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Vintage Plantations ~ 65% Dark

 

 

Vintage Plantations

New product alert for me. And thank god it's a company who likes to include all the information. I can't tell you how amazing it is to be able to click on a product and have all of the information there. No one has beaten the level of information Taza Chocolate provides, but this is pretty good information here. 

 

About: 

Unlike most chocolates made in Ecuador, Columbia, or Venezuela that tout themselves as “Farmer’s chocolates,” Vintage Plantations is an independent company. Not having to satisfy outside investors allows us to prioritize the quality of our products over the size of the bottom line.

The Mission: To support the small chocolate industry in countries where the chocolate originates by re-designing the cocoa commodity chain, thereby aiding farmers to adopt better farm management practices, protect the environment, ensure crops are free of harmful chemicals, and maximize their income in order to encourage the farmers’ optimal re-investment in the development of high-quality chocolate. The post-harvest cocoa processing is done in the country of origin, hence our seal (P.I.C.O. – Produced In Country of Origin) and we minimize the carbon footprint by eliminating unnecessary shipping.

The Challenge: We make chocolate in cooperation only with entities willing to follow the Rainforest Alliance Guidelines, and we train them to achieve very high standards of quality. We only support small farmers and league with local small enterprises in both Ecuador and the USA for all services needed to run our company.

We selected among three roasters to find the Ecuadorian partner which had the finest equipment to convert all the work we had done on fermentation into a ground liquor without losing any of the organoleptic qualities we had so carefully developed during cocoa bean fermentations. Since we have established this process for creating very high quality chocolates, we are proud to say that 17 new chocolate companies have sprung up in Ecuador, Venezuela, and Columbia following our footsteps. Vintage Plantations pioneered the renewal of artisan, batch chocolate making.

We have reconfigured chocolate making — from beans to bars — by requiring best farming and business practices in accordance with the Rainforest Alliance Guidelines. Moreover, we strive to balance the profit at every stage of the commodity chain between farmer and consumer, in order to make it more sustainable for all actors, thereby bringing added value to the chocolate in your hand.

The Result: Our model aims to protect you, the consumer, from the degradation of chocolate quality that is often the consequence of the single-minded pursuit of meeting “profit benchmarks” in major confectionery and chocolate industrial groups. Our products are made only from fermented, native original Vintage cocoa beans and honor the local flavor of the plantations, each harvest, and the distinctiveness of beans from one farm to another.

In order to get back to the vintage chocolate process of yesteryears, we had to design a new commodity chain, where only parties contributing to enhancing the quality of the end product were invited to join; those merely seeking profit from the current market imbalances were left out. The savings derived from circumventing the usual players were passed along to the farmer and re-invested in the development of the farms.

At Vintage Plantations, we have the unique perspective of having forged this standard of chocolate making from beginning, including several trials and unsuccessful partnerships from which we have been able to perfect and further develop our process. The end result, we are proud to say, is the first chocolate made with the farmer, offering you a“Vintage” chocolate of the highest quality.

 

Click the About link to find out more about their history and the Rainforest Alliance.

 

Product details: 

65% Vintage Plantations Dark Chocolate Bar (3.5oz/100g), Rainforest Alliance Certified, Sustainable Cocoa Program.

Made of 100% shaded Ecuadorian cocoa varietal "Nacional" – a classified "fine flavor cocoa". Its flavor is smooth, nutty, with a long dominant chocolate note and no bitterness or acidity. To transmit the purest flavor, we did not add any vegetable fat nor vanilla covering aroma. Our chocolate bars have a high content of cocoa solids, less cocoa butter fat and a lower glycemic index. The cocoa beans are roasted slowly to preserve the high antioxidant levels of pure cocoa.

Vintage Plantations' mission is to safeguard heirloom cocoa varietals, encourage sustainable shade cocoa cultivation methods preserving the rain forest, and guarantee a fair price for cacao farmers.

This project is the coordinated effort of Vintage Plantations with the Rainforest Alliance, a conservation organization dedicated to implement better business practices for biodiversity, conservation and sustainability and “Conservacion y Desarrollo,” the Rainforest Alliance’s partner in Ecuador which audits the sustainable cocoa certification program. Vintage Plantations develops the chocolate and guarantees heirloom traceability from the farmer to you. Together we plan to protect the shaded Cocoa plantations.

By buying our bars, you support the farmers directly, help preserve shaded native cocoa varietal in Ecuador and safeguard the Ecuadorian rain forest.

