FLAVOR PROFILE: Earthen – baseline cocoa, coffee, leather, wood, spice (mainly cinnamon & vanilla), & infrequently red fruit
CHARACTERISTICS: dark violet cotyledons; full-bodied, bold & indelicate, noncomplex; can be aggressively bitter / acrid
A glorified Amazon, shaped like a round melon, hence the name. Genetically, Amelonado groups close to the Guiana, suggesting a possible eastern Amazonian origin for this traditional type. Its importance lies in being the seed engine for the overwhelmingly predominate cacáo grown all over Africa, the most prolific anywhere, responsible for most of world production – in which case it’s often referred to as ‘West African Amelonado’. The reality is, however, that very little true Amelonado exists anymore in Africa, the originals having been contaminated by the introduction of hybrids.
