20°N & 20°S

Valrhona ~ El Pedregal 64%

 

 

 

** Archived Notes

This is my first time with Valrhona's vintage plantation series. I took these notes a while ago, but wanted to get them posted anyway.

El Pedregal is a vintage single estate cacao plantation in Venezuela with rare Criollo and Porcelana beans being cultivated and revived.

Via their website:

In order to further progress with our knowledge of the cocoa, Valrhona bought its first plantation El Pedregal in Venezuela 20 years ago, followed more recently in 2011 by Loma Sotavento in the Dominican Republic. For Valrhona, these company-owned plantations are living laboratories for research and exploration on several levels; they contribute to significant progress in certain crucial stages of the development of aromatic characteristics, such as fermentation and drying.

They help us in our experiments into responsible and sustainable farming. Valrhona works together with local experts to convert plantations into natural botanic gardens that create a new balance between the flora and its ecosystem.

El Pedregal plantation has enabled us to develop a vintage estate grown chocolate, with unrivaled delicacy: Porcelana El Pedregal (available November 2011)

Just like a fine vintage wine, the estate grown chocolates are the fruit of the yearly harvest of a single plantation, and the passion of a cocoa farmer. Each vintage thus offers you the opportunity to discover new facets of its personality. Valrhona also invites you to taste these vintage chocolates with unique and outstanding aromatic characteristics, Palmira from Venezuela, Gran Couva from Trinidad and Ampamakia from Madagascar.

Three years ago, an ambitious and highly innovative project was founded in Venezuela, called the Cambios project. It focuses on the principles of sustainable, quality cocoa farming, respectful both of the environment and people, focused on the preservation of a dying variety, Porcelana. It involves, among other things, the creation of biodiversity corridors within the plantation itself, up keeping the cocoa plantations in the manner of forests, and planting other crops so that the local population has another income and training.

 

El Pedregal 64%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 64%

Bean Varietal: Criollo, Porcelana

Ingredients: Cacao beans, brown sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin, vanilla.

Sample Size: 75g or 2.6oz

Lot #: LP7511245

 

Appearance: Ignore the scratch mark on one of the tablets. I scratched it by accident opening out of it's foil wrapper but there was some long line surface marks I didn't cause. Long tablet with wide, fat tablets, monogrammed molding, shiny surface, medium dark brown color, not too dark, superficial fill lines on the back surface.

Score: 89

Snap: Good clean snap with nice crisp snap sound. Firm with clean break lines.

Score: 93

Aroma: Slightly floral out of the package, roasted with a slight char aroma, savory, inky, cocoa-y.

Score: 91

Taste: Sweet, slight spicy note, very delicate flavor at first, brown sugar molasses, inky, bready, cereal grains, slight hints of leather, dried fruits and tiny bit of resin or rubber from retro-olfaction. Clean finish. Very complex.

Score: 93

Texture: Hard at first, opens up with a medium-slow melt time, creamy texture but also a bit drying.

Score: 90

 

Very interesting chocolate. Delicate and simple aroma. Nothing too crazy going on there but a deeply complex flavor albeit not as strong as I would have liked. It opens up really soft and sweet. Very soft and almost boring. At first I thought this would be incredibly weak chocolate. But then it opens up a bit more and some deeper flavors come through. The brown sugar's molasses does interfere a bit. It wasn't overwhelming but definitely noticeable. Bready and yeasty with cereal grains, pen ink and dried fruits.

It's almost like this cacao wants to be bigger. But you can't drag out the flavors with more sugars or brown sugars. Sugars tend to bring out more fruits, but these beans apparently are so soft that the sugars ended up interfering with with it. There is a boldness to this chocolate and a deep richness. But also layered with soft floral notes and subtle inky flavors.

I don't know what to make of it honestly. I appreciate it for it's softness and hidden aggressiveness. But I doubt it would be this rich without the sugars. It tastes great, but in my honest opinion it's fairly boring and some of the flavors feel forced. The emphasis on these rare beans is very important. Criollo is the true original cacao bean. But I tend to like more richer, and bolder flavors. I want to be kicked in the face with raw flavors. Not so raw like Taza flavors, but a bit more bold than this. 

This will sound very rude but I am going to be completely honest and say that this is over hyped chocolate. Sold for it's rarity and labeling of Procelana beans but there really isn't anything too spectacular about this. Perhaps it's different right after it's been molded and packaged and eaten when it's no older than one month. But for now, as cool as this single estate chocolate is, it's just not all that for what it's supposed to be.

Having said that, this could be good for people with sensitive palates. But again it's true nature is clouded a bit with the brown sugars and the molasses in it.

