20°N & 20°S

Seattle Chocolates ~ Birthday Cake

 

 

Seattle Chocolates 

Birthday Cake filled truffle bar in milk chocolate. Yellow cake mix with confetti bits wrapped in milk chocolate. 

 

Birthday Cake

Type: Filled, truffle/candy bar.

Bean Varietal: N/A

Ingredients: White Chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, whey powder, soya lecithin, pure vanillia), Milk Chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, chocolate liquor, soya lecithin, pure vanilla), Confetti cake mix (unbleached wheat flour, sugar, colored bits [sugar, corn syrup, corn, palm oil, modified food starch, colors {elderberry juice, spinach extract, paprika, tumeric, citric acid}, baking soda, natural vanilla flavor, cream of tartar, salt, carob bean gum, guar gum), palm kernal oil. 

Sample Size: 2.5oz or 70g

 

Milk chocolate surface with Seattle Chocolates signature wavy patterned surface. Four large tablets. Shiny surface and creamy milk chocolate color with some slight surface marks. 

Smelled a bit artificial out of the package. The milk chocolate gives off a bit of a smoky and creamy aroma. Once spilt open, the center gives way to a creamy milk chocolate aroma. 

Nice and fully filled center. The center was a blend of white chocolate with cake mix and confetti's. The center was a little hard at first with crispy crunchy confetti bits. It melts away to a softer creamier texture. 

The white chocolate is a big distraction. If you are a white chocolate fan than this will be good, but if you were expecting cake flavor, it's dominated by the white chocolate. The milk chocolate was artificial tasting too and ends up being more distracting to the cake idea too. There is nothing really cake-like about this bar at all. Except with it's appearance when you break into the bar. It looks like a layer of cake covered in chocolate but the confetti's barely pop out. 

I wanted to like this bar because it sounded like fun and it sounded like a good idea. They ruined it with white chocolate in the center and the white and milk chocolate tasted completely artificial which ruined the taste for me completely. I don't mind white chocolate that much but it overpowered this bar and left no yellow cake taste. The confetti's added a fun crunchy texture, but the rest of it was hard and waxy at first until it began to open up and melt on the palate. 

Playful? Yes. Tasty? Disappointed. 

 

  score
 D-

 

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+

 

Zotter ~ Labooko Soya & Green Tea

 

Artist: Andreas H. Gratze

 

** Archived notes. 

 

 

Zotter

Labooko Duo bars Lactose Free Soya and Green Tea

Duo flavor bars from Zotter with soy and green tea flavors. Both lactose free for those with special dietary needs.

As mentioned on the packaging, both bars are soy bars with soy powders replacing the milk powders. This would otherwise, qualify as milk chocolate with the lower cocoa percentages and balance of milk solids. And as promised by the Zotter brand, these are organic bars with organic and fair trade ingredients and non-genetically modified soy products. 

 

 

Green Tea

Type: Soy, 30%

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Cocoa butter, raw cane sugar, soy milk powder, whole cane sugar, sesame, green tea powder, vanilla, salt, cocoa mass, soy lecithin.

Sample Size: 35g or 1.23oz

 

Appearance: Creamy soft green color, monogrammed molding with signature blown dry ripples on the surface, *broken piece*, small flecks of green tea or matcha mixed in, large chocolate particle pieces on the surface. 

Score: 91

Snap: Light crisp snap, clean break lines, decent snap sound. 

Score: 93

Aroma: Cream and matcha, earthy, dirt, and copper.

Score: 94

Taste: Green tea, matcha, creamy, milky, earthy and dirty, fresh tea, lingering soy flavors, sweet, fruit flavors, possibly strawberries, no cocoa flavors. 

Score: 94

Texture: Hard, long melt time, waxy. 

Score: 82

Tastes like a creamy, milky cup of sweetened green tea. Delicious and not one ounce of real milk in this bar. A little bit of lingering soy on the finish. Clean finish despite the robust matcha and cream flavors upfront. Sweet but not sugary, an excellent balance. And a little bit fruity. I can't tell what kind of fruit I am tasting, but it's got that fruity vibe making an appearance at the finish. Almost like strawberries. 

