Info & Resources
Guidelines, Forms & Resources
Here you can find downloads of all Cacao of Excellence documents and publications.
Guide for the Assessment of Cacao Quality and Flavour
This Guide offers precise instructions for the establishment of cacao processing and assessment facilities and the creation of sensory evaluation panels with a strong scientific and technical foundation. Its objective is to empower cacao producers, enabling them to enhance the quality of their cacao products. By equipping industry professionals with essential knowledge and tools, this guide seeks to strengthen capacity throughout the cacao value chain, with a particular emphasis on cacao-producing origins.
Guide for the Assessment of Cacao Quality and Flavour
Guía para la Evaluación de la Calidad y el Sabor del Cacao
Guide pour l'évaluation de la qualité et de la saveur du cacao
Glossary of Terms
The Cacao of Excellence Glossary of Terms is a collection of terms with definitions of flavour attributes and sub-attributes. This resource aids in understanding and assessing the intensity of flavours and the global quality of the product and helps ensure professionals use the same language and terminology when communicating and describing their cacao product.
Sensory Evaluation Form for Cacao Mass and Chocolate
This form is designed to record the flavour attributes and their intensity scores, global quality assessments, and any additional comments that may be useful for communication with the producers of the cacao bean samples and any users of the product.
Formulario de evaluación sensorial
Cacao of Excellence Flavour Wheel
The Cacao of Excellence Flavour Wheel tool provides a quick and comprehensive overview of a shared vocabulary for flavour attributes and their sub-attributes. It assists in standardising the terminology used during evaluations.
Cacao of Excellence Flavour Wheel
Cacao d'Excellence Roue des Saveurs
Research Poster 'Exploring Cacao Sensory Diversity: A Pathway to Sustainability, Differentiated Markets, and Improved Farmer' Livelihoods'
Download and discover Cacao of Excellence's research approach poster, based on the 2023 Cacao of Excellence Awards, evaluated 222 cacao samples from 52 cacao origins using standardised sensory evaluation protocols. Through data analysis – including k-means clustering and principal component analysis – Cacao of Excellence identified distinct flavour groups. These findings informed the development of our "Cacao Mass Diversity Kit," a set of 10 representative samples illustrating maximal flavour diversity for sensory training.
Cacao of Excellence 2023 Edition Feedback Report
This template report provides feedback to all participating cacao bean producers about the quality of the sample submitted. Providing individual feedback is a critical part of the Cacao of Excellence Awards process as it gives producers a unique opportunity to understand detailed results of the evaluation of their sample, and improve quality for future production.
- Feedback Report (Template) - ENGLISH
- Rapport d'évaluation (modèle) - FRANCAIS
- Informe de retroalimentación (plantilla) - ESPANOL
Cacao of Excellence Sensory Evaluation Excel Form
This form is designed to record the flavour attributes and their intensity scores, global quality assessments, and any additional comments that may be useful for communication with the producers of the cacao bean samples and any users of the product.