And just for fun, I just found out that Valrhona has taken the time to do some beer pairings with their chocolate and not just wine. Craft beer is often better paired with chocolate than wine. Especially with the American craft beer scene with the amount of new styles. They had different flavor profiles in their tasting but I agree with the recommendations.

EL PEDREGAL Dark Chocolate 64% (Venezuela) - This chocolate has soft, earthy flavors of mocha and coffee bean that are complex, yet mellow, with a dusty texture and slight bitterness on the palate. For a taste to complement these characteristics of the chocolate, an Irish Stout would offer texture and rich, hearty, aromatics without overwhelming the palate. The slight bitterness of the chocolate would match with an Extra Special Bitter which, despite the name is mildly aggressive, but not overpowering and will balance with the taste of the chocolate.

FInal Score: 91.2

   score
  B+

Olive & Sinclair ~ Smoked Nib Brittle and Bourbon Nib Brittle

 

 

 

Sometimes you are drawn to a product from a company and end up being sucked into their whole profile. That's what happened here. This is how I ended up with these brittles.

Olive & Sinclair are a bean-to-bar chocolate maker from Nashville, Tennessee. I had been meaning to get their products up for review for some time and then came the email about their Buttermilk White Chocolate bar. I am all about buttermilk right now (biscuits, fried chicken, and Buttermilk ice creams) and I am also a southerner. It's right up my alley. While browsing their site I found these brittles. In to the cart they went and several bar in their profile. Bastards! I came for one bar and ended up with two kinds of brittle and five bars.

Olive & Sinclair are a small craft chocolate producer with slow roasting and stone grinding techniques in small batches. These brittles are an excellent novelty product for their collection. Adding world sourced beans, small batch techniques into pure southern sweet-tooth classics such as brittle.

 

 

 

 

Bourbon Nib Brittle

Ingredients: Sugar, O&S 67% Ghana chocolate (cacao beans, brown sugar), butter, Bourbon Cacao nibs, kosher salt, black pepper.

Ghana cocoa nibs aged on barrel-aged in bourbon barrels. Smells like rich chocolate, those classic brownie notes of Ghana cacao. Boozy right out of the package but cocoa-y once it's sat out for a bit. Smells like boozy oak and fruit. Lovely smell.

Tastes like bourbon and butter right off the bar, sweet buttery, and bourbon, then finishes with deep rich brownie flavored chocolate and salt. Lingering bourbon flavors on the finish. Very tasty!

The texture is nice and crispy and crunchy with the nibs, nice chocolate melting on your tongue while crunching away at the sugars. My only gripe is that it needs a tad bit more salt. I know these are southerners who like every thing sweet, but a pinch more salt would cut that and make this even more addicting. I also can't tell which bourbon they used. The nibs do have great lingering bourbon flavors.

Barrel-aging is up my alley too as beer is my day job and barrel-aging beer is not uncommon. I like that they did this to the nibs. It imparted great flavors. You open with bourbon and close with it on the palate.

I want to give this a B for it's almost overly sugary sweetness, but the lingering brownie-like nibs and subtly and awesomeness of the bourbon make this worthy of an A- grade. And yes I do realize it's brittle and supposed to be sugary sweet. I just feel like it could use a touch more salt to achieve balanced greatness. The richness of these ghana nibs really shine on this product and they are so much better with bourbon barrel-aging.

   score
   A-

 

 

 

Smoked Nib Brittle

Ingredients: Sugar, O&S Ghana chocolate (cacao beans, brown sugar), butter, smoked cacao nibs, kosher salt, and pepper.

 

Smoked Ghana cacao nibs in "Mr. Allan Benton's wood stove smokehouse at Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams." If you are not familiar with Benton's hams or bacon, slap yourself in the face hard, and then go find some immediately.

The aroma is all smoke. Ham-y, bacon-y smoke. Fat smoke. Breaking into smaller pieces releases that actual pork aroma from the smoked nibs.

Peppery brittle like peppered bacon coated in sugar. The second bite was more of the butter, sugars, and chocolate. They all tend to take a back seat to the smoky nibs on the first taste but then become more noticeable. A little bitterness on this brittle too. In total it's spicy black pepper, smoky, bitter, pork flavors, buttery, sugary.

This is very different brittle from the Bourbon Brittle. This is savory and smoky. The black pepper dominates and is a little spicy. The bitterness of the cacao nibs come through more as well. It's more salty and savory, the butter is more noticeable but not until the second bite. It's all smoke and black pepper at first and then every thing else comes through. It's almost like peppered bacon bits instead of the actual nibs.

