Friis-Holm Chocolate Guide: How Turning Cacao Changes a Bar

October 12, 2026

Mikkel Friis-Holm is a Danish chef who became a chocolate maker, and one of his ideas fits in two bars. Both are made from the same type of Nicaraguan cacao, both are 70 percent, and both list the same three ingredients. The only difference the maker names is how many times the beans were turned while they fermented: twice for one, three times for the other. This guide covers the man, the Nicaraguan cacao he builds on, what "turning" does to a bean, and how to taste his bars so the difference is easy to find.

A few terms first. Cacao is the tree, its pods and the seeds inside them, called beans. Fermentation is the first step after harvest: the beans, still coated in the sweet white pulp of the pod, are piled into wooden boxes for several days while yeasts and bacteria feed on that pulp, giving off heat and acids that change the bean inside. Turning means mixing the fermenting pile of beans and pulp so that air gets in and the beans ferment more evenly. Percentage on a bar is the share of its weight that comes from the cacao bean (cocoa mass plus any added cocoa butter); the rest is mostly sugar, and in milk chocolate, milk.

The chef

Friis-Holm developed his passion for chocolate during his years as a chef, according to a profile by the drinks and food magazine Falstaff that the company republishes on its own site. In California he worked at the restaurants Rubicon and Chez Panisse, and there he met the chocolate makers John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg. The company's history page places him in San Francisco in the late 1990s and says the newly started Scharffenberger Chocolate sparked his interest in chocolate. According to the same history page, the company was founded on the wish to become one of the top three chocolate makers in the world, and its motto is "Best in the world, best for the world."

The chocolate came before the factory. From 2007 to 2013, the company says, its chocolate was produced at Bonnat, an old French chocolate maker in the Rhône region. In 2014 Friis-Holm Chocolate A/S was founded with the help of small investors and Vækstfonden, which the company describes as the Danish Structural Bank. Its factory page says the company opened its own factory in May 2015 in Herslev, just outside Roskilde, next to an organic farm brewery, and the history page says all of its chocolate has been made in Denmark since 2015. In 2023, the history page adds, the family behind Hansen Is (Hansen Ice Cream) joined him as owners.

Why Nicaragua

In 2007 Friis-Holm made contact with a large cacao project in Nicaragua backed by Danida, which the company describes as a Danish government-sponsored development organization. The project's idea, in the company's words, was that farmers should grow high-quality cacao in order to improve their income, and he worked closely with the farmers in it. The company calls the beans from those Nicaraguan farmers a core part of its business. Its ethics page says it deals with its growers directly, buys from independent farms ranging from small plots to large plantations, and pays far more than the market price.

Nicaragua is a small cacao country. In January 2015 the trade publication Confectionery News put its output at about 4,000 tonnes a year, under 0.3 percent of the world's supply, and reported that Friis-Holm was using cacao from Ingemann, a Nicaraguan bean supplier with Danish owners. Ingemann told the publication it collected cacao at the farm gate, passing by weekly with a truck full of fermentation boxes, so farmers did not have to worry about fermentation and drying.

Friis-Holm works by cacao type rather than by the old three-family system. His factory page says there are thousands of different cacao genetics and that the familiar split into Criollo, Trinitario and Forastero should be "put to rest," and that there is a huge difference in looks, smell and taste between varieties. His bars carry the names of cacao types, such as Chuno, O'Payo, Johe and Nicaliso. Falstaff's profile describes Johe as believed to be an ancestor of Venezuela's better-known Criollo, and says Nicaliso comes from northern Nicaragua.

What happens in the box

The company's factory page describes the fermentation in stages. Sugars in the pulp create ethanol (the alcohol in beer and wine), a lactic fermentation (the kind that sours yogurt) takes place inside the beans first, and then, once the mass is mixed, an acetic fermentation follows (acetic acid is the acid in vinegar). The beans usually ferment for five to six days, then are dried, sorted, packed in sacks and sent to the factory in Herslev. The Falstaff profile explains why the timing matters: too short and too much bitterness remains, too long and the flavor can drift toward blue cheese. It also says the beans ferment in boxes of one cubic meter, that temperature and pH (a measure of acidity) are measured regularly, that the beans are turned at different intervals, and that the company favors slow drying, which yields a more complex flavor.

Turning is the lever in that list. A 2021 study in the peer-reviewed journal Heliyon, by researchers who tested two turning schedules on Criollo cacao harvested in Chiapas, Mexico, describes turning as mixing the cocoa-pulp mass to even out its temperature and improve its oxygenation. One batch was first turned at 24 hours and the other at 48 hours, and both were then turned every 24 hours. The earlier-turned batch reached its peak temperature of 46.5 degrees Celsius (about 116 degrees Fahrenheit) at 48 hours, and the authors wrote that its greater oxygenation may have quickly stimulated the growth of acetic acid bacteria, microbes whose heat-releasing metabolism can push a fermenting pile above 45 degrees Celsius. The batch first turned at 48 hours developed a microbial profile dominated by yeasts. The two batches also formed different aroma compounds, and the authors concluded that the method of turning Criollo beans can lead to the formation of desirable aromatic compounds. In that study, when the turning began changed which microbes led, how hot the pile ran and which aromas formed. The cacao fermentation guide follows a box day by day.

