A bar that can lay claim to many "firsts": the first Guatemala-sourced cacáo manufactured outside the country & marketed as premium chocolate (in contrast to Danta which vertically integrates & operates all in-country); the first to come from the central highlands of Guatemala (situated between the ancient trade routes of the Pacific Coast to the west with its once-fabled cacáo groves & the lowland jungles up north). Plus, the first to be so reviewed as such anywhere.

In another, it might also be the first to suit The Kaibiles, those special ops commandos from Guatemala trained in jungle warfare & counter-insurgency during the country's civil wars. More recently the Kaibiles have re-oriented in line with current events towards anti-terrorism, anti-kidnapping or anti-narcotics efforts.

They're so named after Kayb’il B’alam, a tenacious Mam-Mayan who evaded capture by the Spanish conquistadors under Pedro de Alvarado & held out for months on the verge of starvation in the stoned city of Zaculeu. Sporting maroon berets with patches bearing a blazing sword, their motto reads: “If I advance, follow me. If I stop, urge me on. If I retreat, kill me.” Just but one chilling point in the decalogue of this killing machine.

Infamous for their reputed practice of forcing recruits to bite the heads off live chickens, then washed down with river water out of a freshly-fired artillery shells (burnt residue still inside naturally). This drill emboldens Kaibiles to eat anything that moves for survival rations. Furthermore, they perform field surgery on themselves in the line of fire. When fallen by gunshot for instance, Kaibiles brandish their knife, cut an ‘X’ on the wound, & extract the bullet.

Luckily, recruitment is voluntary.

So too the eating of this chocolate.