While the Bourbon Brittle was more rounded with subtle flavors, this one is more in your face. Both are so very southern and so rooted in all things Tennesee. I find the pepper to be a little too dominating on the Smoked Nib. It's still very good. It's a better balance of the salt with the sugars in the brittle, but the smoke and pepper are palate killing and dominating. The chocolate only has a moment to shine, and the richness of the nibs are overshadowed.

Having said all that, I think it's pretty damn awesome. It's for bacon lovers and people who like bold smoky flavors and big pepper tastes. This would be perfect for pairing with strong robust stouts. The bitter on the beer will let those sugars and bacon fat tastes come out more and the chocolate would mostly like be more apparent.

   score
  B+

Xocolatl de David ~ Bacon + Chocolate = <3

 

 

**Archived Notes

 

The bacon revolution continues. I for one, am not standing in the way. Where once I foolishly thought the bacon craze in general was going overboard, I never turned my back on the bacon and chocolate craze. Bacon and dark Ecuador cacao with a caramel center. Can't go wrong with that.

Similar to the Raleigh Bars, this is a similar theme from Xocolatl de David whom often works with bacon in his confections. Bacon and caramel in a slender bar/tablet form. Only without the nougat like the Raleigh bars.

 

 

Bacon & Caramel Bar

 

Type: Filled candy bar, 72% dark chocolate.

Bean Varietal: Nacional

Ingredients: 72% cacao (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla), sugar, cream, bacon, invert sugar, fleur de sel.

Sample Size: 2.2oz or 62g

 

Right away you can notice from the pictures it's sloppy appearance. A side effect from the salt and the caramel bulging the chocolate. I had a hard time capturing the bulging, but you can sort of make it out in the last picture above. It leaves for a hot mess in the appearance. Ashy, white, streaking, and the shine has gone off the bar.

All that aside, it smells fantastic. Like salt cure, smoky bacon, and sweet buttery caramel with earthy, fruity dark chocolate. Wonderful aroma. If they could make reed diffusers in this scent, it would be a best seller.

Sweet, and tangy bitter on the taste from the rich bitter dark chocolate, then buttery caramel with salty cripsy bacon. While the taste is full on with the bacon, I do wish it had bigger bacon pieces in it. It's the plight of my blog to demand chocolate makers to stop being skimpy with the bacon. It's bacon, you can never have TOO much in one bar. But more than that, it has the taste, but if needs the meaty back bone to make you feel like you just chewed on a fatty piece of bacon covered in chocolate and caramel. Because as rich and delectable as this is, large greasy, fatty bacon pieces would set this bar apart from any other bacon bar on the market.

I love the Ecuador chocolate they use on their products. It's rich, fruity, and bitter, and with the caramel and smoky bacon, it brings out a nutty richness to the chocolate with slight brewed coffee notes. Nice combination of flavors. It's very bitter too and that helps round out the sugars and sweetness on the bar.

A real decadent and fantastic bar. The salt makes it that much more addicting too. I am giving this bar a higher score based solely on how it tastes. It's very balanced. Savory, salty, buttery, sweet, rich, and deeply chocolaty and bitter. It's appearance is a side effect from the gooey caramel. It's really bad on this particular bar. But knowing exactly what this bar is and how it tastes shouldn't detract from making this a regular treat or gift for a true bacon lover. It's that good.

 

   score
    A

Whole Foods Organic ~ Tanzania 72% Dark Chocolate

 

 

Organic and fair trade single origin beans from Tanzania made into chocolate bars from Whole Foods and processed in Belgium, to benefit the Tanzania Schoolhouse Project. A portion of the proceeds benefit the education of children in the Kyela District of Tanzania.

 

[Image via Hai Tanzania]

 

 

 

Tanzania Schoolhouse Project 72%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 72%

Bean Varietal: Probably Forastero

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, cane sugar, cocoa butter. All organic.

Sample Size: 3.5 oz

 

Appearance: Smooth, non-monogrammed molding, but signature molded tablet, medium brown color, near blemish free bar on the surface, some very mild streaking on the back of the bar with some small air bubbles.

Score: 94

Snap: Firm snap with a lightly crisp snapping sound, clean break lines.

Score: 91

Aroma: Big bold aroma of roasted peanuts, big fruit and berries and ink.

Score: 92

Taste: Flowery and inky up front, deeply bitter, roasted cacao, toast, earthy, subdued fruits, roasted and nutty, slightly smoky lingering tastes on the finish.

Score: 93

Texture: Smooth, medium-slow melt time, Not silky smooth or chalky, but some where in between on it's texture.