Additional Information

Product Weight	3.5 oz. / 100 g
Sugar-Free	No
Vegan	Yes
Gluten-Free	Yes
No Added Aroma(s)	Yes
Soy Lecithin Free	No
Certified by the Rainforest Alliance	Yes
Chemical-Free	Yes

 

 

As mentioned in another review, I have to preface this review with the unusual circumstances this bar found itself in. I reviewed this last year, or took pictures and notes on it and put the notes away until now. This bar has a very slight appearance of bloom appearance because I found this bar hiding in a drawer. While it was far from expired or past it's prime, the storage conditions were not exactly optimal. Having said that, this bar has held up remarkably well. Stored in plastic, it has upheld an amazing aroma and still has a very glossy surface. Just some slight beginnings of dusting and some superficial plastic matting marks. For the sake of honest reviewing I am informing my readers of a mistake in storage. Although it really hasn't effected this bar in any serious sort of way, I will not be deducting points for the presence of slight bloom. 

 

65% Dark

 

Type: Bittersweet, 65%

Bean Varietal: Nacional

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, raw cane sugar, soy lecithin.

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

 

Appearance: Simple non-monogrammed tablet, glossy finish, deep rich brown color, almost a hint of particle detection in the surface, minor scuffs and plastic wrapper matting on the surface and some slight beginnings of sugar bloom. 

Score: 89

Snap: Good firm snap, dull and low thud snapping sound, moderately clean break lines. 

Score: 90

Aroma: Big full robust aroma, very perfume-y. Right out of the package it smelled like rich cream and butter, almonds, coconuts, and deep red wine aromas. After it aired out a bit it still maintained a big aroma and became more floral and soft. The snap gave way to some added red wine aromas. 

Score: 94

Taste: Sweet, earthy, flowery, fruity, coconuts, nutty, wood, deep bitters, no astringency, a little bit oak-y and flowery jasmine at the same time on the finish through retro-olfaction, some clean laundry-like flavors, hints of coffee, lingering pen ink and wood flavors.

Score: 96

Texture: Smooth and glossy surface, a little chewy, creamy, medium melt-time, drying effect on the palate.

Score: 91

 

A lot to think about with this chocolate. Some minor surface issues, and a medium snap quality aside, the aroma was huge and so was the flavor on this bar. The ingredients claim no added aromas or vanilla. Very complex aroma with deep red wine aromas, and a creamy butter aroma right out of the package. Hugely floral, with some coconut and almonds and nicely roasted cacao.

But the taste was complex. So much going there. Deep, rich wood flavors, complexly bitter, no astringency, and wonderful earthy coconut and nutty flavors mixed with clean flowery jasmine and perfumed clean laundry flavors. I know that sounds weird, but if you have ever smelled your dryer exhaust with big scented dryer sheets in there, then you know what I am talking about. Some interesting hints at the end of coffee and pen ink to round it out and complete a bizarre range of almost all flavors of South American Beans. All that's missing is the overly charred coastal region flavors. 

Very complex and complicated flavors. I liked this quite a bit. The only thing I didn't care for was that drying effect once again. It's becoming a hallmark of Nacional beans. I don't know if anyone else notices it, but I am really not a fan of it. The other textures of the chocolate were just fine though. It wasn't rock hard, it wasn't waxy and it wasn't too soft. It melted just slow enough to really sit back and think about this chocolate and allow each one of it's bold characters to come out. 

 

Final Score: 92

  score
B+

 

Artisan du Chocolat ~ Vietnam 72% Limited Edition

 

 

 

**Archived Notes

 

Finally an origin that I am not that familiar with. Sometimes there is a game to find new regions or unexploited regions for cocoa growing and be different or a step ahead of the curve. I am not against this race. It's a win win for chocolate lovers. "Why no, I haven't had a bar of chocolate with beans grown in Vietnam. Do tell." 

 

[Image Via Infoplease]

 

Via their website:

In Vietnam, small entrepreneurial farmers are remaking cocoa history by successfully farming fine cocoa commercially for the first time since the French period (late 19th century), making this batch of ground cocoa beans a precious and rare find. We chose well fermented and dried beans that morph into a silky chocolate with notes of raisin and oats. Surprisingly mellow at the start, this chocolate melts with a long and slightly peppery bitter finish. We meticulously select our raw ingredients for their flavour and wholesomeness: carefully fermented ground criollo and trinitario beans from chosen regions, pure cocoa butter and cane sugar. We mix, conche and refine each batch in our production in Kent. We make our own chocolate with love, devotion and the sole intent to bring you great chocolate
• Weight (e) 45g
• Shelf life 3 months
• Cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin
• Contains soya. May contain traces of nuts, sesame, milk and gluten.

