Nacional
Ecuador's aromatic population, historically distinctive for a floral jasmine character, and largely displaced by disease and replanting in the twentieth century.
Nacional is treated as a fourth group alongside the traditional three, and it is the one whose distinctiveness the genetics has best supported: it is a genuinely separate population associated with the western slope of the Andes and the Ecuadorian coastal lowlands.
Its significance is aromatic. The floral, jasmine-like quality that the trade calls arriba is the reason Ecuador was a prestige origin. The complication is historical: a disease epidemic in the early twentieth century devastated Nacional plantings, and the recovery involved replanting and crossing on a scale that means much of what is grown and sold today is not the historical population.
What the name actually classifies
Nacional is a real population and 'arriba' is a trade designation, and the two are used interchangeably in a way that obscures the difference. Material sold as arriba may be historical Nacional, may be a high-yielding clonal selection planted for productivity, or may be a blend, and nothing on a wrapper distinguishes them.
What is not known
How much genuinely pure Nacional survives is not established in the sources consulted, and estimates circulate that ChocolateHQ has no basis to repeat. Whether the floral character attributed to the group is fully genetic or partly a product of Ecuadorian fermentation practice is likewise not separated in the evidence available.
- Also called
- Arriba, Arriba Nacional
- Trade group
- nacional
- Flavour families
- floral, nutty, sweet
History
The basis of Ecuador's nineteenth-century cacao trade. Witches' broom and frosty pod rot devastated plantings in the early twentieth century; subsequent replanting introduced other material extensively.
Cultivation
Susceptible to the fungal diseases that reduced it, and lower yielding than the clonal varieties that replaced much of it.
Flavour
Distinctly floral — jasmine and orange blossom are the recurring descriptors — over a low-acid, soft body.
Well attested for genuine Nacional material. Not a description of everything sold as arriba.
Related
Characteristic flavours
- FloralThe clearest varietal flavour association in the catalogue, and still one where fermentation practice has not been separated from genetics.
- JasmineWithin this variety's aromatic potential. Variety sets a ceiling rather than a result. The signature Ecuadorian note, and the most fragile aromatic in chocolate — a heavy roast removes it entirely.
Commonly confused with
- Arriba NacionalOne is a trade designation and the other a genetic population. They are used interchangeably, and a bar labelled arriba is not guaranteed to be Nacional.
Grown in
- EcuadorEcuador is the home of Nacional, and much of what is planted today is not the historical Nacional population — the association and the caveat travel together.
Covered in
- Latin American cacaoThe floral genetics that exist essentially only here.
Compared in
- CCN-51 vs NacionalSet against CCN-51, with the practical consequence of each difference.
Regions where this is planted
- Los RíosDocumented as planted in this region, though plantings within a region are rarely uniform and material is frequently mixed. Los Ríos — A province in Ecuador's coastal lowlands within the Guayas river basin, historically central to the arriba trade.
- ManabíDocumented as planted in this region, though plantings within a region are rarely uniform and material is frequently mixed. Manabí — A coastal Ecuadorian province with a long cacao history and a drier climate than the Guayas basin to the south.
- EsmeraldasDocumented as planted in this region, though plantings within a region are rarely uniform and material is frequently mixed. Esmeraldas — Ecuador's northern coastal province, wetter than Manabí and with a large Afro-Ecuadorian farming population.
History and culture
- Cacao in EcuadorThe population this record is the history of, and why pure examples are now rare.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- Geographic and Genetic Population Differentiation of the Amazonian Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao L.) — PLoS ONE, 2008(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)