Single-Origin Cacao Atelier — Est. 2014

UMBRA
CACAO

From the shadow of the bean, the light of the bar.

Enter the Atelier
Descend
Cacao pod
7
Bars per year
Single origins only
— The Philosophy

The finest chocolate is not made — it is listened to.

UMBRA CACAO traces each origin to a single farm, a single harvest, a single fermentation batch. We produce seven single-origin bars per year. Each is a portrait of a place.

Nothing is added. Nothing is removed. The cacao is the author. We are the instrument.

7
Bars / year
1
Farm per bar
72h
Min. fermentation
0
Additives used
— Current Edition

The Seven Origins

Seven farms. Seven fermentations. Seven portraits of place. Each bar is named only by number and origin.

Ecuador
Edition No. 01 / 2026
Ecuador
Hacienda La Papaya — Los Ríos

Nacional heirloom variety. Wild ferment, 78 hours. Low-intervention conching.

Floral Jasmine Ripe fig
0°57'S 79°32'W · 220m elevation
Madagascar
Edition No. 02 / 2026
Madagascar
Akesson's — Ambanja Valley

Trinitario hybrid. 5-day box fermentation. Red fruit forward with citrus brightness.

Raspberry Tamarind Citrus
13°41'S 48°27'E · 300m elevation
Peru
Edition No. 03 / 2026
Peru
Finca El Castillo — Amazonas

Chuncho heirloom. High altitude micro-climate. Deep earthy base with dried stone fruit.

Tobacco Dried cherry Walnut
5°24'S 78°30'W · 1,100m elevation
Vietnam
Edition No. 04 / 2026
Vietnam
Ben Tre Cooperative — Mekong Delta

Forastero type. Short ferment, 60 hours. Unusual savory mineral finish unique to delta terroir.

Earth Mushroom Dark honey
10°14'N 106°22'E · 3m elevation
São Tomé
Edition No. 05 / 2026
São Tomé
Roca Sundy — North Estate

Amelonado. Island-grown, volcanic soil. Unusually long 8-day fermentation protocol.

Smoke Banana Coffee
0°21'N 6°39'E · 160m elevation
Colombia
Edition No. 06 / 2026
Colombia
El Recuerdo — Arauca

CCN-51 hybrid elevated by exceptional post-harvest care. Clean, bright, with milk caramel depth.

Caramel Orange peel Cream
6°32'N 71°04'W · 480m elevation
Japan
Edition No. 07 / 2026
Japan
Okinawa Cacao Project — Kume Island

Rare Japanese-grown cacao. Ultra-minimal processing. Subtle, contemplative profile.

Green tea Sea mineral Rice
26°20'N 126°46'E · 40m elevation
— Eight Stages of Production

From Shadow to Bar

Chocolate is the longest single-origin transformation in food. Each stage is a threshold — cross it improperly and the origin's voice goes silent.

1
Pod Selection

Each pod is assessed at source — colour, ripeness sound, weight. Overripe or underripe pods alter fermentation chemistry. We select, not harvest-average.

Ambient · 28–32°C
Duration: 1–2 days at farm
"The pod hum" — a ripe pod has a specific hollow resonance when tapped.
2
Fermentation

Beans and pulp are heaped in wooden boxes or banana-leaf piles. Wild yeasts and bacteria consume the sugars, creating acetic acid that penetrates the bean. This is the most critical and least controllable stage.

Peak: 50°C internal
Duration: 60–192 hours
"The smell of wine becoming vinegar" — the fermentation moment of truth.
3
Drying

Fermented beans are spread on raised beds. Slow, even sun-drying allows acid content to stabilize. Moisture drops from 55% to 7%. Too fast creates case-hardening — sealed acid inside.

Solar: 32–38°C surface
Duration: 10–21 days
"Raking the beans by hand" — contact with drying beans reveals their texture and readiness.
4
Roasting

Low and slow. Each origin has its own optimal roast curve. We profile-roast in small batches on a drum roaster modified for precise temperature profiling. The Maillard reaction here determines chocolate's character entirely.

