The legendary Ecuadoriancacao variety called “Nacional” traces its genetic lineage back to thefirst-known cacao trees domesticated by humanity, about 5,300 years ago. Afterachieving global fame in the nineteenth century, the variety was nearly lost inthe twentieth century. As recently as 2009, pure Nacional cacao was believed tobe extinct. In the valley of Piedra de Plata we found one of the last survivinggroves of 100% pure Nacional cacao—which geneticists refer to as AncientNacional.
This article takes a deep dive into the history of Nacional cacao and a closer look at its complicated genetic status today. It discusses the difference between 100% pure Nacional, which is currently on the brink of extinction, versus the relatively more common Nacional hybrids, which are also in rapid decline. The article also introduces the work we're doing to keep this hallowed cacao variety alive and usher forth a new era of heirloom Nacional cacao in Ecuador.
The earliest evidence of cacao used by humanity dates back to 3300 BC in Ecuador, in the area now called Zamora Chinchipe.[1] From this general area it is believed that cacao then migrated to coastal Ecuador and presumably traveled northward as far as Mexico. [2] The broader pre-Colombian migration pattern of cacao is still not fully understood and is beyond the scope of this present article. My intention here is to focus specifically on the past, present, and future of the cacao variety that is now known as "Ancient Nacional.“
As cacao acclimated to diverse localities throughout the Americas, distinct varieties began to form on the genetic family tree. For most of the 20th century, cacao was roughly divided into three overly-expansive genetic groups: Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario. In 2008, Juan Carlos Motamayor classified cacao into ten genetic clusters. Motamayor’s system is “a new classification of cacao germplasm into ten majorclusters, or groups” which “maintains the terms used to identify the traditional cultivars Amelonado, Criollo, and Nacional, and separates highly differentiated populations within what was previously classified as the Forastero genetic group.
It is safe to say that Nacional is the most storied of the world’s cacao varieties. It is also the most enigmatic. Until recently, there was no consensus as to its origins. In2012, a study by Loor Solorzano effectively conducted a paternity analysis of Nacional cacao. It compared the genetics of Nacional cacao trees from coastal Ecuador to169 wild and cultivated cacao accessions from throughout South and Central America. The highest genetic similarity was found between Nacional cacao and wild cacao genotypes from the same area in Ecuador believed to be the origin of cacao, in Zamora Chinchipe. The results of this study thus suggest that Nacional cacao is the direct descendent of the earliest known cacao trees used by humanity.
The prevailing hypothesis is that traders transported the ancestors of Nacional cacao from the upper Amazonian forests near Zamora Chinchipe to the upper Guayas River basin, in coastal Ecuador, during ancient times. Loor Solarzano also suggests the probability that the genetic divergence of Nacional cacao was the result of selection pressure in favor of its characteristic aroma. “From this standpoint, the specific aromatic flavour of chocolate produced from Nacional cocoa beans, which can already be detected on the bean pulp, even without a fermentationstep, could have been one of the criteria used by the primitive human communities to choose the cocoa mother tree for further seed sowing. Indeed, itis possible that travelling merchants transporting cocoa pods along the roads used the fresh pulp only for their own refreshment and nutrition, but without consuming the cocoa beans, thereby introducing the cocoa tree into a new environment.”
