When selecting a bar of chocolate, many consumers seem to have certain expectations. Porcelana, for example, is a unique and rare cacao highly revered for its delicacy and surprisingly strong chocolate flavor. So, it has always been expected to be a top notch chocolate year after year, mainly because it has been. But we must be honest with ourselves and realize this will not always be the case. To illustrate this point, Domori at one time had some issues with quality in their Porcelana and the bar tasted like peat moss and tart apples. And do you remember Marcolini’s Porcelana, made with rare beans from Mexico? Well, that wasn’t exactly a world beater, folks.

So, I realized that it’s important to understand one key reality before attributing a descriptor of quality to a specific name. For our purposes, let us use Chuao to advance the point. Now, Chuao faces the same problems as many other distinct names (e.g. Puerto Cabello, Carupano, etc.) when its cacao is associated with a particular quality and then lumped rather ungracefully under a broad classification system: unrealistic expectations. You see, a mere name does not ensure excellence. The only thing a name ensures—or, more reasonably, conveys—is a history of quality that is assumed to continue into the future. When these presumptions are made, we get what is called static projection, which in action has a tendency to grossly exaggerate certain situations and lead to results that are entirely different from reality. (Thomas Malthus and his overpopulation theory is perhaps the most glaring example of a static projection.)

So, when looking at a name such as Chuao, Porcelana, or Puerto Cabello, it’s important to realize influential factors are at work besides a brand name and clever (and sometimes, dubious) marketing. Some of these externalities are:

• governments
• processing methods (fermentation, drying, roasting)
• weather conditions (amount of rain, precipitation patterns, heat, sunlight)
• soil conditions (nutrient levels, structural composition)
• surrounding environment (shade trees, competing plant life)
• stress (insect and animal damage, disease occurrence, drought, high winds)
• cultivar
• individual farming practices
• mixing of cacao from various farms
• history of a region's cacao and its modern day implications

With so many variables that influence the flavor of chocolate, it may seem hopeless to expect relative consistency on a yearly basis, and thus to associate good quality with a particular name. But you know what? That's not true. The flavor will definitely be different, but it just may be marginally so and not as extreme as my words may wrongfully imply. Sometimes, the differences aren't noticeable at all, especially among blended bars.

Batch variability, though, is something to appreciate, not dread. Different flavors and/or characterisitcs in a chocolate can reveal various traits about the environment, weather, crop, processing methods, and other variables (such as those outlined above and others) that are unique to each year. I'm not implying you'll be able to pinpoint these idiosyncrasies. I'm just saying that you will be able to at least acknowledge and hopefully appreciate these traits, and maybe even track a particular chocolate's progress throughout the years.