Piura White

Hailing from the Northern desert coast of Peru in the Piura department is the distinctive Piura White. A mixture of native criollos, up to 30% of the beans come through white. Dating back to pre-colonization days, this bean has been an esteemed and treasured type of cacao. Post-colonization, the Spaniards followed suit by earmarking this lower elevation district for premium cacao origins. Piura White is harvested between 50-400m, which is a much lower elevation than most other departments.

With cacao generally growing in the jungle or tropical climates, another variation is that Piura is a desert. The terroir is therefore vastly different to other cacao growing regions, creating very unique beans.

Due to the arid nature of the climate in Piura, the native cacao varieties have adapted and can survive with much less humidity and water. Piura White, therefore, holds a very low percentage of fat and acidity. Conversely, they will not survive if transplanted into a more humid region.

Whereas the rest of Peru has the Andes separating jungle and desert, the smaller, lower mountains of this area have helped increase the biodiversity of the region. Over thousands of years, it is believed that the cacao tree variety in the Piura region adapted from various trials of natives trying to cultivate the different cacao varieties found in the jungle.