The texture is the only issue with this bar. It's not soft, it's fairly hard and waxy and doesn't really open up to a quick melt or softer center. It's full flavored, but not silky or creamy in texture. The nose gives off an impression that it might be creamy, soft. 

I recommend this to people who may not be fans of white chocolate. It has all of the hallmarks of delicious white chocolate, the creamy aroma and milky taste without the lingering milk aftertaste. The soy helps make the creamy flavor pop, but also keep it's in check on the finish. It tastes like full earthy green tea and cream and not loaded with sugar. This would make a great introduction to white chocolates despite not being actual white chocolate. A starter chocolate or gateway chocolate if you will.  

**I am not deducting from the appearance based on the broken bit. This chocolate has travel quite a way to get to me and anything could have happened. I noted the broken bit but again, points weren't taken off for that. 

 

Final Score: 90.8

  score
B+

 

 

 

Soya

Type: Soy, 40%

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, soy milk powder, cocoa mass, sesame, whole cane sugar, vanilla, salt, soy lecithin. 

Sample Size: 35g or 1.23oz

 

Appearance: Soft milk chocolate color, up close it's a bit like lightly creamed coffee and a touch translucent, monogrammed logo with signature blown dry ripple marks on the surface, a little ashy, and chocolate particles on the surface. 

Score: 91

Snap: Very firm snap, clearly audible, clean break lines.

Score: 96

Aroma: Soy, tiny hint of astringency, slight hints of nuts, cream, mildly smoky tobacco, and black licorice. 

Score: 94

Taste: Soft cocoa, cinnamon and licorice up front, creamy soy in the middle mixed with the spiciness of the licorice and cinnamon. Soy milk finish. 

Score: 93

Texture: Hard, waxy, a bit drying on the palate, and slightly chalky, long melt time.

Score: 84

 

There is a lot going on with this chocolate. Insanely good snap quality, interesting coffee like color, and the complexity of the nose and flavor make this an odd yet delightful bar. 

The nose smelled like soy and had a tiny bit of tartness or astringency up front, that goes away once the bar has breathed a bit. The cream, tobacco, and licorice dominate giving it a unique aroma. The taste is all cocoa and licorice with cinnamon and cream. Soy completely dominates and rounds out the finish with tiny hints of lingering cinnamon and licorice. 

Once again the texture is the worst part of this. Of all the crazy good things happening with the aroma and taste, the texture doesn't match. It's hard and waxy and a bit chalky. It does open a bit creamier than the Green Tea, but still in the same boat, too hard. 

But what a surprise this turned out to be? So many interesting flavors. I wish I knew which origin or blend of cacao Zotter decided to use for these bars. If they could just manage the texture better, these make for some very good tasting bars. A bit heavy on the soy taste for the Soya bar, but with everything else going on in the flavor, it balances nicely. I do think some milk purists might take issue with that especially on the Soya bar, but not so much the Green Tea bar. It's creamy and milky. As a milk lover and purist myself, I rather enjoyed these. And besides these aren't for the milk lovers anyway. These are for the lactose intolerant. 

Final Score: 91.6

 score
B+

Seattle Chocolates ~ Campfire S'More

 

 

Seattle Chocolates

Now we're talking. After having the Chuao Milk chocolate bar with Potato Chips, I follow up my filled bar appreciaton posts with a milk chocolate bar filled with graham and marashmallows. I am all about anything S'Mores. 

Seattle Chocolates has a line of truffle bars and this Campfire S'More bar is one of them. I also have their birthday cake bar pending a review. I picked these up at Beacon Hill Chocolates in Boston. 

 

Campfire S'More

 

Type: Filled, milk chocolate

Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Milk chocolate; sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, chocolate liquor, soya lecithin, pure vanilla. Graham biscotti; enriched wheat flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], sugar, butter, eggs, baking powder, natural flavors, salt. Marshmallows; Corn syrup, beet sugar, corn starch, corn dextrose, water, carrageenan, soya protein, natural vanilla flavor, titanium dioxide. 

