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Chocolates of Ecuador -- Arriba, Nacional, CCN51
There is debate about the Arriba bean and whether indeed there is any such thing any longer. Some say that Arriba is one bean in a category they would like to call Nacional, and others say it synonymous with that term. Many chocolate makers using cacao from Ecuador slap this fashionable Arriba label on their packages since this carries with it the status of the fine and flavor beans.
And so opening up a general discussion on Arriba, Nacional and Ecuador chocolate, and a place to gather links and references for further reading.
And also specifically attempting to get to the bottom of which companies are using CCN51, and which are using "Arriba" or Nacional beans that are distinguished from that clone. What I have been told so far is that of the companies producing the chocolate in Ecuador, that Plantations uses "mainly the CCN51 clone," and that Republica del Cacao uses "100% pure Nacional beans." And if that is the case, what precisely can 100% pure Nacional mean nowadays? And the other companies who are making the chocolate at source such as Pacari, Caoni, and Kallari, what is the cacao? And what about couverture Arriba from Felchlin and Callebaut? And what is the source of cacao for companies such as Dagoba, Hachez, and Chocolove, some of which do not make their own chocolate from the bean, but who use the word Arriba?
And so opening up a general discussion on Arriba, Nacional and Ecuador chocolate, and a place to gather links and references for further reading.
And also specifically attempting to get to the bottom of which companies are using CCN51, and which are using "Arriba" or Nacional beans that are distinguished from that clone. What I have been told so far is that of the companies producing the chocolate in Ecuador, that Plantations uses "mainly the CCN51 clone," and that Republica del Cacao uses "100% pure Nacional beans." And if that is the case, what precisely can 100% pure Nacional mean nowadays? And the other companies who are making the chocolate at source such as Pacari, Caoni, and Kallari, what is the cacao? And what about couverture Arriba from Felchlin and Callebaut? And what is the source of cacao for companies such as Dagoba, Hachez, and Chocolove, some of which do not make their own chocolate from the bean, but who use the word Arriba?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sarah Hart on -
Excellent topic, casey. Thanks for starting it. I have nothing to add because I don't have much knowledge on the subject but will be interested to follow along and learn.
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Permalink Reply by Samantha Madell on -
Hi Casey,
Arriba means "up" in Spanish. Legend has it that the best quality cocoa beans in Ecuador were traditionally "arriba", literally meaning that they were grown "up" river. I believe the river being referred to is the Guayas river. (Clay will correct me if I'm wrong here).
So, my understanding is that Arriba is really a kind of terroir label. In other words, the Nacional variety of beans, when grown "up river" (i.e. arriba), were traditionally said to have a unique flavour profile, characterised by a distinct floral aroma.
Some relevant points of interest:
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Motamayor et al have identified Nacional as a distinct genetic cluster in their recently published study, Geographic and Genetic Population Differentiation of the Amazonian ...
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There is intriguing evidence which suggests that the classic floral flavour of Arriba beans is caused by growing conditions, rather than genetics.
For example (the following 3 paragraphs were previously posted in the notes on flavor thread):
In 1963, in his book "Chocolate Production and Use", L. Russell Cook wrote that the distinctly floral aroma of Ecuador's Arriba cocoa beans had been "deteriorating slowly for the past several decades" (p.63). Cook also wrote that when Arriba trees were planted in countries other than Ecuador, the trees produced "not a trace of the floral aroma for which Arriba cocoa is sought".
If Cook was correct in his observations, then it seems clear that Arriba's floral aroma is strongly influenced by environmental factors, or terroir.
An alternate theory is that the Arriba flavour has disappeared because the Arriba trees have been replaced with different varieties, most notably CCN51. But Cook described the gradual diminution of the Arriba flavour before CCN51 even existed. (The first CCN51 clone was produced in 1965, two years after Cook's book was published).
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In my opinion, CCN51 has an undeservedly bad reputation. For example, when we visited a plantation in Ecuador growing CCN51 beans, we came across a group of workers scooping beans out of pods in preparation for fermentation. The beans were putrid - they had a foul smell, and were discoloured and slimy and disgusting. The pods had obviously been left for way too long before being opened (probably for more than 2 weeks).
Obviously, chocolate made from rotten beans is never going to taste fantastic! It's impossible to say how wide-spread this problem might be, but Ecuador is well known within the chocolate industry for its sub-standard fermentation practices.
I've posted a photo of these stomach-turning rotten beans in my photo album.
