Peru Chocolate Tasting: Our Top 16 List

Similar to coca tea, coca candy, coca powder, chewing coca – it all tastes like, hmm, coca. These leaves have a dominant flavor that is somewhere between green tea and chewing grass. Though it might help you overcome altitude sickness or keep you awake during hard tasks, it’s not what I want in my chocolate.

I think this rating represents mainly disappointment (although as my mom says, the key to happiness is low expectations). Normally I’m a huge coffee-chocolate fan – this is my favorite ice cream combination. But here something didn’t work – the coffee flavor was a bit artificial and didn’t blend well with the chocolate. Better eat the bitter chocolate (ranked #5) and drink coffee.

Aguaymanto or goldenberry is called “the jewish cherry” in Hebrew, apparently because the outside resembles the penis foreskin. Hmm. Despite the unattractive name, this Amazonian fruit is one of the prides of Peru and is considered a local delicacy. Goldenberry is a bit sour and somewhat similar to a tomato – but in a yummy way. I recommend tasting the real deal in the market. The chocolate version is, however, quite pale – like many of the other fruit variations, it just had small cubes of some jello-y extract of the fruit, which is randomly distributed along the bar. You may get a piece that includes it, but you may also not.

For me, all types of berries always relate to European summer. However, Peru is apparently the largest exporter of blueberries to the USA! They mostly grow between July and November in the north of the country (Ancash region) (source). Anyway, similar to goldenberry and mango, the jello chunks of blueberries are not equally spread in the chocolate and are often unfelt.

After the mango-madness we had during May in Colombia’s Caribbean coast (I promise to tell you about it at some point, but TL;DR: mangos falling down the trees everywhere, for free), it took us some time to return to eating it or rather – paying for it. Anyway, mango chocolate actually tastes better than it sounds, and when you get to a mango cube it’s a bit sour-sweat and combines quite nicely. However, you don’t get to a mango cube that often.

You can say white chocolate is not chocolate, and you’ll be right. But it’s yummy, and the Ancestral chocolate people make quite a nice one.

We are the weird people who like chocolate with salt. We actually even like it more with salt and chili (see rank #2). But I think what scored this chocolate so high up is the “Sal de Maras” – salt originating from the salinaries of Maras near Urubamba, in the sacred valley. This is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site because salt was made there even in pre-Inca times. Crazy, right?

Apparently, there is also an 80% cacao version called “Bitter Premium” – we didn’t find it, but might also be good. It’s possible this chocolate ranked so high up as bitter chocolate is our go-to for hiking because it doesn’t melt so fast. And tasting this yummy dark chocolate while going up a difficult uphill Inca way is what helped us carry on!

As we shared our purpose quest for the best chocolate with our favorite supermarket owner in Pisac (10 Peruvian soles per bar, they all hide in the glass closet in front of the cashier), she said this one was her favorite type. After trying, we also get why: it has nice “stracciatella” chocolaty parts that melt and create an interesting texture in your mouth.

Often chili chocolate is just a gimmick and doesn’t taste like chocolate, chili, or anything in between (I’m talking to you, Lindt). However, the ancestral chocolate that adds a pinch of salt to the deal gives just the right kick to really make this chocolate an experience in your mouth. We loved it.

Eating chocolate while doing psychedelics is, well, a psychedelic experience. And pecan was a nice companion, with just enough crunchy and nutty aromas added to the anyway yummy chocolate.

The queen of all chocolates, the only kind we bought more than once, the one you can’t get anywhere else but in Peru – Lucuma! This Amazonian fruit is somewhat similar to avocado in shape, with a green shell and a central round pit. It’s orange and has somewhat of a flour-i texture – though not unpleasant, we bought the fruit itself just once to try and never again. However, something there really works in chocolate! it makes the flavors stay longer in your mouth and adds some creaminess to the deal. Lucuma can be found almost only in Peru which also makes it a unique gift. Please buy some for us too.