Sample Size: 2.5 oz or 70g

 

Nice thick bar with simple patterend, but non-monogrammed molding. Appeard to have generous "fixin's" or S'Mores bit in it. Smells sweet and creamy like good milk chocolate should. Chewy marshmallow bits, creamy and sweet milk chocolate, but not enough graham taste or bits in it. In fact it's really quite skimmpy on the graham, but the overall taste is there. It does taste like a S'More. Just perhaps a bit more on the sweeter vanilla side with the chocolate and marshmallow dominating. 

One thing that maybe a little petty to point out and may not entirely matter, is the name Campfire S'More. While all the ingredients are there, campfire makes me think charred marshamallows. I wonder if they could have charred them a bit before putting them in the chocolate. Char then, cool them, then put them in. It might make that name a bit more authentic and the taste bit more dynamic. 

Very sweet filled bar of chocolate.The flavors were there, the textures were all there with chewy marshmallow, creamy milk chocolate, faint hints of graham though. My only gripe is not enough graham crackers through out the bar and not enough graham cracker taste. It's there on the finish but as an afterthough and not really as an entire S'mores picture. I can't help it, I am a sucker for graham crackers. The milk chocolate is good and creamy and smooth with a nice melt time on it. 

 

   score
 B+

Chuao ~ Potato Chips in Milk Chocolate

 

This is every junk food-aholics dream. Milk chocolate, premium milk chocolate using Venezuelan beans and potato chips mashed into the chocolate. A sweet/salty lovers dream in one chocolate bar. 

 

A little about Chuao Chocolatiers via their website:

 

Founded in 2002 by Master Chef Michael Antonorsi and his brother Richard Antonorsi - the company's CEO; Chuao Chocolatier is pioneering “fusion chocolate” through a commitment to creating unusual, unexpected and delicious flavors using their secret blend of premium chocolate and fresh natural ingredients.

The Venezuelan born brothers, now San Diego residents, named the company Chuao Chocolatier after the legendary cacao-producing region of Chuao (pronounced chew-WOW) located in central Venezuela. The Antonorsi’s decision was a reflection of their commitment to both high quality and their Venezuelan family heritage. Chocolate is part of their roots, as their ancestors once ran a small family farm that was an important part of the criollo cacao plantation industry.

 

 

Potato Chips in Chocolate Bar

 

Type: Filled milk chocolate, 41% 

Varietal: Hybrid

Ingredients: 41% cacao, cocoa butter, sugar, dehydrated milk, soy lecithin, natural vanilla, potatoes, vegetable oil, sea salt. 

Sample Size: 2.8oz or 80g

 

Nice shiny surface, molded in a signature cocoa pod monogrammed patteren. Lots of crushed chips throughout the bar. Soft milk chocolate which gives way to a light medium snap. Smells like rich milk chocolate. I feel like the milk powder or something in it takes away from some of the more rustic aroma's of Chuao region cocoa, but still smells pretty good. 

Smooth chocolate texture, crunchy potato chips. It's not as salty as I would like, but the balance of sweet and and salty is still good. More on the sweet side though. I thought at first, with the way the chips were broken up, that it would be skimpy on the chips. Kind of like Vosges skimps you on the bacon in their famed Bacon bars. There are plenty of chips throughout and it balances really well the insanely rich milk chocolate. Only 41% on the cacao, but still rich and creamy. Excellent smooth melting texture to contrast the crunchy chips. Lingering milky chocolate taste, with potato chips on the finish. 

This is a great and super fun bar of chocolate. The potatoes miraculously stayed crunchy and good. And even though I think it could use a pinch more salt because the milk chocolate is super rich and creamy, this is easily one of my new favorite filled bars. I love sweet and salty combos. Calories wise, it's not the greatest move one could make, but that won't stop a glutton like me. 