Score: 91

 

Very nice bar. Great appearance. Virtually blemish free and that's awesome for a bar picked up at a grocery store. Nice molding good thickness on the bar, and even though it has overly large tablets, it's not too thick to bite into which has been an issue on other bars with large, fat tabs.

The aroma was nice and full. Big fruits and roasted peanuts. Some people like really deeply complicated aromas. I find it awesome when I can find layer upon layer in an aroma, but there is something to be said about a simple straight forward aroma too. Nothing too complicated. It is what it is.

The flavors are fairly straight forward as well. I don't want to say it's simple, but there wasn't a whole lot of nuance on this bar. Deeply bitter with lots of lingering bitterness. But sweet and floral up front and again big roasted cacao flavors and nuts. Some biscuit and toast flavors a little earthy and fruity.

This is really great eating chocolate. No thinking, no need to get too complicated about it. Store this in your desk at work for chocolate intermezzos, break this open and devour it quickly, melt it down for hot chocolate, chop it up and bake with it. I don't want to sound flippant about it, but it's very good chocolate for only $2.99. You can buy a ton of it to use for whatever and you are doing some good with it by buying it for it's charity purposes.

 

Final Score: 92.2

   score
  B+

Gran Inka ~ 75%

 

 

Organic chocolate from Cooperative Narajillo in Peru. They focus on cacao and coffee production with sustainable efforts and fair trade ethics.

I picked this up in Canada. It unfortunately has zero shelf life. There was no "best before" date on the bar, so I have no idea how old it is. I did pick this up over Christmas in Quebec City. I have to be fair in my reviews about that. But most chocolate has a very long shelf life. All the chocolate I bought was new and had a more than a year on their "best before" dates which is why I took my time reviewing all the bars I bought. I had some time with with them and time to whittle down the rest of my library. On the Narajillo website, it says this bar has a 2 year shelf life. That's a pretty long time. I don't usually like things going past 6 months. This bar was also sealed in plastic. It should have held on longer than it did. At least in terms of it's appearance.

 

 

Gran Inka 75%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 75%

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Cocoa paste, cocoa powder, cane sugar, cocoa butter.

Sample Size: 32g

 

Appearance: Small, thin bar with simple non-monogrammed molding, dull brown, very dry and ashy bloom, some splotching on the bar or matting marks from the plastic seal, and nicked up at the ends of the bar with some particle matter.

Score: 45

Snap: Decent snap for a small and thin bar. Very firm and crisp snap with clean break lines. Nice and audible too.

Score: 92

Aroma: Soft aroma of roasted cacao and coffee grinds, some smokiness, and nuttiness. Dissipates very quickly though.

Score: 83

Taste: Coffee grinds, roasted cacao, sugars, bitter, very fruity, woody, nutty, lingering drying bitters on the palate with woody flavors hanging on.

Score: 91

Texture: Hard, slow melt-time, a little grainy and drying texture, but not gritty. No creaminess at all.

Score: 73

 

It has a really good taste on this bar, but I have to say overall this isn't that special. Worst dried up appearance I have seen on a bar in a long time and I have scraps (for face masks) longer than 3 years old. This bar should have been better than that.

It had a really soft aroma. It's muddled with coffee grinds on it's nose and taste. Since this coop also produces coffee, I am wondering if they are processed in the same place giving it some cross contamination. It reminds me a lot of Santander in Colombia. Same thing with the coffee flavors and they process coffee too.

It's flavors were quite pronounced though. They were good. Coffee grinds (which may or may not be a natural flavor profile), sweet sugars for a 75% that really turned out those big fruity flavors, woody, nutty, roasted cacao, and some nice bitters on it. But even though it did taste pretty good, there wasn't anything particularly fascinating about it. Just an average tasting bar of chocolate. But again the sugars were good. I prefer a little more since I happen to think it draws out more of the natural fruity flavors. The best way to test that is to try a 70% to 75% bar of chocolate, a bittersweet bar, versus a 60% to 65% semisweet. The difference is noticeable. Not just because of the cacao percentage but the sweeter sugars. It really makes it more fruity. It's not scientific, just something I have observed. So, something like this with a nice kick of sugar, helped it in my opinion.

Weak aroma, and hard, dry texture round out this less than stellar review.

 

Final Score: 76.8

  score
D+

 

Mast Brothers ~ Moho River 70%

 

 

 

Mast Brothers Moho River 70% from Belize. Tropical lush area right in central America. Perfect conditions for cacao growing. Historically some of the original landscapes for the Mayan civilization and their history with cacao.