 

 

 

I have to preface this review with the unusual circumstances this bar found itself in. I reviewed this last year, or took pictures and notes on it and put the notes away until now. This bar has a dusty, dry sugar bloom appearance because I found this bar hiding in a drawer. While it was far from expired or past it's prime, the storage conditions were not exactly optimal. Having said that, this bar has held up remarkably well. Just some light dusting but a really great surface despite that. And being stored in plastic, it retained and held on to an insanely good aroma. But for the sake of fairness to anyone reading this, I must note at all times when the mistake was mine. The mistake here was not knowing a few bars got left in a drawer and I won't be deducting points on the appearance for that.

 

Vietnam 72%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 72%

Bean Varietal: Criollo and Trinitario blend.

Ingredients: Cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, and soy lecithin. 

Sample size: 45g or 1.59oz

 

Appearance: Deep dark brown color, simple and light non-monogrammed molding, slight surface particles, relatively smooth surface, sugar bloom. 

Score: 91

Snap: Light but very firm snap, crisp snapping sound, moderately clean break lines. 

Score: 91

Aroma: Big full aroma of coconuts, roasted cacao, coffee, very creamy and nutty, and very slight hints of cinnamon.

Score: 95

Taste: Sweet, lightly tangy and acidic, small hints of cinnamon, cereal grains, raisins, slight hints of strawberries, pepper on the finish.

Score: 94

Texture: Smooth, creamy, medium melt-time, slightly drying finish.

Score: 92

 

Really nice bar of chocolate. Very fun and interesting. Aside from the bloom, the bar of chocolate was in really great shape. The aroma was amazing. Not overly complicated just straight forward and full. Good snap quality too for a relatively light or thin bar of chocolate on the molding. 

The taste was layered and deep. it was sweet with some slight hints of cinnamon and depp raisins with a light strawberry taste. I loved the cereal grains in the middle of the taste, and the finish was just as the package describes with a long finish of pepper. There was also a slight soapy perfume taste in the finish but very faint. Nice and complicated. 

So, even though I inadvertently ruined it's appearance, this bar held up so well. I enjoyed it's complexities in its flavors but bluntness in it's aroma. This would be a fun bar of chocolate to take to some friends and sit around and talk about it. Chocolate geek chocolate. The kind that sit there with a pad and pen and write notes while they preform retro-olfaction and nod their heads at one and other and furrow their eyebrows in silent agreement as if they figured out some long lost secret. 

 

Final Score: 92.6

  score
B+

 

The Grenada Chocolate Co. ~ Nib-A-Licious 60%

 

 

 

**Archived Notes

 

The Grenada Chocolate Co.

The Grenada Chocolate Company Ltd. was founded in 1999 with the idea of creating an Organic Cocoa Farmers' and Chocolate-Makers' Cooperative. We produce high quality Organic dark chocolate in Grenada with our world famous cocoa beans. Our factory is nestled in lush cocoa groves in Grenada's pristine rainforest.

Our award-winning organic dark chocolate has the wonderful complex flavor of Grenada's fine-flavored organic cocoa beans, processed carefully in small batches. Producing chocolate right where the cocoa grows allows us to do our own fermenting which gives us a real advantage in creating the finest, most complex taste from the beans.  We use our own extracted cocoa butter in our chocolate also from Grenada's fine-flavored cocoa. This brings in a luxurious extra richness and chocolaty flavor.  Our chocolate has a truly deep and rich flavor.

We now have over 150 acres of organic cocoa farms in our cooperative and operate our own cocoa fermentry, located one mile from our little factory. This assures that we perform every activity involved in the production of our chocolate, from the planting and growing of the cocoa trees to the fermenting of the fresh cocoa beans to the processing of our fine dark chocolate. We grow our cocoa totally naturally without the use of any chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers and have been Certified Organic.

Our sugar is a fine organic raw sugar produced and milled by an organic growers' cooperative in Paraguy.

Whole organic vanilla beans grown biodynamically in Costa Rica provide our "dash" of vanilla.

Organic soy lecithin is used as emulsifier in extremely small amounts.

