How many varieties of cacao exist?

One main reason why most of the chocolate you ever tasted in your life tastes the same is because most of the chocolate in the world is made from cacao of a very narrow genetic pool. People think they know what the flavour of chocolate is, when in fact, there are many other flavours of chocolate that you have never tried before. The reason you have never tried them is because these other varieties are much more rare nowadays thanks to monoculture farming and multi-national chocolate companies over the past century. Supporting the fine bean-to-bar chocolate world helps sustain and support the farmers who grow and maintain these more rare varieties of cacao. So what are the varieties of cacao?


Wild varieties

Juan C. Motamayor presents his research here in regards to what he suggests are 10 natural wild varieties of cacao. Since cacao is endemic to South America, this is predominately where these varieties can be found and traced. These varieties include:

  • Amelonado

  • Contamana

  • Criollo

  • Curaray

  • Guiana

  • Iquitos

  • Maranon

  • Nacional

  • Nana

  • Purus

Below are some images from the research paper which show somewhat where these wild varieties can be placed on a map, and how the various genetic groupings relate to one another. It is definitely a complex paper with a great deal of genetic-related jargon for those who are not geneticists (which is most of us). However, it is still worth a skim through, and you may be surprised what facts and information you may gather and discover. You don’t need to be a scientist to at least read and review primary research from research journals. It’s much better to get your information from the source than solely from third party sources.

Many like to believe that some varieties are awful, while some are not. The truth is, genetics is much too complicated to over generalize an entire “variety” of cacao. Cacao that is considered Criollo or Nacional can be considered “fine” and high-quality, while Amelonado (which much of which was previously labeled “Forastero”) is considered a poor variety. However, research scientists such as Albertus Eskes has evidence to suggest that even within the Amelonado variety can one find trees that produce incredibly aromatic cacao. So quality and flavour is not that cut and dry when it comes to variety.


Previously used variety names

The most common variety names that have been circled in the bean-to-bar chocolate realm are:

  • Criollo

  • Trinitario

  • Forastero

Criollo is still considered a variety today. Forastero has been used mostly to refer to bulk commercial cacao, which is often related to a strain of Amelonado. Trinitario, from Trinidad, is a hybrid of the two, so not really a variety on its own, but more of a cultivar. These are the tree varieties or terms used within the fine chocolate world to categorize cacao. However, this is becoming more a more antiquated way to define them. You will still see these terms show up in all sorts of published books and even research journals, as it will take time for the more recent research listed above (and others of course) to be used more readily by not only the public but within academia as well.


Other names and terms

Cacao genetics is far more complex than coffee or wine. There are wild varieties, sub varieties, many cultivars which are a cross of multiple varieties, spontaneous and man-made hybrids, and so forth. Many heirlooms have their own names which some people confuse as a wild variety, when it is more of a cultivar selected over generations for particular traits that make it quite different from it’s wild counterpart(s).

Fun Facts, Cacao & BotanyGeosephFACTS