 

[Image via Adventure Smith Explorations]

 

The Moho River is located at the southern tip of the country by Punta Gorda. The packaging mentions the beans being sourced from a cooperative, I am assuming the Toledo Cacao Growers Association. This is also set up with tours and adventure traveling to Belize with The Cotton Lodge.

This is a good article for some information about The Cotton Lodge via Sacred Earth Travel.

 

Moho River 70%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 70%

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Cacao, cane sugar.

Sample Size: 2.5oz

Lot # 22111111

 

Appearance: Simple non-monogrammed molding, muted ashy brown color, streaking on the back of the bar, light and superficial scuffing on the front side of the bar, shiny molded surface.

Score: 89

Snap: Light to medium snap, mildly firm, slight crisp sound, and clean break lines.

Score: 90

Aroma: Funky! Big bold and bright cherries, wood, tart, a little inky, char, medicinal like Robitussin cough syrup. Once it breathed a bit, it became more raisin-y.

Score: 89

Taste: Bitter, medicinal, cough syrup, cherries, ink, char, acidic, tangy, big wood flavors, earthy, and some biscuit-y flavors.

Score: 86

Texture: Smooth, medium melt-time, a little dry and chalky at the end, but over all creamy and smooth.

Score: 92

 

If you like funk, you will like this bar. This is very reminiscent of Rio Caribe beans only this is much more fruity and bright versus the overly charred characteristics of Rio Caribe. I was hoping the cough syrup aroma wouldn't be significant on the flavor, but unfortunately it was all over the flavor. Big bold cherries, bright acidity, some wood and char flavors, but an undeniable medicinal quality that made it like cough syrup with the cherries. It's not bad chocolate, it's just not the kind of flavors I enjoy.

The aroma was very strong with the same characteristics of the flavor. Once it breathed a bit there was a nice raisin aroma, but not on the flavor. The package says it has notes of raisins, plums, and sarsaparilla. I didn't get any of that but the raisins on the aroma. This is why I don't like flavor notes on packages. Sometimes it's there in bold ways like Amano's Dos Rios. Can't deny that bergamot. But often times, if chocolate breathes or ages, those flavors change in big ways. Not to mention taste being subjective. I don't know what to say about this chocolate, but it's very funky. The flavors are a bit all over the place. It's bitter and acidic, fruity and medicinal, and a little earthy and biscuit-y on the second and third tastes. It's interesting in that regards, but not my favorite flavor profiles. I was really hoping for that sarsaparilla flavor too. That would have been great.

 

Final Score: 89.2

   score
    B

Xocolatl de David ~ Raleigh Bars

 

 

 

Handmade candy bars by Xocolatl de David in Portland, Oregon. Created for the affable Pine State Biscuits in Portland.

 

A few years back, my friends at the world renown Pine State Biscuits here in Portland asked me to create something for them to sell at their restaurant.  More specifically, a candy bar.  They bugged me for a good 3 months before I came up with the first and only prototype. It was so well received that I knew I was not going to be able to sell it just at Pine State Biscuits. To thank them I named it after the founder of the "Pine State" (North Carolina, for those not in the know), Sir Walter Raleigh.

To me the classic candy bar is, nougat, caramel, and nuts coated in chocolate.  I created mine with a southern vein since Pine State Biscuits is a southern style restaurant.  

 [Original Raleigh Bar]

Chocolate Pecan Nougat & Salted Caramel, coated in 72% Chocolate from Ecuador.

 

 

Bourbon Caramel

Buffalo Trace Bourbon Caramel, pecan chocolate nougat, 72% dark chocolate from Ecuador.

 

 

Visually this one was a little disappointing with the ashy appearance. But that's superficial for the huge flavors on this bar. Huge flavors except for the bourbon that is. Cutting into the bar I cut right through a pecan bit. Sadly it was the only real bit of pecan in the bar. I found this to be an issue as well with Liddabit's The Snacker bar. Handmade candy bars from Brooklyn, NY. Skimpy on the nuts and I am not sure why. In this case, the size of the bars maybe be a reason why. They are only about 2 inches long. But if they make them in bulk batches and strips only to be cut smaller, it doesn't completely make sense. Still, a small detail compared to the over all flavor but an issue with texture. You need those crunchy nuts to break up the chewy nougat and caramel mou consistency.

