What is the name of the dark, chocolate-based mole from Oaxaca?

The dark, chocolate-based mole from Oaxaca is mole negro. It is the best-known of Oaxaca’s major mole styles, a complex sauce whose deep color comes primarily from carefully toasted chiles and other ingredients rather than from chocolate alone.

Recipes vary substantially, but mole negro may include several kinds of dried chile, plantain, onion, tomato, tomatillo, spices, nuts, sesame, tortillas, avocado leaves, and chocolate. Depending on the cook, the ingredient list can contain more than 20 components. The ingredients are toasted, fried, ground, blended, and simmered into a thick sauce.

Chocolate adds bitterness, aroma, and a gentle sweetness, but mole negro is not simply a chocolate sauce. That is a common misconception. Oaxaca is often called the “land of the seven moles,” with mole amarillo, verde, rojo, coloradito, chichilo, and manchamanteles among the other celebrated varieties. Their names describe different colors, chile combinations, and flavor profiles, so mole verde or mole rojo is not a substitute answer for this question.