Macallan Harmony Rich Cacao | Midnight Whiskey

The Macallan Harmony Collection Rich Cacao Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky — 2021 Inaugural Harmony Release, 88 Proof

Price

$239.95

✔ Authenticated by the house — seal, fill level, and label inspected before release
✔ Documented provenance on every bottle
✔ Climate-safe, collector-grade packaging

Age: NAS (Inaugural Limited Release) | Region: Speyside, Scotland | Proof: 88 Proof

Secure payments

Vault-to-door shipping

Adult signature (21+) at delivery

44%

ABV

Oct 2021

Released

Domestic release

Market

Speyside

Region

Polly Logan

Whisky Maker

None

Flavouring

The Macallan Harmony Collection Rich Cacao is the first release in the distillery's six-part Harmony series, bottled at 44% ABV in October 2021. Whisky Maker Polly Logan built it after working with pastry chef Jordi Roca at Casa Cacao in Girona. No chocolate went into it — Scotch Whisky Association rules forbid that — so every cacao note in the glass came from cask selection alone.

Nº 01

The Elemental Distinction

44% ABV. The first of six annual Harmony Collection releases, October 2021.

Created with Jordi Roca of El Celler de Can Roca, named World's Best Pastry Chef in 2018.

No chocolate is in it. SWA rules permit only water, yeast and malted barley — the cacao character is cask work.

Polly Logan studied chocolate-making at Casa Cacao in Girona before building the whisky.

Presented in packaging made from discarded cacao husks — the series premise.

The domestic release of Harmony I. Fine Cacao was its travel-retail counterpart.

Nº 02

Cask & Craft

Collection Rich Cacao

The Scotch Whisky Association regulations permit only water, malted barley and yeast in a single malt, with caramel colouring as the sole additive allowed. That rules out any direct route to a flavour brief like this one. Macallan's approach was to work backwards from the target: Whisky Maker Polly Logan spent time at Casa Cacao, Jordi Roca's hotel and chocolate factory in Girona, studying how chocolate is made and what gives it its character, and then selected casks whose influence would land in the same territory. The packaging carried the other half of the idea. The Harmony Collection premise is repurposing materials at the end of their life, and the Rich Cacao presentation used discarded cacao husk — a by-product of the chocolate industry rather than a decorative reference to it.

Nº 03

Cask & Packaging

What the release is built on

Market

Domestic release

Fine Cacao was the travel-retail edition of the same pairing.

Packaging

Sustainable packaging incorporating

Repurposed cacao husk material

Collaboration

Jordi Roca, El Celler de Can Roca and

Casa Cacao, Girona

Whisky Maker

Polly Logan

Nº 04

Sensory Profile & Strategy

Distiller notes & position

Sensory Profile

The constraint that defines it: Scotch single malt may contain only water, malted barley and yeast. A whisky built to taste of chocolate therefore has to arrive there through wood and spirit alone, which is a far harder brief than flavouring would be.
The published character: Macallan describes indulgent chocolate notes, and reviewers consistently place it as the rounded, cacao-forward end of the series. It remains the release most often named as the collection's best.
What is documented: 44% ABV, an October 2021 release, a collaboration with Jordi Roca, and the first entry in the Harmony Collection.

Strategic Position

Most flavour-themed whisky is theme applied to packaging. Harmony was built the other way round: the Scotch Whisky Association permits nothing in a single malt but water, malted barley and yeast, so Macallan could not add cacao to a whisky meant to evoke it. What the distillery could do was send its whisky maker to a chocolate factory, have her learn the craft, and then select casks to reach the same place by a different route. Whether that worked is the argument the whole collection rests on, and Rich Cacao is where it started. It sits among the Harmony Collection releases we hold, beside the travel-retail cacao counterpart.

Nº 05

Collector Note & Index

Vault provenance

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Collector Note

Rich Cacao is the entry point to a collection that has now closed, which changes how it should be read. Macallan ran Harmony for six annual releases and concluded it — so this is the first of a finite set rather than the first of an open series, and completing the collection is a defined task rather than an indefinite one. Two practical notes. Each release came as a pair, one domestic and one travel-retail exclusive, so a complete Harmony run is twelve bottles rather than six, and the travel-retail halves are materially harder to find outside airports. And be careful with listings: the series names are confusingly similar across releases, with Rich Cacao and Fine Cacao, Intense and Smooth Arabica, Amber and Green Meadow, Vibrant and Guardian Oak all arriving in pairs. Check the full name, not the theme.

→

How to Taste It

Taste it against a standard Macallan at similar strength before deciding whether the concept works. The interesting question is not whether it tastes of chocolate — that framing does the whisky no favours and sets up a test it cannot pass. The question is whether the cask selection produced something recognisably different from the house style while remaining Macallan, which is what the brief actually was. At 44% there is no heat to negotiate and no dilution needed. If you have any of the later Harmony releases, pour this first: it is the reference the other five were built against.

Collector IndexMW VAULT

Distillery: The Macallan, Craigellachie, Moray
Class: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Collection: The Harmony Collection
Released: October 2021
ABV: 44%
Market: Domestic release
Whisky Maker: Polly Logan

Nº 06

Technical Specifications

Specification	Detail
Class	Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Collection	The Harmony Collection — first release, Harmony I
Released	October 2021
ABV	44%
Collaboration	Jordi Roca, El Celler de Can Roca and Casa Cacao, Girona
Whisky Maker	Polly Logan
Market	Domestic release. Fine Cacao was the travel-retail edition of the same pairing.
Flavouring	None. Scotch single malt may contain only water, malted barley and yeast.
Packaging	Sustainable packaging incorporating repurposed cacao husk material
Region	Speyside
Distillery	The Macallan, Craigellachie, Moray
Brand owner	Edrington

Nº 07

Records & Assurance

Authentication & Vault Preservation

Every bottle sold through Midnight Whiskey is sourced as an authentic, sealed product and inspected before it ships. Orders are packed with padded, glass-rated handling and require an adult signature (21+) on delivery; we do not ship to anyone unable to verify legal drinking age. For our full sourcing and handling protocols, see our editorial and authentication standards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Macallan Rich Cacao contain chocolate?

No. Scotch Whisky Association regulations permit only water, malted barley and yeast in a single malt Scotch, with caramel colouring the sole permitted additive, so no chocolate or flavouring of any kind can be added. The cacao character comes entirely from cask selection. Whisky Maker Polly Logan developed it after studying chocolate-making with Jordi Roca at Casa Cacao in Girona.

What ABV is Macallan Harmony Collection Rich Cacao?

44% ABV. It was released in October 2021 as the first entry in The Macallan's Harmony Collection, alongside Fine Cacao, the travel-retail edition of the same pairing, which was bottled at 40%.

How many releases are in The Macallan Harmony Collection?

Six annual releases, each issued as a pair of expressions — one domestic and one travel-retail exclusive. The themes ran cacao, arabica coffee, meadow, oak, tea and coconut, beginning with Rich Cacao and Fine Cacao in 2021. Macallan has confirmed the coconut pairing as the final release, so the collection is a closed set of twelve expressions.

Midnight Whiskey · The Vault Collection Rich Cacao

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