Tasting notes

Wild strawberry and ripe plum lead, with a soft chamomile-tea note underneath that gives the finish a rounded, herbal quality. Some tasters also pick up dates, hay and a savoury edge. It is a bar that rewards a slow melt rather than a bite: let a piece sit on the tongue for ten seconds or so and the fruit arrives before the floral character.

Vigdis Rosenkilde adds no flavourings. Everything in the profile comes from the variety, the growing area and the fermentation, drying and roasting decisions made at each stage.

What Chuncho cacao is, and why Koribeni matters

Chuncho is a cacao variety native to the Cusco region of Peru, grown for centuries in the Urubamba valley by Matsigenka communities. Long geographic isolation kept it genetically distinct from the hybrid cacao that spread through most of the growing world, and it is known for low bitterness and a high proportion of cocoa butter. The beans are small, and yields are modest compared with commodity cacao, which is part of why bars like this one are made in limited quantities.

Koribeni sits in the same La Convención province as several of the other origins in this range, but it is a more recent addition and produces a noticeably more floral cup than its neighbours. If you want a point of comparison from a nearby valley, the Vigdis Rosenkilde 70% Quellouno goes in the opposite direction, with forest berry, pecan and cream in place of strawberry and chamomile. Tasting the two side by side is a clear demonstration of how much terroir moves the flavour within a single cacao variety.

About the maker

Vigdis Rosenkilde is a Norwegian bean-to-bar maker and a certified cacao and chocolate taster. She started out as a confectioner, then began travelling to cacao-growing regions in 2015, eventually visiting more than 50 plantations across Peru, Brazil, Honduras, Ecuador and Nicaragua before settling on Peru as her sourcing base. She buys her cacao directly from farmers working agro-ecologically, and spends roughly three months a year in Peru, where all of her chocolate is also produced. Making the chocolate in the country the cacao comes from keeps more of the value in the growing region.

Her bars have collected a long run of International Chocolate Awards results, including Best in Competition placings in the plain dark bar category. This Koribeni bar was awarded Silver at the 2026 European, Middle Eastern & African Bean-to-Bar Competition.

Brewing and pairing

At 70% with a fruit-driven profile, this bar sits well next to a washed Ethiopian or a bright Kenyan filter coffee, where the acidity in the cup runs parallel to the strawberry note rather than fighting it. Heavier, chocolate-forward Brazilian or Colombian coffees tend to flatten it. If you want to work through pairings systematically, our coffee and chocolate pairing subscription is built around exactly this kind of matching.

Specifications

Storage

Keep the bar in its original packaging in a cool, dry place, ideally between 16 and 18 °C, away from direct light and strong smells. Do not refrigerate it. There are no stabilisers or preservatives in this chocolate, so it is more sensitive to temperature than mass-market bars, and cold storage draws in humidity that can dull the surface and the texture.