What are the main cacao varieties of Peru?

The main groups are Criollo, Forastero, Trinitario and Nacional. Peru also has named regional cacaos such as Blanco de Piura, Chuncho from Cusco and Cacao Amazonas Perú, and widely planted clones such as ICS-95 and CCN-51.

How many genetic groups of cacao are there?

14 are known today. Ten genetic groups were defined in 2008, and in July 2026 a study published in PLOS One identified four new lineages in Peru: Awajún, Porcelana, Chuncho 1 and Chuncho 2.

What is Blanco de Piura cacao?

It is a native cacao from Peru's northern coast with white beans, highly sought after by gourmet chocolate makers. It has been rescued in Piura since 2009, is different from Venezuela's Porcelana Criollo, and in 2026 was recognized as its own genetic lineage.

What is CCN-51 cacao?

It is a clone from Ecuador, a descendant of ICS-95, that spread widely thanks to its high yield. According to a 2026 study, 45% of its ancestry comes from the Peruvian Awajún lineage.

Cacao · Origin

Peruvian Cacao Varieties: A Quick Guide

Fundo Maranatha · October 2026 · 5 min read

Three opened pods of different cacao varieties with their beans, at Fundo Maranatha

Peru has one of the richest cacao diversities in the world. That's no accident: the oldest known use of cacao, about 5,300 years ago, is in the upper Amazon, very close to our border. Several of its genetic groups are named after places in the Peruvian Amazon (Marañón, Nanay, Iquitos, Contamana and Purús), and in 2026 four new lineages were discovered in Peru. This short guide to Peru's cacao varieties helps you understand which cacao you're buying. Learn more in our history of cacao in Peru.

14known genetic groups of cacao; 4 were discovered in Peru in 2026

75%of Peru's cacao exports are fine flavor (ICCO, 2024)

73cultivars described in Peru's cacao catalog (Ministry of Agriculture)

342cacao accessions in INIA's germplasm banks

What is a cacao “variety”?

On the farm you'll hear about Criollo, Forastero or Trinitario, and also codes like ICS-95 or CCN-51. They're different things. The first are groups of cacao with a shared origin. The second are clones: an outstanding tree that is selected and multiplied by grafting, so every “copy” bears the same fruit.

Today researchers classify cacao by its DNA. Ten genetic groups were defined in 2008, and in 2026 a study added four more, all of them Peruvian: there are now 14. Even so, the traditional names are still the most common way to talk about flavor and markets.

Here are some of the fine-flavor pods from our farm. You can tell varieties apart by the color, shape and roughness of the husk, the same traits catalogs use to identify each cacao.

Fine-flavor Trinitario hybrid – Fundo Maranatha — Fine-flavor Trinitario hybrid

Amelonado-type pod – Fundo Maranatha — Amelonado-type pod

Fine-flavor Criollo/hybrid – Fundo Maranatha — Fine-flavor Criollo/hybrid

Freshly opened pod: pulp and beans – Fundo Maranatha — Freshly opened pod: pulp and beans

Freshly harvested Trinitario – Fundo Maranatha — Freshly harvested Trinitario

Fine-flavor hybrid loaded with pods – Fundo Maranatha — Fine-flavor hybrid loaded with pods

The main groups, in a nutshell

🤍 Criollo The most delicate: pale beans and a mild flavor. Low-yielding and disease-sensitive, which is why it's scarce.

🌳 Forastero The Amazonian cacao, hardy and productive. Much of Peru's native cacao used to be grouped under this name.

🔀 Trinitario A Criollo × Forastero cross born in Trinidad. It combines yield and aroma; the ICS clones come from here.

🌺 Nacional Of Ecuadorian origin and famous for its aroma. It's the base of clones such as the EET series.

A useful detail: in Peru, people often call any traditional local cacao “criollo”, even when it isn't genetically Criollo. That's why technical documents put the word in quotation marks.

New in 2026: four new lineages from Peru

In July 2026, researchers from the Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza (Amazonas) and the University of the West Indies (Trinidad) analyzed the DNA of 390 native cacao trees from eight regions of Peru, San Martín included. They found four previously unknown lineages:

Awajún: named after the Awajún communities of Amazonas.
Porcelana: the white-bean cacao of Piura.
Chuncho 1 and Chuncho 2: the native cacaos of Cusco and Ayacucho.

