In the early stages of the South American conquest, the Spaniards discovered a particularly fragrant strain of the cacao bean growing wild in the region south of Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo and throughout the tropical lowlands bordering the Caribbean on Venezuela’s northern coast.
Delicate and aromatic, this cacao tree traveled poorly. Attempts to transplant, what became known as the Criollo varietal, to plantations in the more populated regions of the country or abroad, invariably met with failure.
So, Venezuela became the only source for this special cacao. When Jose Rafael Zozaya and his father-in-law, Carmelo Tuozzo founded Tuozzo Zozaya & Cia in Caracas in 1929, it was the second chocolate company to be established in Venezuela.
There they turned out perhaps the finest chocolate made in Venezuela, which they proudly named “El Rey” — the King. Pride in their work, a solid reputation for quality and a faithful, expanding clientele helped them prosper and grow.
In 1973, the principals went public and began to orient the new company toward processing cocoa and exporting its high quality derivatives (liqueur, butter and powder) to the United States, Europe and Japan.
The world’s best chocolates have always depended on Venezuelan cacao beans to impart that extra touch of fragrance and aroma. So, in 1989, Chocolates El Rey decided to enter the global chocolate market by producing a chocolate using 100% Venezuelan cacao beans.
El Rey’s premium quality chocolate couvertures are manufactured with the famed Carenero bean, a single variety cacao grown in the north central region of Venezuela and exported for use by chefs and chocolatiers around the world.
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