Chumphon hosts the only research center about cacao in Thailand. We work closely with them as we are very involved in the development of the local cacao market.
This year they sent us 5 types of cacao pods from different species of trees they are developing so that we could make chocolate out of them and give them a feedback on the quality of the beans, and the result was quite promising !
Out of those 5, 2 types of beans really caught our attention with a good fat content and a very fine taste. Now it's on them to make the crop stable to be grown by the farmers in the country !
This is more important than it seems because the Thai market is still very young, and the variety of crops is limited to only a couple different species, limiting the potential of Thai cacao. With new crops coming in, the taste of Thai chocolate will evolve to broader taste spectrums.