El Rey Chocolates
Aromatic & Flavorful Venezuelan Cacao
Founded in 1929, Chocolates El Rey is one of the oldest chocolate manufacturers in Venezuela. This family business has built its reputation on the principles of uncompromising quality, team effort and constant technological innovation. Try El Rey’s unique line of chocolate through World Wide Chocolate to see why they are one of our most popular brands.
Shop All El Rey Chocolate
Icoa 34% White Couverture Chocolate Discs
Flavorful & Fragrant
El Rey’s Icoa white chocolate is uniquely flavorful and fragrant, because the cacao butter has not been stripped clean of all favor and made uniform by extreme deodorization processes. With overtones of nut and caramel, Icoa is significantly less sweet than other white chocolates and tastes buttery and full in the mouth.
2012-2016 Gold Medal for Best White Chocolate in the World at the International Chocolate Awards
2017 Silver Medal for Best White Chocolate in the World at the International Chocolate Awards
Caoba 41% Milk Couverture Chocolate Discs
Smooth & Fluid
Caoba is a smooth and fluid dark milk chocolate with enticing cacao aroma and notes of caramel and nut. These flavors are the result of higher-than-normal cacao content, made with only premium Venezuelan cacao, among the highest of any milk chocolate on the market. Caoba melts easily and is recommended for all tempering applications. Bakers and pastry chefs can use for molding, enrobing, glazes, sorbet, or a light chocolate mousse.
Pair with a Muscat, Sweet Riesling, Sherry, Semillon or complex red wine like Bordeaux or Spanish Rioja
Medals at the International Chocolate Awards:
- 2015 Gold Medal – Best Milk Chocolate in the Americas
- 2016 Bronze Medal – Best Milk Chocolate in the Americas
- 2017 Silver Medal – Best Milk Chocolate in the Americas
Mijao 61% Dark Couverture Chocolate Discs
Flavorful & Fragrant
Mijao is a smooth dark chocolate that is neither too acidic or bitter. With hints of apricot and plum, Mijao is less sweet, very fluid, and has a silky mouthfeel produced by its high cacao butter content. Mijao is an all purpose dark chocolate that performs will in all applications, including tempering, where intense chocolate flavor is not desired. Use for tempering, shells, molds, ganache, bars, bark, etc. Works well for all confectionery applications.
Pair with Port or Sangiovese.
Apamate 73.5% Dark Couverture Chocolate Discs
Dark & Delicate
Apamate is a very smooth dark chocolate with a delicate fruity aroma, subtle acidity and a long, lingering flavor of premium cacao.
Despite being El Rey’s darkest chocolate, Apamate’s high cocoa butter content gives it much less perceived bitterness than many other dark chocolates. For bakers and pastry chefs, Apamate melts easily and is recommended for all applications.
Pair with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, or Zinfandels.
Master’s Blend 38% Couverture Chocolate Discs
A Special Reserve Blend
Special Reserve made from a blend of the finest cacao from our Barlovento and San Joaquin farms.
Moderately sweet, with hints of coffee and fruit.
Master’s Blend 70% Dark Couverture Chocolate Discs
With Fine Venezuelan Cacao
Special Reserve made from a blend of the finest cacao from our Barlovento and San Joaquin farms.
Moderately sweet, with hints of coffee and fruit.
Sur del Lago 70% Dark Couverture Chocolate Discs
High Quality with No Bitterness
Coming out of the Sur del Lago Maracaibo region, El Rey has mastered the processing of cacao into a 70% couverture. With strong chocolate notes and no bitterness, the Sur del Lago is a true testament to Venezuelan quality.
Bucare 58.5% Dark Chocolate
In a Couverture Disc & Baking Chip Format
Balanced to perfection to achieve a robust cacao aroma with pleasant overtones of fruit. It has great character, texture and a long, lingering mouthfeel. The name, “Bucare”, is taken from the many types of trees that have shaded the groves of cacao tress since the 1600’s. This is thicker than some of the other El Rey options as there is no added cocoa butter.
To understand why El Rey has been so successful for over 85 years and counting, we have to look at their choice of cocoa beans. El Rey Chocolate only uses fairly traded cacao beans direct from small and large-scale growers in Venezuela. These cocoa beans are grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers, and are fermented, sun dried and processed using state-of-the-art technology. According to those at the helm of chocolate El Rey Venezuela, “An exceptional chocolate starts with the land, but it takes the art and science of man and a long journey from plantation to glistening factory to turn a humble heap of cacao beans into a luscious chocolate bar.”
Browse our growing selection of El Rey Chocolates for single origin chocolate bars, chocolate blocks and chocolate discs. Chocolate discs can be used for endless baking recipes by novices, professional pastry chefs and chocolatiers. There are several varieties to choose from, based on your baking needs – from the bittersweet 58.5 percent Bucare all the way to the 70 percent Gran Saman. Bucare and 61 percent Mijao are great for savoring as is whenever you get a craving for velvety dark chocolate as well as for cooking, while Gran Saman and Apamate are favorites of bakers and pastry chefs for creating their many sweet treats.
In addition to creating fine chocolates, El Rey is dedicated to doing its part in remedying the inequities found in third world trade by establishing a democratically run cooperative managed by El Rey which pays above-market prices for its cacao beans. Their goal is to contribute to the bettering of the quality of life of current and future generations of Venezuelans.