Ultimately Mandy’s Cacao is on its own, her handling of what could have been a difficult and generic theme is transformed by the halo of chocolate and vanilla thrilled alcohol base....a swooning marriage of both grandiflorum and sambac blooms offset by the sweeter citrus tones of pink grapefruit and a noticeable dash of sanguineous blood orange at the top.
-- @ScentofElegance

Cacao offers up a direct line to the inner child in an impossibly sophisticated manner. I am able to converse with her while my feet are still firmly planted in adulthood. A really good perfume can do that, it is an emotional and psychological bridge to another time in your life… Mandy seems to work her own personal brand of voodoo, and while I would never dare ask her secrets, I will always be there to enthusiastically devour the spoils. For Mandy Aftel, the Marie Laveau of natural perfumery, mystery abounds and sometimes, things are not quite what you think they are. They're better.
-- Eyeliner On a Cat

For the girl who’d like to smell as good as she bakes.
-- Bon Appétit

Cacao is sultry, earthy and intriguing, with dominant notes of chocolate, blood orange and jasmine. Mandy sources cacao beans from a top local chocolatier and steeps them with vanilla pods in pure corn alcohol for months. The intensely fragrant tincture is then blended with other ingredients.
-- Good Magazine

The transition from chocolate petit fours to the sensuality of a summer night of one's younger days happens almost suddenly. One minute you're all cozy and dreamy and the next the citrus notes are more prominent, almost like orange blossom--- no! it's jasmine, and a very fine one.
-- The Non-Blonde

Blood orange. Grapefruit. Jasmine. Vanilla. Chocolate. It seems so simple. I'm sure it wasn't simple at all. If it were truly simple, it would have been done this well before. It hasn't been. Cacao is one-of-a-kind. Truly masterful. This is a gourmand I'll wear. A lot.
-- This Blog Really Stinks (A Perfume Blog!)

Cacao is one of my favorite perfumes, and I travel with the mini, so wearing it transports me especially, to a cement room in a 12th-century house in rural France; a hot-rock beach in summertime Nice; and a pine-strewn Pacific Northwest forest, clouds heavy with rain. I'd love to own the Cacao EDP one day, spray myself silly with it, dab a bit of the perfume on my wrists, put on a little ISUN lip balm, and take myself out into the world smelling like some of the happiest days I can remember (and like cocoa and blood orange and jasmine, too).
-- Nosy Girl

Cacao is a marvel of a perfume, not only for the dedication to craftsmanship and the concept of chocolate that waiting a full year for an alcohol base implies, but also for the way it opens with a bright, trumpeting, clarion call of citrus – blood orange and pink grapefruit.
-- The Alembicated Genie

As the name suggests, this perfume has a base of cocoa beans expertly blended by renowned perfumier Mandy Aftel with Tahitian vanilla beans for a scent reminiscent of a gourmet chocolate-vanilla swirl. Heralded for its complex and seemingly disparate notes, the scent then travels towards citrus with a lush jasmine, tinged with notes of blood orange and pink grapefruit.
-- Northern Virginia Magazine

My scent choice would be Cacao, an intoxicating and decadent blend of tinctured cocoa beans, Tahitian vanilla, blood orange, pink grapefruit and a luxurious combination of jasmines Sambac and Grandiflorum.
-- Pink Manhatten

The scent of Cacao is spot-on! The strong scent of Cocoa blended with the Vanilla note creates an echanting effect. After the Cocoa lip balms. body creams, and lip glosses, I now have a Cocoa perfume. Cocoa galore! ;) It's an explosion of aromas and I didn't get any headaches despite the richness of the scents. Aftelier perfumes add a touch of luxury and well-being.
-- Smells Like a Green Spirit