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Chuao ~ Panko in Semisweet 60%

 

Another fun and unusual filled chocolate bar from Chuao Chocolatier. I loved the Milk Chocolate and Potato Chips bar. Crumbled salty chips broken up into a milk chocolate bar. As if you even need to ask if that would be good. It was amazing. 

Today we have panko. Japanese bread crumbs typically used for their fine texture and coating for breading and frying things.

 

Click to enlarge images.

 

 

 

 

Panko in Chocolate Bar

 

Type: Filled Semisweet, 60%

Varietal: Hybrid

Ingredients: Dark chocolate (cacao, sugar, cacao butter, soy lecithin, vanilla), panko (unbleached wheat flour, dextrose, yeast, salt), salt. 

Sample Size: 80g or 2.8oz

 

Appearance: Deep dark chocolate color, very dark brown, Shiny and beautiful bar with almost a glittery-like effect from the panko on the top of the surface. Monogrammed tablet, textured surface on the back with a well blended and filled bar. 

Score: 94

Snap: Deep, firm snap with fairly loud and crisp snap sound, crumbly break lines due to the panko. 

Score: 90

Aroma: Sweet, deep and hidden berry notes, pen ink, lightly smoky, roasted cacao and tobacco notes.  

Score: 90

Taste: Tangy acid notes, very fruity, big berries and sweet cacao, very small hits of salt. 

Score: 91

Texture: Smooth but very hard chocolate, a little waxy, medium melt time, very gritty panko crumbs but a nice crispy crunch. 

Score: 87

 

Beautiful looking bar. Nice shiny and unblemished surface with the panko on the top almost looking like glitter. Click the first picture in the set of the bars to see what I mean about that glittery effect. Cool surface on the back and proves that the bar is evenly distributed with panko crumbs. 

Good, very strong snap. I only scored it lower because of it's grit it leaves when snapped. That is of course, due to the panko, but I have to say it is one of the more messier bars when snapping a piece off. But the firmness of it and the sound was excellent. 

The aroma was kind of weak. It had all the hallmarks of big South American chocolate but it was so subdued. I wonder if the sugar content had something to do with that or if the panko crumbs stifled the aroma. But it did have berry notes, smoke, and tobacco. All trademarks I have come to know from Venezuelan beans.

A bit acidic in the first taste. Tangy and tart. Very sweet and sugary with big berry flavors. Not enough salt to handle the sugar content of this semisweet bar. The panko didn't have as much of a toasted taste as I wanted and pretty much just added a crispy texture and absorbed all the flavors of the chocolate. I found it to be too sweet over all. There simply wasn't enough salt for this bar. The sugars from the chocolate completely trumped the salt and panko. 

The panko ended up being a bit annoying for me in the end. It didn't add enough flavor, just a crispy texture that I did like, but then it ended up being gritty and kind of obnoxious as I was trying to focus on the finishing flavors but ended up rinsing my mouth to clear it of the crumbs. 

I think this is one of those bars that sounds good on paper but didn't come out as well as it could have. Put this on milk chocolate, and add more salt and you would have a winner despite the lingering grittypanko crumbs on the finish. The creaminess of the milk chocolate, the added creamy milk flavors and the salt would help tone down the acidity of the chocolate and the huge berry flavors and allow all the flavors to present themselves nicely. 

A milk chocolate would be a nicer melting chocolate as well. I get that you are supposed to bite into and crunch it up. But there was still a slight hard waxy texture to the chocolate. It should have been smoother and softer to accommodate or not get in the way of the crispy panko. 

 

Final Score: 90.4

  score
B+

 

Galler ~ Kaori

 

I have to preface this post by saying my customer service experience at Galler has changed. And when I say changed I mean it was a night and day difference in the attitudes of the people who work there. 

The first time I walked into Galler, in Central Place in Brussels, the woman behind the counter was rude, bored, and barely lifted a finger to help me. Offered no information about anything and it wasn't because of a language barrier. She spoke English and was completely rude. But that was last year. 

This year I was back in Belgium only this time I was in Bruges, when I found another Galler store. I reluctantly went in, but found an excellent shop person behind the counter. He not only talked to me, he went through every product, even let me sample some of the chocolates on his own prompting. He gave me a curry truffle and it was fantastic. Beautifully spiced, not over done and balanced well with milk chocolate. I was so happy and completely over the moon with the night and day difference in customer service. I even told him about what happened the last time I was in Belgium. He said no more. Galler had made it a point to focus more on customer service. This makes me wonder who else had issues in the past. But no matter, things have definitely changed and for the better. They have also taken a more hands on approach to the chocolate. When I went to buy the Kaori sets, he told me he just packaged them. They make and package certain things right there in the small stores now. Freshness is important. I couldn't be more pleased. 

 

Kaori: Perfume, scent, fragrance. 

"The Japanese call a beautiful calligraphy 'calligraphy with taste'. The emotion is in the movement and in the expression of what resonates within us." 

 

Chocolates: 

Saffron

Cardamon

Yuzu

Ginger

Vanilla and Coconut

Strawberry and Balsamic

 

Compositions: 

Orange and Cocoa Nibs

Matcha and Opium Poppy

Kalamansi

 

The idea is to take each flavored chocolate stick, which is kind of like a truffle or bon bon stick, and dip them into the flavor pots creating different flavor combinations. Unless you lick each chocolate before dipping, it doesn't work so well without the Kalamansi which is the pot that looks like honey. Kalamansi is an Asian citrus fruit with tangy, sour notes. 

The orange and nib pot is pretty flavorful with orange and slight tannins with the bitter cocoa nibs. The matcha and opium poppy pot is very earthy. 

 

The best flavor profiles: 

Vanilla and Coconut with the Kalamansi and Matcha and Opium Poppy.

Cardamom with Kalamansi and Orange and Cocoa Nibs.

Ginger with Kalamansi and Matcha and Opium Poppy.

Saffron with Kalamansi and Orange and Cocao Nibs.

Yuzu (so tangy and powerful in it's own right) works well with both. 

Strawberry and Balsamic with Matcha and Opium Poppy. 

 

This is a wonderful and unique tasting experience. The flavors and spices were perfect and the tasting cups were a fun and interesting mix and match set up. This is a perfect gift to bring over to a dinner party or to share with friends who really like tastings and flavors. For people who really appreciate this kind of thing. And no, I won't say foodies because I deeply hate the term and the obnoxious trends around it. This is for people who enjoy nice things. 

Really fun, really tasty, and a simple elegant design. You can sit around for ages reflecting on each flavor and each combination. Cardamon was my favorite stick flavor. The yuzu was my least favorite only because it's tanginess surpassed the other flavor combinations. Though it did work quite well with both, it was just a bit too tangy.

If you bring one of these over for a dinner party, you will be a big hit amongst your friends.  

**Forgive the appearance of the chocolate sticks. They suffered through some heat issues traveling back to the States with me. This was due to the aggravating situation at the Le Meridian Hotel in Brussels. They had no working a/c, only heat and it was dreadful and miserable for the one night staying there. It was the reason my Westvleteren 12 truffles had melted to ugly shapes. That's in another post. I expect other chocolates that I brought back in bar form to have the same issues. But the ashy appearance is due to that. When I opened one of the Kaori boxes on our beer boat cruise in Belgium, they were shiny and beautiful.