The aroma was dominated by the rich and full Ecuador chocolate. 72% and fairly bitter. It interacted nicely with the flavors of the burnt caramel and the chewy nougat. Salty caramel and sweet nougat. Lot's of contrasting flavors giving it an up and down quality for the palate. No one taste or flavor is the focus. I wished the aroma had more bourbon on it. Buffalo Trace is a big woody bourbon perfect for things like this and chocolate. I use it for my own Bourbon Pecan Truffles. But the subtle use of it in the caramel left everything else to dominate. The good news is though, the bourbon is present in the flavor but not really until the finish. It's lighter, but definitely distinguishable. The salt and then the sweet sugars dominate with the bitter chocolate leave the bourbon hanging on in the finish.

Texturally the caramel was awesome. It's burnt and salty at the same time with a gorgeous burnt rust color. It has a texture midway between runny caramel and caramel mou. The nougat was also soft and chewy. Right where you want it to be. Not too hard and not too chewy. Soft and easy. It just needed that extra crunch with more pecans.

It's an excellent bar full of big flavors, but it needs more pecans and more bourbon. I could be a raging alcoholic who just wants more booze at any cost, but realistically it's a subtle approach with the bourbon. It's the right size for all the flavors it packs and for how sweet and rich it is. The salt balances it out and makes it addicting like a fat crack rock. Not that I know anything about that. I wonder if David Briggs could make this even more ridiculously good by adding caramelized or cinnamon sugar pecans in the nougat.

 

 

Bacon Caramel

Bacon Caramel, pecan nougat, and 72% Ecuador chocolate.

 

 

Much better appearance with a shiny surface. The aroma dominates with big smoky bacon and rich chocolate. Did I mention crack in the previous review? Yeah, times that by 10 for this bar.

Same issues with the skimpy pecans. Again, it needs that break up with the chewy caramel and chewy nougat. I also think this could have benefited from crispy bacon in the caramel for added texture. It certainly had all the bacon flavor, but the crunch factor was missing again. It should be like their Country Ham bar. As with the bourbon bar, I could be a raging bacon-holic in my need for more bacon in this bar, but realistically it's a textural issue. It needs crunch some where, why not add bacon bits?

The chocolate has a less dominating flavor on this bar, but it's bitterness is very present. Bitters not acidity. The salty burnt caramel wins again, and the nougat rounds out the sweetness. The dominate flavor though is of course the smoky bacon. It's all in there. Sweet, salty, burnt sugars, chewy nougat and smoky bacon. How could you not love this thing? It's very sweet and rich. When you do get a bit of pecan in the bar, it adds a really nice layer of depth to the flavor. Needs moar!

The New Summer Picnic

 

 

A few years ago while working at Formaggio Kitchen, Robert Aguilera and I came up with a ridiculous plan to make a beer and a cheese that don't normally work together, work. We forged an unholy union between classic brie and Allagash Brewing Company's Curieux. A fatty buttery cheese with a soft edged barrel aged tripel. Normally you would rely on alpha acids in the hops or carbonation in the beer to work on a fatty cheese. But since this beer had the soft edges from the barrel aging, they become ill-matched.

We forged this union by adding, sliced bresola (salty Italian cured meat), fresh strawberries (acidic and tangy), fruits of the forest jam (sweet and tangy), a fresh baguette, and of course the cheese and the beer. It was incredible! It was a complete meal. My husband and I dined on it all summer long.

We even upped the ante with the second picnic. This time we took Allagash's Odyssey. A very raisin-y dark Belgian-style wheat beer also oak-aged. Huge 10%, sticky beer with bold dark fruits and funky, spicy wheat aromas. We paired this beer with a fresh baguette, sliced speck (smoky Italian cured meat), Monte Enebro (a very briney and salty Spanish goat cheese), prune preserve, and dried Mojave Desert raisins. My eyes pretty much just rolled in the back of my head just remember how good this pairing was.

By now you should know, that Robert is a master at these combinations. I bring him the beer, and he gives me the world. This was just for shits and giggles too. These pairings weren't featured in any class I ever taught Formaggio Kitchen, or in any dinner I ever hosted. Rob Tod wanted to post it on Allagash's website. I forgot to give him the details. I think my subconscious wanted to selfishly keep it to myself.

So, following this vein, I had ordered Foietella from Xocolatl de David. Literally it is foie gras and chocolate blended together in a spread. Yes, that feeling is your arteries slowing down just for reading those words. Cream, foie, and chocolate. Done. Flat line......

I wasn't sure what to put with the Foietella. David Briggs, the creator suggested rhubarb jam. I understand that now after tasting it. It needs an acidic or tart balance to all that fat! I decided to put together a little platter, this time paired with an Italian Barbera, of cheese, foietella, fresh strawberries, baguette, pecans, fruits of the forrest jam, and some left over scraps of Xocolatl de David's Country Ham bar (chocolate bar with Benton's ham), and the Iberico bar which is basically a chocolate bar with lardo (pork fat) blended in. Yes, that was your heart now in full A-fib.

