Explorer Club #401: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Canadians love heading to the Caribbean - the sun, the beaches, the tropical energy - but this time of year, we get to enjoy it all right here. Caribana festivals, the hot, sunny weather, iced drinks, and now, yes, even the chocolate.

This box features three bars made from Öko-Caribe cocoa, a world-renowned farming cooperative in the Dominican Republic. All come from the same beans but are interpreted three ways - 70%, 80%, and 90+% - by three very different makers. Three interpretations, three intensities, one remarkable cacao.

$37.35

$41.50

Explorer Club #401: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

$37.35

$41.50

Definite Oko-Caribe Dominican Republic 70%

Producer Country: Dominican Republic
Cocoa: Dominican Republic
Weight: 60 g

This two-ingredient (organic cocoa, organic sugar) chocolate bar features beans from Öko-Caribe, a smallholder collective located in Pimentel, Duarte province. Öko-Caribe is recognized globally for both its quality and integrity, offering its farmers training and support for obtaining organic certification. This bar is perhaps my favourite example of their beans, with a bold yet gentle roast profile that avoids bitterness or astringency. It shines with clear, concentrated flavours of walnut, banana, and coconut all underscored by an orange-like citrus note.

Wallace Oko Caribe Dominican Republic 92%

Producer Country: Canada
Cocoa: Dominican Republic
Weight: 60 g

Öko Caribe maintains close personal relationships with its 165 farmers through technical training, agricultural research, and organic certification, as well as through offering microfinance loans. They've become renowned for both their business practices and the high quality of their cocoa, evidenced here by the balanced bitterness and relatively brittle tannins despite the high content (92%). A mix of coconut, roast, smoke, and graham cracker flavours preempt a long, rich finish (and an ensuing hankering for s'mores!).

Karuna Öko Caribe Dominican Republic 80%

Producer Country: Italy
Cocoa: Dominican Republic
Weight: 60 g

This organic cocoa is sourced from 180 farms in the El Cibao region of Duarte. Öko Caribe ferments and dries the beans in the village of Pimentel in San Francisco de Macorís. Befitting a bar made from Dominican cocoa, this chocolate pairs perfectly with a nice dark rum (or bourbon), thanks to its flavours of brown sugar, banana, fudge, espresso, and nutmeg. Despite its bold profile, it impressively balances bitter and sweet notes. This bar is not only one of my favourites from Karuna (which is saying a lot) but also one of my favourites of the past year.