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Ecuador is notorious for producing under-fermented beans. Everywhere we went in Ecuador, we saw evidence of this. Under-fermented beans retain a bright purple colour, and a cheesy texture, and they taste incredibly astringent. This astringency is the thing which, to me, characterises Ecuadorian chocolate.
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Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on -
Sam:
As always, I am struck by the care and thought you've put into your reply.
The story goes (and you are basically right), that traders coming into the port of Guayaquil looking for the famed Ecuadorian "pepe de oro" (golden seed) were told to go "arriba" up the Guayas river to find the beans they were looking for. Today we know these areas as Los Rios, Manabi, Quevedo.
It is also important to note that the bean variety has always been called Nacional. Arriba is the name given to the unique flavor, which is not a genetic characteristic as Sam has noted because rootstock transplanted in other countries does not give rise to beans with the same flavor. So there is something about the terroir - in conjunction with that specific genetics - that results in the flavor. The Nacional flavor is likened to orange blossom with jasmine mixed in. Personally, I think the best example of this flavor I have ever tasted is the first harvest and production of Felchlin's Cru Sauvage.
I also have to agree with Sam about CCN51's undeserved reputation for poor quality. I think the photo she links to was taken on the same trip in 2005 that I was on. In this case, the pods were culled early in the week before being transported to the collection center and there was a national holiday over the weekend and a soccer match against arch-rivals Peru on Monday or somesuch so the beans had been fermenting in bags for at least five days before they were picked over to remove placenta. Unfortunately, the people doing the cleaning were not tasked with removing the rotting beans.
BTW: CCN stands for Collecion Castro Nacional. Carlos Castro was famous cacao breeder in Ecuador, and the particular hybrid - of a trinitario with the the Nacional - was number 51. It was championed by the Crespo family and it was on their farm outside Guayaquil where we saw beans like this.
Ecuador is famous (or infamous) for its lackadaisical approach to fermentation, probably because of the convoluted market system that evolved out of the destruction of the Hacienda system of the late 1800s, brought about by agrarian land reform. The farmers aren't paid to care (for the most part) so they don't.
While in Ecuador in 2005 we visited a cocoa processor (Tulicorp) where we participated in a chocolate liquor tasting. One of the revelations of the tasting was that one of the best-tasting liquors came from CCN51 beans - that had been properly fermented. Fermented properly, it's possible to make some very decent chocolate using CCN51 beans. Certainly as good as anything made with Amelonado forastero from Western Africa.
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Permalink Reply by Samantha Madell on
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Hi Clay,
Thanks for clarifying, re: the Guayas river story.
And yes, the rotten beans photo was taken on the occasion you mention in 2005.
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Permalink Reply by Eric Durtschi on -
In case you haven't heard yet, there is a hacienda in Ecuador that is messing with a new way of processing the CCN-51. They are taking them and fermenting them with the pulp of the beans from "arriba". They hope to impart a little of the floral aspects to them. I have a bag of that arriving next week and can't wait to try it. I'll let you know what I think.
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Permalink Reply by James Cary on -
I've been wondering if anyone has been doing something like this.. Or even utilizing different strains of yeast, acetobacter to get new and different flavors.. Please do let us know what you find..
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Permalink Reply by Samantha Madell on
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People have experimented with different strains of yeast in cocoa fermentation (I've actually corresponded with a PhD student in Australia who specialises in this area).
Here's one published example of such research:
Leal, G.A; Gomes, L.H; Efraim, P; de Almeida T; Flavio C; Figueira, A. (2008)
Fermentation of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) seeds with a hybrid Kluyveromyces marxianus strain improved product quality attributes
FEMS Yeast Research, Vol. 8, No. 5, August 2008 , pp.788-798
Here's a link to the full study in PDF format: www.worldcocoafoundation.org
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Permalink Reply by James Cary on
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Thanks! This is fascinating. More stuff to research..
It's really quite amazing how many of the variables in chocolate are still being explored.
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Permalink Reply by Casey on -
Thanks Sam.
I'd like to add the link to your article from which you extracted your quotes. Had already read this before, and think the people following along here would find it interesting.
And I'd also like to add in a quote from another interesting discussion around here. Alan McClure said in Reclassification of cacao varieties:
Just adding to what Clay has said, there is a paper in a journal called Tropical Science from 2004, issue 44, pp. 23-27 that is called "The first Ecuadorean 'Nacional' Cocoa Collection Based on Organoleptic Characteristics."
The paper is worth a look for those interested in the issue of Nacional. This is me paraphrasing the introduction:
Nacional, which has an "Arriba" floral flavor, was so damaged by Crinipellis Pernicosa and Moniliophtora roreri that hybrids were brought in with high yields and low susceptibility to these diseases. These varieties hybridized with the remaining Nacional, eroding the Arriba flavor which is now virtually non-existent.