First crack: 140–155°C
Duration: 18–28 minutes
"The first crack sound" — beans audibly expand as moisture escapes.
5
Winnowing

Roasted beans are cracked and the papery husk separated from the nib by airflow. We run multiple passes to achieve clean nibs without over-fragmenting. Shell is composted, returned to farms.

Ambient · controlled draft
Duration: 1–2 hours per batch
"The nib exposed" — each nib carries the full flavor potential of the bean.
6
Grinding & Refining

Nibs enter a stone melangeur. Over 24–72 hours of continuous grinding, the liquor refines to a particle size below 20 microns — below the tongue's ability to detect grain. This is where cacao butter is liberated.

45–55°C stone temp
Duration: 24–72 hours
"Listening for the finish" — the pitch of the melangeur changes as the mass refines.
7
Conching

Developed chocolate liquor is aerated and worked — volatiles are expelled, texture develops. We conche to clarity, not to a fixed time. Some origins need 8 hours. Some need 48. The chocolate tells us when it is ready.

55–65°C
Duration: 8–48 hours
"The acidity drops" — we taste every 4 hours during conching.
8
Tempering & Moulding

Chocolate is cycled through precise temperature curve to form stable beta-V crystal structure. Properly tempered chocolate has snap, gloss, and melts precisely at body temperature. Each bar is hand-poured and hand-wrapped.

Melt 50°C → 27°C → 31°C
Duration: 4–6 hours per batch
"The snap test" — a properly tempered bar breaks with a clean, crisp sound.
— Past Editions

Tasting Archive

Each bar is a numbered edition. Once released, it cannot be replicated — the harvest, fermentation, and season belong to a specific moment in time.

Archive 2025
Edition No. 03 / 2025 — 72% Cacao
Tanzania, Kokoa Kamili
Batch: TZ-2025-03 · 48 bars produced

"A chocolate of profound restraint. Opening red currant, drying to leather and pipe tobacco. Finish: eternal. The longest we have tasted."

Archive 2024
Edition No. 07 / 2024 — 78% Cacao
Bolivia, Hacienda Tranquilidad
Batch: BO-2024-07 · 36 bars produced

"Intensely mineral. Volcanic terroir expressed without apology. Dried blueberry and cassis, beneath which: stone, dust, altitude."

Archive 2023
Edition No. 05 / 2023 — 68% Cacao
Guatemala, Finca San Marcos
Batch: GT-2023-05 · 60 bars produced

"Round, generous, accessible without sacrifice. Honey and almond arrival, dark cherry mid-palate, a long clean finish reminiscent of aged rum."

— What We Believe

The Atelier's Principles

I.
Origin is everything

Chocolate cannot be better than its beans. No amount of technique, equipment, or intention can recover a failed fermentation or a mismatched roast. We begin at the source — and we stay there.

II.
Scarcity is honesty

Seven bars per year is not a marketing constraint — it is the honest answer to the question of how many origins can be traced properly in a year. More bars would require shortcuts. We take none.

III.
The bar is a document

Each bar is a precise record of a specific moment in a specific place. The fermentation microbiome, the rainfall during drying, the roast curve — all of it is in the chocolate. We document what the cacao remembers.

Commission cacao
— Commission Your Origin

A Bar From Your Farm.

Select a specific farm, a dedicated batch, a custom label. We trace your origin from fermentation through to hand-wrapped bar.

Minimum order: 1 kg finished chocolate (approx. 10 bars at 100g). Lead time: one full harvest cycle — typically 6–12 months from farm-side agreement.

— Atelier Journal

Origin Dispatches

Journal 1
Fermentation Diary
Three Days in the Ambanja Valley

What the Madagascar fermentation taught us about patience — and why we extended the 2026 batch by 12 hours on instinct alone.

Journal 2
Origin Dispatch
Altitude and the Chuncho Bean

At 1,100 metres in the Peruvian Amazonas, altitude changes everything about flavour. A field report from Finca El Castillo.

Journal 3
Maker Profile
The Roast Curve as a Language

Why we profile-roast every origin differently, and what the first crack tells us that no instrument can measure.