The study also showed that each region keeps its own genetic makeup, and that at least 13 of the 14 groups grow in Amazonas.

Peruvian cacaos with their own name

Cacao · region	What makes it special
Blanco de PiuraPiura (Morropón, Huancabamba)	White beans, highly sought after by gourmet chocolate makers. Rescued since 2009, it is different from Venezuela's Porcelana Criollo and was recognized as its own lineage in 2026. There are already 8 clones yielding over 1,500 kg/ha with 100% white beans.
ChunchoCusco (La Convención) and VRAEM	An ancestral native race with pods in many shapes: elliptical, round or oblong. In 2026 it was identified as two lineages of its own.
Cacao Amazonas PerúBagua and Utcubamba (Amazonas)	Holds a designation of origin, and Amazonas is the region with the most native cacao lineages. From 136 promising trees, 10 clones were chosen for yield, health and flavor.
VRAE clones (CMP)VRAEM (Ayacucho and Cusco)	Agronomist Mendis Paredes evaluated 1,500 mother trees and kept the best 100 in clonal gardens.
Pangoa selectionsSatipo (Junín)	13 elite trees chosen for yield (up to 3 t/ha), quality and pest tolerance.
Ucayali aromaticsNeshuya (Ucayali)	Aromatic clones from the Colpa de Loros cooperative, yielding over 1 t/ha, as an alternative to CCN-51.

ICS-95 and CCN-51: two clones you'll hear about a lot

ICS-95 is a Trinitario clone selected in Trinidad (ICS stands for Imperial College Selection). CCN-51 was born in Ecuador and is one of its descendants: its pedigree is (IMC-67 × ICS-95) × an unknown Forastero.

CCN-51 became popular for its yield: in the Ministry of Agriculture catalog it produces about 2,760 kg/ha, among the highest. In 2008 it covered 84% of San Martín's cacao area. Since then, many cooperatives have gone back to aromatic cacaos, which are what fine chocolate makers ask for. Today San Martín is the country's top producing region: together with Junín, Ucayali, Huánuco and Cusco it accounts for 86% of Peru's cacao (Ministry of Agriculture, 2024).

💡 Two fun facts: the ICS-95 we grow at Fundo Maranatha is one of the “parents” of CCN-51. And according to the 2026 study, 45% of CCN-51's ancestry comes from the Peruvian Awajún lineage.

What's next: new varieties

Peru's agricultural research institute (INIA) keeps 342 cacao accessions in germplasm banks in Amazonas, Loreto and the VRAEM, and has already identified five that bear more pods of good weight. It hopes to use them to release new varieties with high yield, pest tolerance and good aroma.

Which cacao do we grow at Fundo Maranatha?

On our farm in San José de Sisa (San Martín), at 450–600 m altitude, we grow fine-flavor Criollo/hybrid and ICS-95, plus a conventional variety. Our products are an artisan blend of all three, fermented in wooden boxes and sun-dried on raised beds.

Hybrid cacao tree loaded with pods at Fundo Maranatha

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Want to know more? Read what fine flavor cacao is and why San Martín is Peru's cacao capital.

Sources

García Carrión, L. F. (2010). Catálogo de cultivares de cacao del Perú. Ministry of Agriculture – DEVIDA. midagri.gob.pe
Lastra, S. and Thomas, E. (eds.) (2022). Catálogo de cacaos del Perú. Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. cacaodiversity.org
Motamayor, J. C. et al. (2008). Geographic and genetic population differentiation of the Amazonian chocolate tree (Theobroma cacao L.). PLoS ONE 3(10): e3311.
Motilal, L. A., Calderón, M. S., Bustamante, D. E. et al. (2026). Genetic structure of traditional cacao reveals four new genetic lineages in indigenous Amazonian sites in Peru. PLoS ONE 21(7): e0351690. journals.plos.org
Zarrillo, S. et al. (2018). The use and domestication of Theobroma cacao during the mid-Holocene in the upper Amazon. Nature Ecology & Evolution 2: 1879–1888.
ICCO (2024). Revision of Annex “C” of the International Cocoa Agreement: fine or flavour cocoa exporters. icco.org
Ministry of Agriculture of Peru (2024). Midagri impulsa cadena productiva del cacao. Andina news agency, 18 July 2024. andina.pe
INIA conserva la calidad genética de 342 accesiones de cacao. Agraria.pe, 2 October 2025. agraria.pe