Amedei Porcelana, a plain chocolate made by the Amedei candy company of Tuscany, Italy, is often called the world's most expensive chocolate.[1][2][3][4][5] It has won various awards, including "Best bean to bar", "Best Dark Chocolate Bar",[6][7] and the "Golden Bean award."[8] Amedei is and was, at the time of these awards, a sponsor of the awarding body's parent organization.[9]
Contents |
Amedei Porcelana is made from translucent, white[2] cocoa beans of a variety now called "Porcelana" due to its porcelain-like color. This cocoa bean, a genetically pure strain of the highly-prized Criollo, is native to Venezuela and may have been grown there in the Pre-Columbian era.[10][11]
Porcelana cocoa was called "Maracaibo" in colonial times, since it was primarily exported from that Venezuelan port community. Along with a few other Mexican and Colombian cocoas beans, Maracaibo cocoa was classified as one of the world's highest quality cocoas until the 1920s.[10]
Today, many of these Mexican and Colombian cocoas have disappeared and have been replaced by more disease resistant hybrids.[10] Maracaibo, or Porcelana cocoa is grown on small plantations in Venezuela. Amedei produces about 20,000 bars a year from this cocoa bean.[11][12]
Amedei Porcelana is sold in individually numbered packages[4][12] that have been called "the reference standard for the industry on how to package a chocolate bar."
A 1.8 oz bar sells in the United States for between $12.95 and $18.99.[13] The often-quoted price of this chocolate is $90 a pound.[1][3][4] While Amedei Porcelana has often been called the world's most expensive chocolate,[1][2][3][1][5] sources such as a 2006 article by Forbes magazine give examples of chocolates that sell for as much or more.[14]
One reviewer describes Amedei Porcelana in this way:
The outer appearance is simply wonderful, artfully crafted and presented in the most attractive fashion, speaking stylishly of the flavors contained within. And this is just the packaging. Removing the bar reveals an equally stunning appearance only afflicted by minor swirling. The light brown-magenta color reflects the Porcelana genetics beautifully, while everything else suggests Amedei gave this bar top priority in the mold. Aroma isn't a world beater, though. It's fairly simple, giving off strawberries in the background but lots of raisin and wood in the forefront, which suggests a more aggressive approach than normally given to this fragile cacao...Considering the bean constituency, the chocolate is more aggressive than expected. It's decisively dark and black in nature, suggesting currants and figs but then the profile softens as cream and a neutral chocolatiness assume control, which when combined form a ganache-like character that glides through henceforth.
Porcelana is included in the Golden Opulence Sundae, a $1,000 dessert sold at the Serendipity 3 restaurant in New York City and mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records.[5]