 

  score
 A-

Chocolate Oatmeal Face Mask

 

 

Okay, so remember a few weeks ago I made a quick post about chocolate face masks and how to make them yourself at home? Well, I went ahead and tried one and it worked really well.

Make sure you wash your skin before applying. A helpful and natural tip is to cleanse the face, then use witch hazel as a toner. Also use on a Q-Tip with apple cider vinegar for any trouble spots before using the mask. You want that on on your skin first. You can also use the apple cider vinegar on the trouble spots after you wash the mask off. And be sure to moisturize.

I took some old scraps that had gone passed their prime for eating. Chocolate does have an extremely long shelf life, but these were passed that. Mostly I take chocolate bars, eat enough to review and fully understand, then I take the left over scraps and bake with it. But recently my stock pile is just too much. So, this is a good way to use the chocolate in a constructive way without having to throw it away.

 

I took leftover scraps of a Patric Chocolate Madagascar bar, L'Artisan du Chocolat Jamaica, and some Paul A. Young Valrhona bar scraps. All bitter sweet and 70% and over. I melted them down over a double boiler, I pulled the chocolate off before it all completely melted. Then I added oatmeal and honey and I let it cool down.

 

On whim, I decided to go ahead an add course turbinado sugar after the mixture had cooled so it wouldn't melt the sugar crystals.

 

Duck lips just for Gingerkiller!

 

I slathered it all over my face and waited for about 15 to 20 minutes. It was a bit messy to apply, but the trick is to go around the face more than once with the mixture. Each time you go around, it goes on thicker and thicker. The oatmeal might fall off a bit but overall it stayed on pretty good.

Washing it off, the oatmeal and sugar acted as a face scrub. It felt a little waxy as it was being washed off and I thought I might have to do a second wash with some face soap. But, I didn't have to. It all washed off clean, and my skin was brighter and extremely soft.

Having a glass of red wine while you mask is also fun. The antioxidants in wine is good for you to. You will feel like you are in a spa. Wine, masks, and Ed Norton on tv. La vita è bella!

It will be a while until I see any long term effects because I plan to do this more often. But for now my skin is actually brighter and my face feels a lot softer. Fantastic chocolate experiment.

 

Claudio Corallo ~ Gengibre (Ginger)

 

 

Gengibre (Ginger)

 

Type: Flavored, Bittersweet, 75%

Bean Varitetal: Trinitario, Hybrid

Ingredients: Cocoa, sugar, crystallized ginger, cocoa butter.

Sample Size: 50g or 1.76oz

 

Appearance: Two non-monogrammed tablets of chocolate, mildly ashy, couple of surface cracks, bumpy surface from the crystallized ginger, a few white rings around the ginger that wasn't completely submerged in chocolate.

Score: 90

Snap: Fairly decent and firm snap this time around. Light but crisp snapping sound. Asymmetrical but clean break lines.

Score: 92

Aroma: Dominating ginger right out of the gate. But more like a fresh pickled ginger and wasabi. Tar and roasted notes from the cacao, ginger and chocolate give way to some lemony characters, a few blueberry notes.

Score: 94

Taste: Sweet up front, light, clean ginger taste in the beginning, sugary crystallized ginger, slight hints of soap, a weird mix of the cocoa and ginger in the center but the sugary and spicy ginger takes over and completely tones down the big, rustic, and bitter cocoa.

Score: 92

Texture: A little hard at first, then opens up to a little bit of a gritty texture on just the chocolate, medium melt time, and soft chewy crystallized ginger.

Score: 89

 

This is one of those moments where I must be as objective as I can because I am not a fan of ginger. This chocolate surprised me over all though.

Finally, I got some tablets that came intact. I always get broken tablets from Corallo. These were intact albeit a little ashy and white sugar rings from the crystallized ginger. But still you get a look at their more rustic tablets and more of a feel for the plainness of it all and the raw chocolate tablets. And the snap was nice and firm this time. Usually there is very little snap to speak of. These tablets tend to be fairly soft. This had a nice little snap for being thin tablets.

