Galler ~ Blended Venezuela Papouasie - 43%

 

 

**Archived notes. 

 

I have been going through my little Doctor Who notebook where I take all of my chocolate notes, and I found this gem I forgot to blog about. I was in Belgium last year while my husband was being Knighted for his efforts with beer. In The Grand Place is a tiny little Galler shop where I picked up a couple of bars. 

This one is a milk chocolate bar and I almost forgot I bought it until I went through these bars. I kind of grabbed bars to hurry up and get out of the shop. The woman who was working there at the time was very unpleasant and would barely talk to me when I tried to ask questions. It wasn't a translation thing either. It was a rude bitch issue. But I must make note that since that time, I have gone back to Belgium, and Galler's customer service has improved immensely. But that's for another post. I will detail the dramatic change when I write about Galler's Kaori set. 

A blended bar of Criollo beans from Venezuela and Forestaro beans from Papua New Guinea. I have been really happy with the quality of milk chocolates I have been fortunate enough to taste since starting this blog. It's almost converted me to say that some of these milk chocolates are more favorable than the bittersweet, dark chocolate bars. Almost, but still some of these milk bars are changing my mind every day. 

 

Blended Venezuela Papouasie 43%

Type: Blended milk, 43%

Bean Varietal: Criollo and Forastero

Ingredients: Sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, whole milk powder, soy lecithin, natural vanilla. 

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

 

Appearance: Deep caramel color, monogrammed molding, large tabs tablet, some minor matting marks on a few of the tabs, shiny smooth surface. 

Score: 93

Snap: Light crisp sound is due to thin lines from the molding, tabs too big to snap for comparison. But very clean break lines. 

Score: 90

Aroma: Cream and smoke. Milky creamy caramel aroma with light hints of smokiness. There were some deep underlying complex fruits but the milk dominates leaving a caramel aroma. 

Score: 94

Taste: Mellow and subdued, low smokiness, light tobacco leaves taste, creamy, lightly sweet, lingering smokiness on the finish, milky aftertaste, slight strawberry fruity notes. 

Score: 85

Texture: Slightly waxy upfront, but smooths out and has a creamy texture, medium melt time. 

Score: 91

 

This was a mixed bag for me. It's very robust on the aroma, with deeply rich caramel notes, cream, and smokiness. Then the taste is totally washed out. I can't tell it's due to the blended of cacao beans or wasted out in too much milk powder. It says on the wrapper 19% is milk powder. 

The color is gorgeous, and it despite it's very delicate flavor, the creaminess of this and it's texture make for good melting chocolate for hot chocolate. It's aroma and appearance really give this bar high marks. There was a bit of a fruity aroma, but the taste ended up being like strawberries and cream mixed with a little bit of smoke and a little bit of tobacco. Nice flavor even if it was faint. 

Although I expected more from the flavor, I still adore this chocolate and it's creaminess. This is a bar for weak or sensitive palates. But in my mind it's designed for creamy hot chocolate. 

 

Final Score: 90.6

  score
B+

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[Doreen Pendgracs]

Fun to find this post. It showed up in my li-paper on chocolate! Please visit my chocolate travel blog. The current post is on Mr. Galler! Find it at: http://diversionswithdoreen.wordpress.com/.