beans and Cacao Latitude have taken over in the villages of La Pareja and Loma Larga. The two villages are part of the Andanjo Community, as is the 2,800 hectare dry forest from which the beans come.
Gran Nativo cocoa takes root among fruit trees in an ecosystem made up of lemon and mango trees. This cocoa owes its particular aromas to the dry and arid climate of the Amazon rainforest and the high irrigation of the Piura region, also known for its rice fields. Gran Nativo offers a unique and typical aroma: sweet and long on the palate, with hints of lemon and passion fruit.
Each bag delivered is individually transformed into chocolate in the Bean To Bar philosophy, in a "micro batch", in order to stay as close as possible to the aromatic specificities which can vary from one batch to another.
The beans are tasted, sorted, roasted at low temperature, mixed with unrefined cane sugar, stone-conched for 3 days before ripening for 3 weeks. The pure milk chocolate thus obtained will then be melted to be molded and packaged into bars.