Factoid: There are more than 14000 known varieties of cacao broken into two main families (aka…

Factoid: There are more than 14000 known varieties of cacao broken into two main families (aka clusters or structure groups): Criollos and Forasteros. Most of these varieties are hybrids of these two clusters and are referred to as Trinitarios though not all originate on the island of Trinidad. Some, like Ecuadorian Nacional (sometimes called Arriba, which is not technically correct as Arriba is a Spanish word that means go, as in “go upriver to Vinces from the port of Guayaquil), belong entirely to the Forastero structure group.