It smelled like fresh pickled ginger and wasabi and roasted char aromas from the cocoa. It opens up with a sweet taste, and a clean ginger taste, a bit tangy and lemony from the roasted characters of this rich chocolate and the crystallized ginger. I think the ginger dominates the flavor of this bar. The chocolate barely has time to shine. There is a moment when it's boldness comes through. But there is a slight weird interaction in the middle with the ginger and the char characters. Then it had a bit of a soapy taste. This is why I usually don't like ginger. The clean flavors up front were very nice and giving way to that lemony taste with the cocoa, but then it turns into soap and flavors that my palate flat out rejects. But this soapy flavor doesn't last long which is why this chocolate surprised me and ended up being a lot better than I expected. I think the sugars had a lot to do with keeping those off flavors at bay. And that crystallized ginger is very sweet.

I do feel like the ginger was a bit overwhelming over all. But this isn't a bad thing. This is perfect for those who adore all things ginger. However, I wish the chocolate interacted more and gave off more flavors. The sugars only gave way to the chocolates contrasting flavors like tar, and bitter roasted notes. There wasn't a good enough balance in my personal opinion. But like I said, as someone who isn't a lover of ginger, this was actually pretty nice over all.

The texture was a bit of a mixed bag for me. It was loaded with the soft and chewy crystallized ginger bits, but the actual texture of the chocolate was hard, fairly dry, and a bit gritty. If only the chocolates texture was smoother and softer and just just a bit more of an impact on the flavor, this would have had an exceptional score.

 

Final Score: 91.4

   score
  B+

Claudio Corallo ~ Sablé 80%

 

 

 

Click to enlarge images.

 

Sablé "Sandy" 80%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 80%

Bean Varietal: Trinitario/ Hybrid

Ingredients: Cocoa, sugar, cocoa butter.

Sample Size: 50g or 1.76oz

 

Appearance: Two raw and unrefined tablets, broken tablets, no molding, large course sugar lightly covering the top and mixed with in, but not overly sugared and shiny. No glossy finish but a matte finish.

Score: 90

Snap: Thinner tablets, lightly firm crisp snap, lightly audible, but clean break lines that left a clear image of the hallows inside from the course sugar.

Score: 89

Aroma: Huge, massive aroma. Fresh coffee grinds, roasted cocoa, char, burnt toast, a bit medicinal, rubber, tar, and huge blueberries. Very slight lingering aromas of honey and cinnamon.

Score: 98

Taste: Sweet sugar up front, then charred and roasted cocoa, deeply bitter but not astringent or acidic, toasted almonds and cereal grains, and a light Cinnamon finish. The sugar is balanced and comes through at various stages of tasting. Lingering char from retro-olfaction.

Score: 96

Texture: Crunchy sugar crystals, dry and chalky, medium melt time.

Score: 82

 

I have learned to appreciate the simplicity of these bars appearance. I wasn't as kind in my first review of Claudio Corallo on appearance. Technically they should score real low on appearance but this is just straight up chocolate and simply molded. It isn't trying to be fancy and it isn't trying to be glamorous, which I like about these bars. Either be pretty and have an elaborate or unique/signature molding or just be raw and natural. It was just too broken up to score higher for rustic integrity in my opinion.

The aroma is by far and away one of the biggest aromas I have ever smelled on a bar. I took all the notes I could upon opening this package, I then repeatedly went back to the package and it took two full weeks for the aroma to dissipate from it's packaging. It still has this amazing toasted cinnamon aroma. It's like my inhaler. Two weeks later!

The aroma right out of the package was amazing. Huge blueberries underneath some pretty raw char aromas. Roasted cocoa and coffee grinds. Like someone took freshly ground, super strong, French roasted coffee grinds and put it in with this bar. But the blueberries held on. It had lots of charred aromas, burnt toast and rubber. That might not sound very appealing to some people, but I love how funky it is.