We are one of the only small-scale chocolate-makers producing fine chocolate where the cocoa grows.   Because small batch chocolate-making is very rare, we had to create our own processing methods, desigining our own machines and refurbishing antique equipment to meet the requirements of our unique situation. Most of our machines are based in design on those of the early 1900's, a time when quality had precedence over quantity in chocolate-making. Because we care about our environment, we use solar-electric energy to power our machines.

The original impetus and principle of our cooperative company is to revolutionize the cocoa-chocolate system that typically keeps cocoa production separate from chocolate-making and therefore takes advantage of cocoa farmers.We believe that the cocoa farmers should benefit as much as the chocolate-makers. 

 

Nib-A-Licious 60%

 

Type: Filled Semisweet

Bean Varietal: Trinitario

Ingredients: Cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa nibs, soy lecithin, vanilla beans. All Organic.

Sample Size: 85g or 3oz

 

Appearance: Nice shiny surface, deep dark chocolate color, pretty cocoa nibs sprinkled on top and through out the bar, signature molding with air bubbles on the top of the molded surface.

Score: 92

Snap: Good, deep firm snap, light crisp snapping sound, clean break lines. 

Score: 93

Aroma: All tar and rubber. very robust and charred smelling. Big pen ink aroma right out of the package, smoky, tobacco, and a little funky. 

Score: 78

Taste: Sweet and sugary, very slightly astringent, berries, inky, tar, hints of melon, wood, complex fruits.

Score: 90

Texture: Good cripsy and crunchy nibs. Not ovelry dried and not soft and limp. Perfectly crunchy, Smooth creamy chocolate texture with a medium melt-time. 

Score: 95

 

I didn't get a picture of the top surface of this bar. I thought I had but it was only the underside with the nibs. It had a nice glossy finish on the bar but there were a lot of air bubbles on the top surface of the molded side. The nibs were not just sprinkled on top, they were mixed through out. So the top surface does appear skimpy on the nibs, but it wasn't. It was better the top wasn't fully coated so you can see the nice shiny surface. 

This was very different from the first bar of Grenada I had. I remember that bar being super bright, and green tasting like fresh cut or new wood. But this bar was charred to hell on it's aroma. It was all tar and rubber. I didn't find that pleasing at all. But it's taste was complex and fun. This was due to a lot of sugars helping tone down that roasted char taste. There was an awesome fruity character underneath the sugars and pen ink flavors. I had a hard time telling exactly what it was though. It wasn't the sweet berries originally detected but something deeper. The cocoa nibs were awesome. Nice and crunchy and a good dried wood flavor. That added some depth to this chocolate. 

I am on the fence about this bar. I hated the aroma, but I liked the way it tasted. It's pretty funky chocolate with the huge tar and burnt characters, but those sugars really help keep this in check. 

This is one of those moments where I am saying that even though I didn't like the aroma and it's not scoring as high as some would like or expect, I think this is still good chocolate. This is for funk lovers. I mention this all the time about chocolate and remind people that certain funky beers don't always have the most pleasant sounding descriptors. But once you understand those beers there becomes a developed palate and love for the not so pleasant. What I am basically saying is that this wasn't my favorite but it's still pretty worthy and I think there is a niche out there for people who like these funky things. 

 

Final Score: 89.6

 

   score
  B

 

Slitti ~ Gran Cacao 90%

 

 

 

***Archived Notes

 

Gran Cacao chocolate. Typically when dealing with the title "Grand Cru" or Gran Cacao in this case, it usually means blend or best of. In this case it's the best of their blends from South America. There are no listings on what specific origins are in this bar though. 

 

 

Gran Cacao 90%

 

Type: Extra bittersweet 90%

Bean Varietal: Unknown, Blend

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, natural vanilla.

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

Lot #: I 606

 

Appearance: Deep dark brown color, large tab molding with singature molding patterns. Shiny smooth surface, slightly a little dusty, with some slight plastic matting marks on the surface. 

Score: 92

Snap: Light clean crisp snap, clean break lines. Thin molding lines give way to much smaller snap quality.

Score: 90

Aroma: Soft roasted cacao, wood slightly tannic, acidic nose, almondsvery subtle smoke and tobacco, slightly spicy, a little bit moldy and earthy smelling. 

Score: 94

Taste: Roasted, bitter, mildly acidic but no astringency, soft, wood earthy, dry, light and very soft flowery perfume taste on the finish but very faint. You have to wait until the deep bitter flavor dissipates to detect it.

