Overview

The Labooko 82% Peru is one of the standout bars in Zotter’s single-origin range. At 82% cocoa, you might expect an aggressive, bitter chocolate, but this bar goes in a different direction. The Peruvian cacao used here is a heritage variety whose pods naturally contain around 30% white Criollo beans, one of the rarest and most prized cacao genetics in the world. The result is a dark chocolate that reads closer to 70% in terms of bitterness and mouthfeel, with a smooth, almost creamy texture and a flavour profile built around nuts, biscuit, and dried fruit rather than sharp acidity or tannic bite.

Zotter sources this cacao from APPROCAP (Asociación de Pequeños Productores de Cacao de Piura), a cooperative of smallholder farmers in the Piura region of northwestern Peru. The beans include white Porcelana Criollo, which contributes the bar’s characteristic mildness and the subtle sweet-cream quality in the finish.

Tasting notes

Zotter’s own tasting profile for this bar describes biscuit and berry on the nose, followed by a palate that moves through nougat, sweet cream, raisins, grapes, lemon, and a hint of olive, finishing with a nutty and fruity quality and a touch of grapefruit. In practice, the dominant impression is warmth and smoothness: roasted nut and biscuit up front, dried fruit in the middle, and a long, clean finish without harshness.

About Zotter and the Labooko line

Zotter Schokoladen Manufaktur is a bean-to-bar chocolate maker based in Riegersburg, Austria. Founded in 1992 by Josef Zotter, the company produces all of its chocolate from raw cacao beans on-site using exclusively organic and Fairtrade-certified ingredients. Zotter runs its production facility on solar and geothermal energy and uses packaging made from renewable sources. The Labooko line is Zotter’s range of pure origin chocolate bars, each focused on a single cacao source with minimal ingredients to let the terroir and genetics of the beans come through.

Product details

Storage

Store in a cool, dry place between 16 and 20 °C. Zotter chocolates do not contain stabilisers or preservatives, so shelf life is naturally limited. The two individually wrapped 35 g bars inside each package make it easy to open one at a time and keep the second sealed.