This post is pretty much an excuse to brag and post glorious pics of this summer picnic. A couple of high resolution images and some iPhone pics. I had to take those so I could quickly put them up on Twitter and show off.

 

 

Marou ~ Bà Rịa 76%

 

 

Le sigh, le sad face, le shit....

My final review with Marou. It feels kind of sad. But I can't complain. This has been a very generous offering of samples sent to me and I have really enjoyed writing about them. Not since Alan McClure have I felt this connected to a chocolate maker and talked to them through each review and learned more as the reviewing went on. And talk about a geography lesson. I knew next to nothing about Vietnam. My least favorite subject involving wars. This was a nice way to set all that stuff aside explore the southern tip of the country by way of cacao.

Our final stop takes us to the Bà Rịa-Vang Tau province just a little bit north-east of Ho Chi Minh City. Beans sourced directly from family farms. You can one of the other surrounding provinces from the other bars.

 

[Image via vietecon.org]

 

 

Bà Rịa 76%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 76%

Bean Varietal: Trinitario

Ingredients: Cacao, cane sugar, and cocoa butter.

Sample Size: 100g

 

Appearance: Dark brown surface, but an ashy lighter brown interior. More like a subdued mahogany color. Monogrammed molding, a little scuffed and a little bit of particle matter, but over all in great shape. Still fairly shiny and looking good.

Score: 91

Snap: Good firm snap, not too hard this time. Crisp snapping sound. Slightly crumbly break lines, asymmetrical break lines against it's own molding lines.

Score: 92

Aroma: Very inky right up front, roasted cacao, char, subdued earthiness, brewed coffee through retro-olfaction, and a soft, mild sweet aroma on top like honey. Not a direct wild flour smell, but a sticky sweet smell sitting on top.

Score: 93

Taste: Big fruits right up front, tannins, sour and acidic, big wood flavors, char, roasted coffee flavors and bitterness, very faint traces of grapes or jam in the fruit flavor, lemon rind finish. A lot of lingering flavors on the palate. A tad cloying.

Score: 87

Texture: Smoother texture, medium melt-time, creamy center once it begins opening up. Not too hard despite it's thickness.

Score: 92

 

The final bar and it held up well. Really great shape. Different color from the others. An interesting ashy mahogany color. No significant scuffing or damage from transport.

The snap was so much different than all the others. Same thick molding, but this chocolate was so much different for some reason. It snapped easier, and felt almost airy compared to the other bars. Crumbly and asymmetric break lines, but still so much more pleasant the others. Great crisp sound too.

Very straight forward and big aroma. Just the brewed coffee from retro-olfaction that isn't exactly clear until you breathe back, but it's definitely there. Big fruits, a little sweet, but some tangy acids that get a little aggressive. It's not totally un-welcomed, but definitely toeing that line. I think the sugars and the big fruits help hold it at bay, but it is very aggressive on the flavor and sour, tart notes. It has some deep bitters, and bold wood flavors as well.

Samuel said this one was the fruitiest one of the bunch, but to be honest, the fruits on the Bển Tre 78% were better. They were only competing with bitterness. The fruits compete with too much sour on this bar so it's hard to focus on them. But I will say, just for a second, I got some jamminess (probably not a real word), a split second of the taste of grapes. The wood flavors and char add a nice depth and something great in the bar than just the strong bitterness.

The texture was much nicer than the Bển Tre though. Much smoother. Same melt-time, same creaminess that opens up in the center, but not hard like the others. None of the drying chalkiness observed on the other bar.

This bar hits all the technical marks, but the acidity and sourness is just too much for me personally. It's still good chocolate, but I would say it's the least favorite for me out of the group. The Dồng Nai 72% wa by far the best. Really interesting chocolate, all 4 bars. Each very different than one and other and the regions the beans are coming from are not very far apart from one and other

Marou has proved to be a great new company with a very unique perspective by actually living in the jungles where their beans are sourced from. I hope to see more of their presence in the U.S. But I know a certain Bangkok chef eagerly awaiting his chance to try something sourced pretty much locally from his point of view. I patiently await Bangkok street-food and S.E. Asian chocolate fusion dishes......

 

Final Score: 91

   score
  B+

Marou ~ Bển Tre 78%

 

 

 

My third bar from Marou, Faiseurs de Chocolat. French chocolatiers whom uprooted their lives and moved to Ho Chi Minh City and became chocolatiers using cacao beans directly from their source.