The taste is deeply bitter without any astringency or acidity. The large course sugar was exactly what this chocolate needed. It added a good sweet balance and crunchy texture. The flavor was toasted grains and cinnamon with coffee and char. Breakfast chocolate. Cinnamon toast and coffee. The char on the aroma was not as robust on the flavor but still nice mingling with toasted almonds. Not very fruity. I was hoping for a blueberry taste as strong as it was on the aroma.

Aside from the crunchy sugar crystals, I wasn't in love with the texture of this chocolate. It's dry, and chalky and had a medium long melt time. This chocolate would be perfection if it had a creamier texture.

 

Final Score: 91

    score
 B+

Mast Brothers + Stumptown Coffee

 

 

Once again my partners in craft. American Craft Chocolate makers The Mast Brothers. This time they have paired up with Stumptown Coffee. Stumptown is out of Portland, Oregon with branches out in Seattle and now in New York. They make some of the best coffee in the nation. You might see Wil Wheaton tweet about this place a time or two. Sixpoint Craft Ales, another New York connection and fellow partner in the craft world, also uses Stumptown in some of their beer offerings. Locals supporting locals.

 

Madagascar base peppered with coffee beans on top. The beans are direct trade from Africa, part of the Kayanza Province in Burundi. The coffee beans are then roasted in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Madagascar beans are organically farmed in Madagascar and then roasted, cracked, winnowed and stone-ground, and aged in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

 

 

 

Mast Brothers Dark Chocolate + Stumptown Coffee

Type: Bittersweet, 72%

Bean Varietal: Unknown but probably Trinitario.

Ingredients: Cacao 72%, organic cane sugar, coffee beans.

Sample Size: 2.5oz or 70g

 

 

Appearance: Amazing contrast between the brown on brown colors of the chocolate and coffee beans. The chocolate was a lighter brown and a bit ashy. But the coffee beans were bright and popped against the background of the bar. The actual molded surface was ashy as well but smooth.

Score: 91

Snap: Decent and firm snap. Clean, but asymmetrical break lines.

Score: 92

Aroma: All coffee. Not freshly brewed coffee, but rich cracked beans. A bit like used coffee grinds. The roasted cocoa enhances the coffee aroma.

Score: 91

Taste: Coffee right up front, but then the tangy sharpness of the madagascar cocoa takes over. Sharp at first and a little bit acidic. But then it's followed by rich fruitiness and roasted wood flavors on the cocoa. Classic Madagascar flavors. It finishes with the crunchy coffee bits leaving a coffee and fruity taste. Very well balanced on the finish. The coffee is also not bitter and not acidic. Just lovely and roasted.

Score: 95

Texture: Creamy and crunchy. It's obviously supposed to be crunchy but the chocolate texture was smooth and creamy and the coffee beans were excellent and crunchy but not gritty.

Score: 91

 

The appearance score should have been a bit lower, but that gorgeous contrast of lighter chocolate and coffee beans saved the day. It was ashy. It's tough when reviewing the Mast Brothers. They shine when their bars are super fresh. With in a couple of weeks. After that they are very sensitive products. It only really effects the appearance in small ways. Maybe some ashy surfaces and maybe some streaking.

The taste on this bar is fantastic. The big bold complexities of Madagascar cocoa is exactly what was needed to balance and play off of the coffee beans. The cocoa added a big spike of acidity and bitterness, but quickly smoothed out with fruits, and roasted wood flavors. This toned down what might have been a double whammy of bitterness from the coffee beans and allowed a lovely rich roasted flavor off the beans. Very well balanced on the finish but the opening was huge for various flavors.

And the texture was great too. Crunchy and creamy at the same time. Not gritty.

I loved this. It's gorgeous to look at and tastes awesome. There is a lot going on with the flavor of this bar. I think this is one of their best flavored bars yet. That's a pretty big statement. If you have ever tried their Salt and Pepper bar then you will know that that bar was tough to beat.

Be advised though, to expect a big caffeine kick. Chocolate naturally contains it and more than most people are aware of. And of course the coffee beans. You will be jacked so I advise eating it little bits at a time. Unless you are at work and really need to woken up, then you can eat this whole thing.

 

Final Score: 92.4

   score
  B+