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Permalink Reply by Volker Lehmann on -
Here a reply I got lately from a colleague who visited me:
Dr. Eduardo Somarriba de CATIE.
Los estudios moleculares recientes (varios estudios de Juan Carlos Motamayor, MARS, y Claire Lanaud, CIRAD) demuestran que el cacao Nacional del Ecuador es un genotipo de Forastero que salió de la cuenca amazónica, cruzó los andes y se asentó en Ecuador y el sur de Colombia en la costa pacífica de ambos países. El aíslamiento geográfico y el desarrollo de la actividad cacaotera en Ecuador durante el siglo 18 y la primera mitad del 19 dieron lugar al genotipo Nacional que conocemos hoy en día. También sabemos que hoy en día el genotipo Nacional está muy mezclado con otros genotipos forasteros y trinitarios cultivados en forma masiva durante el siglo 20. No hay una relación evidente en la parte genética entre el Nacional ecuatoriano y los criollos mesoamericanos. Saludos. Eduardo.
The Nacional from Bolivia of which Felchlin makes the Cru Sauvage from is the only cacao source known not mixed with other hybrids (maybe there are some more spots left in the Amazon). Both are very different just looking at the bean size. The Nacional here is 65 - 75 gr/100 beans.
CCN-51 is getting a favorite hybrid in Bolivia in a new production zone as well. The problem with it is that under under very humid conditions the beans start germinating in the pot still looking not ripe from the outside. The yields are fantastic which is so convincing to farmers.
By the way, Dagoba bought (maybe still buys) Ecuador chocolate from Felchlin.
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Permalink Reply by Samantha Madell on
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Hi Volker,
You make a number of interesting points in your post.
For the benefit of people who aren't familiar with cocoa grading standards, the Bolivian Cru Sauvage beans that Volker is talking about are unusually small, at 65-70g/100 beans.
Cocoa buyers typically want beans that weigh, on average, at least 1g each (i.e. 100+ g / 100 beans).
Most cultivated varieties of cocoa are bred to produce large beans, and ancient Criollo is a classic example of this - one of the defining characteristics of Criollo cocoa is that Criollo beans are larger than Forastero beans. Hence, very small beans can be an indicator of wild cacao.
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Also, regarding hybridization: more than once on this forum I've expressed the opinion that I don't see anything wrong with hybrid varieties of cocoa (e.g. Trinitarios, CCN51, etc). That is still my opinion. Such varieties definitely have their place.
However, I'd like to emphasise the critical importance of maintaining genetically pure strains of heirloom and wild varieties of cocoa, such as the Bolivian Forastero variety that Volker works with.
These different varieties of cocoa contain utterly priceless genetic diversity that can never be re-created if the genes are cross-bred out of existence. In the long-run, I can't think of anything more important to the cocoa industry than preserving this genetic diversity. We really must treasure it.
The cocoa industry is like every other agricultural industry that I can think of: it wants large, disease-resistant produce that grows quickly. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, as long as you don't throw the baby out with the bath water.
This is why I have such a bee in my bonnet about Chloe Doutre-Roussel and her campaign against Forastero cocoa. Chloe responded to the rise of high-yielding cocoa varieties in such an unsophisticated way that her proposed "solution" (i.e. to replace robust Forastero trees with fragile Criollo trees) was much worse than the "problem" she was addressing.
It's very, very exciting to me to have people like Volker contributing to this forum, with information about Forastero varieties that we had never even heard of a few years ago. Thanks Volker!
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Permalink Reply by Clay Gordon on
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FYI - for those of you who don't read Spanish, here is a translation of the passage from Volker's post courtesy of translate.google.com. This is a machine translation and I have only made minor spelling changes (e.g., National to Nacional, creole to criollo, etc.).
The recent molecular studies (several studies Motamayor Juan Carlos, MARS, and Claire Lanaud, CIRAD) show that the cocoa Nacional of Ecuador is a genotype of a Stranger who left the Amazon Basin, crossed the Andes and settled in Ecuador and south Colombia on the Pacific coast of both countries. The geographical isolation and the development of the cocoa business in Ecuador in the 18th century and the first half of the 19 resulted in the genotype Nacional we know today. We also know that today the Nacional genotype is very mixed with other genotypes outsiders and Trinitarios grown on a large scale during the 20th century. There is a clear link between genetics [of] the Nacional Ecuadorian the Mesoamerican and the Criollos.
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