Chuno, turned twice and three times

Chuno is the Nicaraguan cacao at the center of the experiment. The maker describes the Triple Turned bar as "a very unique chocolate made from one type/clone of cacao," and says the Double Turned uses the same cacao "fermented differently." In the Falstaff profile the difference is spelled out: one variant is turned twice during fermentation, the other three times. Both bars list cocoa beans, sugar and cocoa butter, with at least 70 percent cocoa solids.

Chuno Triple Turned, 70% (shop Friis-Holm Chuno Triple Turned). The maker says it releases its flavor very quickly, has a balanced acidity, and is a great beginner's chocolate for anyone unsure where to start. The Falstaff profile calls it soft, round and warm, with dark berry notes. Its product page describes a harmonious taste of cocoa and sweetness with notes of fruit.

Chuno Double Turned, 70%. The maker calls it a complex, medium-strong chocolate with a long and complex aftertaste, and one of its best-selling bars. The Falstaff profile describes more complexity with a hint of tannin, akin to red wine (tannins are the compounds behind the slightly drying grip of red wine).

The same variable runs through the rest of the range. Rugoso 70% Bad Fermentation takes its name, the maker says, from the fact that not all the beans turn brown during fermentation as they normally would, and it describes a bar with loads of flavor, good tannins and notes of baked plums that ages very well. Falstaff notes that the Rugoso beans have undergone a shorter fermentation, giving a more "wild" expression. The maker also sells a Madagascar 64% in fast-dried and slow-dried versions, the same kind of comparison applied to drying instead of turning.

La Dalia and the dark milks

The La Dalia series moves the experiment from the box to the recipe, running the same blend at 60, 70, 85 and 100 percent. Its subtitle, "The Lazy Cocoa Growers Blend," is a friendly joke: the maker says the bar is a mix of different sorts of cacao beans because the farmers, when asked to sort the beans by type, declined. The La Dalia 100% contains only cocoa beans and cocoa butter, which the maker describes as very acidic with a mineral character, and it won a gold medal in the Best 100% category at the International Chocolate Awards in 2023.

Dark Milk, 55% (shop Friis-Holm Dark Milk 55%). The maker calls this its very first milk chocolate, made as a dark milk chocolate (a milk chocolate with a high share of cacao, here at least 55 percent cocoa solids) from a blend of five sorts of cacao. The maker lists notes of caramel and cacao, and the bar took a gold medal at the 2023 International Chocolate Awards. Its product page describes a round taste of cocoa and sweetness with notes of toffee.

O'Payo Milk, 50% (shop Friis-Holm O'Payo Milk). The maker's classic milk chocolate, organic, in which the acidity and fruitiness of O'Payo cacao meet the richness of milk powder from Thise, an organic dairy in Denmark. The maker lists notes of honey and classic cream.

Filled Chocolate Cherry Box (shop the Friis-Holm cherry box). Eight pieces, 75 grams: traditional Danish sour cherries, called Stevnsbær, in a Frederiksdal cherry brandy creme, enrobed in Nicaraguan single-variety heirloom chocolate, according to its product page. The company's factory page says all its filled chocolates are made in a dedicated room at the factory, which it calls handmade specialties.

How to taste them

Start with the two Chuno bars, side by side, at room temperature, with water to drink between them. Taste the Triple Turned first: the maker says it releases its flavor quickly, so notice how soon the fruit arrives. Then the Double Turned, and wait for the finish, since the maker's description puts its interest in the long aftertaste. Let each piece melt on the tongue rather than chewing it. Because the cacao, the percentage and the ingredients match, the one difference the maker names, the turning, is the variable being tasted. The single-origin chocolate tasting guide covers the method in more detail.

Move next to the Dark Milk 55%, then the O'Payo Milk 50%, and finish with a cherry piece. For the steps that follow fermentation, from roasting to tempering, see the bean-to-bar process guide, and for what the number on the wrapper does and does not tell you, the chocolate percentage guide.

Flavor made on the farm

A chocolate factory shapes a bar through the roast, the conche (the long mixing that smooths chocolate) and the percentage. Friis-Holm's two Chuno bars point back to the fermentation box instead. Same type of cacao, same recipe, same Danish factory, and still two different chocolates, because the beans were turned a different number of times. Tasting the pair side by side shows that a bar's flavor starts on the farm, in a box of beans and pulp, days before the beans ever reach a chocolate maker. Explore the Friis-Holm collection.

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