Should We Talk About Specialty Chocolate?

In recent years, the concept of Specialty Coffee has moved beyond the niche circle of coffee enthusiasts and entered the mainstream, leading even major coffee brands to experiment with dedicated product lines.

But can we similarly talk about Specialty Cacao and Specialty Chocolate? To understand this, it might first be useful to clarify what "Specialty Coffee" actually means.

Specialty Coffee definition

Strictly speaking, for a coffee to be defined as Specialty Coffee, it must score a minimum of 80 out of 100 in a cupping session (a tasting conducted by certified tasters) organized by the SCA, the Specialty Coffee Association.

In practice, Specialty Coffees come from high-quality beans, sourced from plants cultivated using specific methods and processed according to precise standards to best preserve the raw material's aromatic characteristics.

In short, these are excellent coffees, free from significant defects, uniform from an organoleptic perspective, and with pronounced aromatic qualities. But there's more: Specialty Coffees typically represent a specific terroir and even a particular plantation, each with its own unique and recognizable character.

This doesn’t mean that Specialty Coffees will appeal to everyone. In fact, quite the opposite might be true: precisely because they are "non-standardized," they can exhibit very different characteristics—acidity, freshness, bitterness, sweetness—that some consumers may love while others may not. The key is to find the Specialty Coffee that best suits your personal taste.

Specialty Cacao & Specialty Chocolate: A Definition

That said, does it make sense to talk about Specialty Cacao? Yes and no.

There is (still) no such thing as Specialty Cacao in the strictest sense, as there is no certification similar to the SCA’s for cacao. However, that doesn’t mean that similar standards won’t be adopted in the future for this raw material, which shares many similarities with coffee.

In a broader sense, however, it absolutely makes sense to talk about Specialty Cacao—if the term is used to refer to chocolates made from the finest cacao beans, sourced from specific plantations or regions, processed at every stage according to high standards, and with prized aromatic characteristics that are preserved all the way to the finished chocolate bar.

Enrico Rizzi's Specialty Chocolate

Inside his Chocolate Factory, the bean-to-bar workshop set up in an 18th-century stable on Via Gian Giacomo Mora, in the heart of Milan, Italy, Enrico Rizzi is working precisely in this direction.

The cacao beans used for the single-origin chocolates (Grand Cru) produced in the Fabbrica del Cioccolato come from specific plantations around the world, selected for the excellence of their agronomic practices.

In some cases, these are exceptionally prized varieties, such as Porcelana or Chuao from Venezuela, as well as rare cacao types that are scarcely used by the chocolate industry, or particularly valuable hybrids.

After being dried and fermented at the plantation, these cacao beans are processed to the highest quality standards inside the Fabbrica del Cioccolato in Milan. There, they are delicately roasted, refined, and stone-ground for an extended period—sometimes up to 96 hours—to preserve and enhance all the distinctive aromas they contain.

Each of these Specialty Chocolate bars has its own unique character and well-defined aromatic profile. We invite you to taste them to discover your favorite and to visit the Fabbrica del Cioccolato during one of the many guided tours available throughout the week, where you can witness every stage of the cacao-making process firsthand.

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