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Single Origin

Small-Batch

Bean to Bar

PURE EXPRESSIONS

Vietnam

Tiền Giang

(The Mekong Delta)

70% Dark Chocolate

Browned plum leads into a remarkably clear honey finish. The honey note is so easy to recognize that this has become one of our favorite chocolates for introducing people to the nuances of origin. We love watching that moment when someone tastes it—the chocolate finishes, the honey suddenly appears, and the smile follows.

$7.50

Country

Vietnam

Region

Mekong DeltaTiền Giang Province

Elevation

10 m Mekong River Delta

Cacao Identity

Trinitario

Harvest

2022

Fermentation

The cacao was fermented in wooden boxes for approximately 5–6 days. More detailed information about turning intervals, temperature management, or fermentation protocols was not retained for this lot.

Drying

Following fermentation, the cacao was dried on raised mats for approximately 7 days. More detailed information about weather conditions, matting materials, turning frequency, or final moisture targets was not retained for this lot.

Certifications

GMP/HACCP

Producer

Tiền Giang cacao producersSourced with Uncommon Cacao

Roast

Balanced

Genetics / Pedigree

This lot is identified as Trinitario. More detailed cultivar or genetic documentation was not provided for the 2022 lot.

Producer Profile

Cacao from Tiền Giang is produced by a network of small farms and specialized farmer-fermenters. Because individual farms often cannot harvest enough ripe cacao at one time for a complete fermentation, fresh cacao from surrounding growers is combined into larger batches for consistent post-harvest processing.

Marou Faiseurs de Chocolat helped develop long-term relationships with these producer groups, supporting regional fermentation standards, technical development, and premium pricing. Uncommon Cacao later expanded access to this cacao among specialty chocolate makers outside Marou’s own production.

Why We Chose This Source

Vietnamese cacao is both distinctive and fragile. Farmers have repeatedly faced pressure to replace cacao with crops offering faster or more dependable returns, leaving the country’s fine-cacao tradition vulnerable to disappearing before it could fully establish itself.

We chose this lot because preserving an origin requires more than admiring its flavor. It requires a market willing to value the farmers, fermenters, and patient work behind it. This cacao rewards that commitment with remarkable clarity: browned plum, honey, and deep cocoa shaped by the waterways and mixed gardens of the Mekong Delta.

By purchasing from Tiền Giang’s producer network, we support the people keeping Vietnamese cacao alive—and help ensure this emerging origin has the opportunity to become an enduring one.

Flavor of Place

Where Water and Orchard Meet

At approximately ten meters above sea level, Tiền Giang lies within southern Vietnam’s lush Mekong Delta. Rivers and canals thread through a flat tropical landscape, renewing its fertile alluvial soils and supporting densely layered gardens of cacao, coconut, and tropical fruit.

Cacao grows here as part of a living agricultural mosaic rather than across vast plantations. Persistent warmth, abundant water, and fruit-filled surroundings help produce cocoa with bright but rounded acidity. In this 2022 harvest, deep cocoa and honeyed sweetness lead to browned plum—a ripe-fruit character transformed into something darker, warmer, and softly caramelized.

Where Water and Orchard Meet — Cacao growing among the waterways and mixed gardens of Tiền Giang.

People & Provenance

Many Small Harvests, One Shared Craft

Most small farms in Tiền Giang cannot harvest enough ripe cacao at one time to create a complete fermentation independently. Instead, local farmer-fermenters purchase fresh cacao from surrounding growers and combine many small harvests into batches large enough to ferment and dry consistently.

This cooperative structure gives smallholders access to skilled post-harvest processing while allowing experienced fermenters to build quality through careful timing, turning, drying, and sorting. The result is not the work of a single estate, but a shared expression shaped by many farms and a small network of specialized producers.

Many Small Harvests, One Shared Craft — A Tiền Giang farmer-fermenter team tending cacao during post-harvest processing.

Renewal Through Partnership

A Crop Given Another Future

Vietnamese cacao has repeatedly faced the possibility of disappearing. Although introduced during the nineteenth century, it remained a minor crop, and many farmers eventually replaced cacao trees with crops offering faster or more dependable returns.

Marou Faiseurs de Chocolat began working with Vietnamese cacao in 2011, treating each province as a distinct origin rather than blending the country’s beans into anonymity. Long-term relationships, regional fermentation standards, technical support, and premium pricing helped Vietnamese cacao earn international recognition.

In 2022, Uncommon Cacao began offering Tiền Giang cacao to additional specialty chocolate makers. This lot comes from that first export year—a direct expression of the growers and fermenters working to keep cacao alive in the Mekong Delta.