The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is a Colombian mountain range just 50 miles from the Venezuelan border. The region is popular with visitors, in part thanks to the development of cultural tourism infrastructure centered around the indigenous Arhuaco peoples. Cacao from the Sierra Nevada region has become particularly famous thanks to farmers’ high degree of technical expertise— they’re even running their own pollination trials to improve quality and yields.

Criollo is the only one of those original three which has proven to be its own evolutionarily unique type. The clusters were finally identified in 2008 using hundreds of samples collected throughout the Americas over the previous century. With the least genetic diversity of the ten, criollo cacaos are the most predictable in terms of both appearance and flavor, as well as proper post-harvest protocol; they’re known to have a very chocolaty base flavor and little to no bitterness. Some criollos also show a light nuttiness or florality, but overall they’re prized for their mild flavor, and under-cultivated due to low yield. Criollo is the only genetic cluster found growing wild in the primary forests of Central America.