Reserva Zorzal, Dominican Republic – Dark Chocolate 70%

Description

Reserva Zorzal is a delicious Dominican dark chocolate with a complex flavor profile that’s equal parts classic and unique. Zorzal’s flavor provides a satisfying bittersweet fudginess accompanied by notes of almonds and cashews, with dried fruits such as dates or figs lingering in the background. This cacao makes for a rich and creamy dark chocolate, and a milk chocolate that is somehow almost richer.

Zorzal Cacao of the Dominican Republic quickly became one of our favorite chocolates at Maybird. Reserva Zorzal is a wildlife preserve, bird sanctuary, organic cacao farm, and central fermentary in the mountainous rainforests of the Dominican Republic. Of the 1019 acre estate, Reserva Zorzal has designated 70% of their land as “forever wild,” with their founding mission of conservation and restoration being funded by the 30% of land used as a regenerative cacao farm. The principle goal of the land is to provide increasingly scarce habitat for the Bicknell’s thrush, a migratory bird species that migrates each year between Vermont and the forests of the Dominican Republic. The small brownish-gray songbird is an important and beloved part of the ecosystem whose habitat and population is threatened by deforestation and mono cropping. By working with the Vermont Center for EcoStudies to grow and maintain a wildlife monitoring program, they have become the world’s first Certified Bird Friendly cacao farm certified by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Reserva Zorzal has served as a proof of concept and a model for cacao snd coffee companies worldwide, demonstrating that putting the conserving and supporting the environment first is not only possible as a successful business model, but will be imperative in the near future if the cacao industry is going to survive the coming decades as valuable habitats are destroyed to make room for mono cropping and climate change shrinks the area of land where it is possible to grow cacao.

Learn more about the Zorzal Estate: Zorzal Cacao