Score: 89

Texture: Hard, a little dry, but not waxy. Long melt-time but opens up to a medium bodied texture.

Score: 87

 

The snap quality is good despite how I scored it. It was firm and it was clean. It's just how they mold it that I don't like. Overly large tabs and thin-ish snap lines. With a hard textured chocolate, it's very hard to bite into and too large to let one tab melt on your palate. 

I wasn't feeling this one as much. It's definitely a lot smoother than the Tropicale 90%, but it's almost too soft. As aggressive as the Tropicale was, there was full flavor in there with gorgeous black tea and jasmine flavors. This was just deeply bitter, roasted cacao with earthy wood tastes. There was a very slight perfume-y, flower taste detected from retro-olfaction. But as mentioned above, I had to wait a while until that bitter taste eased up on the palate. It's certainly not bad. Just not spectacular either. And this was a Grand Cru bar. Although the acidity is there, there is virtually no astringency which made this fairly mild to eat despite it's robust cacao percentage. It's deeply bitter but not sharp. The Italians, I find, are amazing about these high percentage cacao bars without that rough jabbing astringency that gets you in the neck and glands. You know that sharp reaction. This had none of that. 

It had a full and complicated aroma. In fact that aroma on this bar was the best part. I just felt like it sort of fell flat on it's flavor. I don't think this is very exceptional for eating, but with some added sugar and vanilla I am sure I can bake something fantastic with this. 

 

Final Score: 90.8

  score
B+

 

Slitti ~ Super Novanta 90% Tropicale

 

 

 

** Archived notes. 

 

Wrapping up some chocolate notes that I have been sitting on for too long. The burden of a chocolate writer is eating and tasting more chocolate than I can keep up with as far as blogging goes. I know, life is so hard. Luckily I saved all of my notes and took pictures. These notes are from 2011.

All natural chocolate with natural vanilla and no soy lecithin for an emulsifier. Blended cacaos from Ecuador.

 

 

Slitti Super Novanta Tropicale 90%

 

Type: Bittersweet, extra 90%

Varietal: Unknown, but being sourced from Ecuador, these are more than likely Nacional beans with some possible hybrids blended in.

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, natural vanilla.

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

Lot #: 1622

 

Appearance: Deep, dark brown chocolate color, signature molding with large squared tablet, Slight appearance of sugar bloom, mild plastic matted marks on the top of the of molding, but otherwise smooth surface.

Score: 90

Snap: Light crisp snap from thin molding lines, clean break lines. 

Score: 90

Aroma: Almonds, roasted cacao, sweet, Almond Joy aroma, slightly acidic, and a little funky with mild notes of feet. 

Score: 94

Taste: Bitter, bold roasted cacao, woody, jasmine, black tea flavors, coffee grinds.

Score: 93

Texture: Hard, waxy, slow melt time, very dry and drying to the palate.

Score: 84

 

The slight appearance of bloom isn't being taken out on in the score. I held on to this bar from fall of 2010 to spring 2011. There was definitely heating and cooling issues on my end. Although it wasn't close it's expiration date, I believe I am at fault for it's beginning bloom. It held up remarkably well from fall, to winter, and spring. 

The snap could have been better with a different molding. It leaves for very thin lines and too large of squares on the tablet. With it's insanely hard texture, it made it difficult to bite through the square. And the square was too large to let one just melt away on the palate. It was fairly waxy on the texture and dry. The dry bar coupled with what I think are a hallmark of Nacional beans' drying effect, didn't make for a pleasurable tasting experience. 

The flavors however were fantastic. An amazing aroma of pure, sweet almonds and roasted cacao were good and strong. A little funk coming through on the aroma too with some acidic characters and slight funky feet aroma. That may not sound desirable but then again funky beers and funky cheese never sound like anything you would ever want to eat but then it tastes amazing. 

Although I feel like this could have benefited from a lower cocoa percentage, more sugars, it definitely surprised me on the flavors of jasmine tea. Deeply bitter though. It takes a while to get through that bitter opening on the palate. But then it becomes beautifully roasted cacao and flowery jasmine with nice woody tastes. Lots of Chinese black tea on the finish from retro-olfaction. And at the very end of the taste are some coffee grind flavors. Very complex and bold. I am not one to usually praise Nacional beans, but this was fantastic on the flavors. I am still not in love with the drying effect from Nacional beans. As mentioned above, the texture and the natural drying effects left little to be desired there. 

 

Final Score: 90.2

  score
B+