Lucid – Betulia, Colombia, Dark 72%

About the bar

This is a 72% dark bar from Lucid that you don’t want to miss as a craft chocolate enthusiast! Made with extremely rare B6 Colombian Criollo beans, this cacao is gentle, nutty, and herbal.

About the maker

Lucid Chocolate is a New Zealand bean-to-bar chocolate maker founded by chocolatier and chocolate maker Johnty Tatham in 2020. After an initial launch later that year, the company refined its vision and relaunched in 2022, quickly earning recognition with a strong showing at the New Zealand Chocolate Awards. Today, Lucid remains a small team, with Johnty working full-time alongside two part-time staff from the family farm where the chocolate is made.

The beans

The beans for this bar come from Betulia, Colombia, and are an extremely rare species of Colombian Criollo called B6. With an extraordinary 95% white bean count, this B6 is considered one of the rarest cacao varieties in the world. White cacao is renowned for its pale, milk chocolate-like appearance and its remarkably delicate flavour profile, offering gentle nutty notes. The team at Cacao Betulia took a unique approach to preserving these remarkable genetics. Rather than planting from seed, they cloned trees from the individual pods discovered in the untouched jungle by farmer Jonathon, ensuring each variety remained genetically true. Around 20 distinct selections were originally identified and labelled B1 through B20, but only four demonstrated the combination of flavour, quality, and high white bean content worthy of full-scale cultivation.

Because neighbouring farms grow predominantly CCN-51 cacao, Betulia carefully planned the location of its plantations to minimise the risk of cross-pollination. As a result, only around 40 acres of the estate’s 200 acres are currently dedicated to cacao cultivation. B6 is exceptionally scarce, with annual production of only around three tonnes, and this is a particularly special bean variety for Lucid, who focus almost exclusively on Peruvian cacao.

Nutritional info coming soon.

Allergens*

No allergens listed by maker.

Ingredients coming soon.

*Allergen advice: We directly import, and purchase, all products from independent makers and have these shipped by our partner warehouse (which is not certified allergen-free), and so we cannot guarantee that any product will be allergen-free. Even where an allergen is not listed, products may have been produced, shipped, or stored in facilities which handle allergens.

If you would like further information about a specific product, please contact us on [email protected] or contact the maker directly.