Bển Tre province of Vietnam. Situated on the Mekong Delta just below Tiền Giang in southern Vietnam. Rich crop producing area known for coconuts as well as durians, and mangoes.

Hot and tropical, a natural fit for cacao production.

 

[Image via: Traveling Vietnam Tours]

 

In the last two reviews, molding and appearance were the subject of some of the lower marks received on the bars. After talking to Samuel about it I learned a bit more about the molding of their bars. As Samuel noted, one of the reasons for the thick molded bars is due to the heat in Vietnam. You can get by with regular molding or they would melt too quickly. I should have probably made that connection myself, but it is an interesting approach.

Just today they blogged about the evolution of their molding from metal baking pans to custom moldings.

Breaking the Mold.

The shipping is one of the reasons for some of the more superficial appearance issues. This bar unfortunately, took more of the brunt than the others. It's not easy getting bars from Vietnam to Michigan and then off to Cambridge. I take those factors into accountability when reviewing the bars. Ultimately it's about the taste.

 

 

Bển Tre 78%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 78%

Bean Varietal: Trinitario

Ingredients: Cocoa, cane sugar, cocoa butter.

Sample Size: 100g

 

Appearance: Deep dark brown color, monogrammed molding, broken in two pieces with lot's of particle matter on the bar and some scuffing. Couple of air bubbles in the chocolate once snapped open.

Score: 87

Snap: Very hard snap, loud audible snap sound, crumbly break lines.

Score: 89

Aroma: Big aroma of roasted cacao, a little sweet smelling, fruits, inky, tar, brewed coffee, mild floral aromas, and a spicy character than almost comes off like a faint cinnamon aroma.

Score: 94

Taste: A mild hint of cinnamon right up front coupled with a bit of mustiness. Bold, very bitter, lot's of big fruit, charred cacao, inky with deep wood flavors, a little acidic, toasted biscuit flavors, very subtle floral flavors towards the finish. Lingering toast flavors on the finish.

Score: 92

Texture: A little hard, medium melt-time, a little chalky and slightly drying on the palate, but it does have a medium balance with the creaminess and rawness of the chalky texture.

Score: 89

 

I realize the transport issues took the worst toll on this bar in particular so I didn't take too much off for that in rating it as I mentioned before, but the effects were undeniable and it lost it's luster and some shine from all the particles and forced ashy appearance from those particles. There was some scuffing but it was very minor. Again, this is a tough call on rating when external issues are the problem and not the skills of the chocolate makers. I have to give it a grade but I always let my readers know if there are caviats to consider.

Again with the hard snap. It makes sense now that I understand the heat issues in the region they are at, but still makes it hard to break up. Although this one wasn't as hard biting into as the previous bars had been. Still, too thick for this climate.

The aroma was quite big with a lot of individual nuances. Sometimes the smells sort of blend together and that's when I get generic descriptors like pen ink. But this aroma had a lot going on and presented themselves separately. An interesting cinnamon-like aroma on this bar after all the big char and fruity aromas made it interesting.

The flavor was big. It's 78% so it warns you about how bold it's going to be but the flavor isn't as dynamic as it's aroma. And by dymanic, I just mean it's not as nuanced. It's very straight forward. Very bitter, a little bit acidic, but it had a huge fruity flavor. I wish it carried the coconut flavors the cacao trees grow next to in this region. That would have been awesome. Natural coconut without vanillas forcing it out. Like the Bali bar from Artisan du Chocolat with the natural banana flavors from growing in the same terroir.

It does have that slight hint of cinnamon on the opening taste, but that's quickly overtaken by the bitterness and fruits. Bold wood flavors, a little mustiness. It's such a mixed bag of dank rawness and big fruity complexity. Very big flavored chocolate. This is for the fans who like their palates aggressively inundated. The fruit in it made me want to bake with it. I think this would be some of the worlds best baking chocolate. It's also making me think about wine pairings. I am wondering which way is the right way to go with something like this. Sweeter ports or muscats to address the bold and deep bitters? Or pair a dry red with similar deep bitter flavors essentially canceling each other out to bring out even more of the fruits? I will have to take what's left of this bar and test it out at one of my local watering holes.

The texture had a confusing blend of chalkiness and creaminess. Good melt-time, but a little drying on the palate. It roughed up my palate a bit. A combination of the bitters and the texture.

This bar is for the hardcore bitter fans. It's so robust and bitter yet holds it's own with a big fruit taste and even some faint traces of a floral aspect to it.  If you like your coffee black and heavily roasted, you will love this.

 

Final Score: 90.2

   score
  B+