Soconusco
A cacao growing region in Mexico.
The Pacific coastal plain of Chiapas, one of the principal cacao-producing areas of Mesoamerica for at least three thousand years, and the region whose tribute cacao supplied the Mexica capital before the Spanish arrived to find an established industry already running.
- Country
- Mexico
- Also known as
- Soconusco, Xoconochco, Chiapas cacao, Tapachula cacao, Chiapas
- Flavour families
- nutty, spicy
Terroir
A humid coastal plain between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas and the Pacific, hot and heavily rained on, at the northern edge of the range where cacao grows without irrigation. Its combination of rainfall, temperature and volcanic soils is the reason cacao was cultivated here rather than elsewhere on the Pacific side.
Flavour character
Mexican cacao is described in the trade as earthy and spice-leaning with modest acidity, and Soconusco lots vary widely. No panel study of the region's output is available to this catalogue and the descriptions are commercial.
Other regions in Mexico
Related
Part of
- MexicoThe Pacific coastal plain of Chiapas, one of the principal cacao-producing areas of Mesoamerica for at least three thousand years, and the region whose tribute cacao supplied the Mexica capital before the Spanish arrived to find an established industry already running.
Varieties planted here
- CriolloDocumented as planted in this region, though plantings within a region are rarely uniform and material is frequently mixed. Soconusco — The Pacific coastal plain of Chiapas, one of the principal cacao-producing areas of Mesoamerica for at least three thousand years, and the region whose tribute cacao supplied the Mexica capital before the Spanish arrived to find an established industry already running..
Sources
- Ancient Xoconochco: Occupational History of the Soconusco Region — Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies (FAMSI), 2002(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)