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Artisan du Chocolat ~ Bali 72%

 

 

 

**Archived notes.

 

I reviewed this bar a while ago. Sometime last year, but I still had the notes and pictures I took so I wanted to make sure this review got posted. It was a pretty interesting bar. A rare and limited edition bar. Strange and crazy banana notes on this bar. It's all about the bananas.

 

Bali, famed Indonesian island and tourist destination for Australians and many Europeans. Perfect tropical and lush jungle conditions for growing chocolate. Trinitario trees, probably brought over around the 1600's or 1700's when chocolate trees were being sent around the world to Africa and Asia.

 

In the Balinese jungle, everything around you is alive and bearing fruits from cacao to papaya, coffee, guava, pepper, banana or native snake fruit. With notes of sweet bananas and spices, the chocolate we make from these exotic beans is smooth, gentle, on the palate, low acidity, but is exhibiting in its flavours the lushness of its birthplace.

 

 

L'Artisan du Chocolat Bali, 72%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 72%

Bean Varietal: Trinitario

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

Sample Size: 45g

Lot #: 00006062

 

Appearance: Dusty and ashy, *but held up remarkably well. Simple, non-monogrammed molding, sill had some shine and a rather unblemished surface.

Score: 91

Snap: Nice firm snap, a little crumbly with the break lines.

Score: 92

Aroma: Big sweet aroma of ripened bananas, spicy, peppery, smoky, almonds, wood, earthy, inky.

Score: 96

Taste: Sweet, cocoa-y like powdered hot chocolate, mellow and mild, lightly bitter, tiny hints of acidity, fruity, peanuts, lingering banana flavors, and coffee grinds. Way later in the finish were mild hints of cinnamon toast.

Score: 92

Texture: A little waxy and a little hard at first, but does give way to a smooth texture and a medium melt time.

Score: 91

 

* I didn't take points away from its appearance. This was a bar I held on to for a while. It wasn't expired or past it's best by date, but I did push it with this bar and it held up remarkably well. It's a pretty basic molding and still had some residual shine and a unblemished surface. That's what I scored it on.

Snap quality was pretty great. Nice and firm and pretty audible. Just a little messy with the crumbles from the break lines.

Aroma was huge. What a fantastic and complex aroma this thing had. Sweet, fruity, and spicy and earthy. So much going on with the nose. Incredibly complex and diverse with it's range.

The flavor was fairly muted I thought. It tasted good and the bananas were insane but a lot of the flavors didn't come out until retro-olfaction. It opens up fairly sweet and with rich cocoa flavors but it was very reminiscent of hot chocolate cocoa powder. Not that that's a bad quality, but that's just what it reminded me of right in the beginning. It was pretty tame all over and had some wood flavors, sweet bananas, almonds, bitterness, and mild hints of char. More bananas at the end make their presence known but the lasting flavor on the palate was coffee grinds. It tasted really good, but it just wasn't as explosive as the aroma was. It wasn't as complex as the nose.

The texture was a little hard at first, not bad though, fairly waxy and chewy, but it does open up to a softer smooth texture with a medium melt.

Best and most curious aroma I have smelled in a while. I wish it's flavor was as dynamic, but it was still good to eat.

 

Final Score: 92.6

  score
  B+

 

Mast Brothers ~ Crown Maple 73%

 

 

 

Mast Brothers Chocolate and Crown Maple syrup from the Catkills. Simple enough concept, but not a lot of information about this bar except that it's made with Crown Maple products. No word on what the base chocolate is except it's 73% dark chocolate. Their minimalist website has zero information about it. Kind of frustrating to have to scour the web and other blogs to gather information about it. I get it guys, you are hipsters and artisans who don't like to use computers. But the rest of us do and we would like some more information about your products. Even after scouring, I still have no idea what the base is. I suspect it's either something Venezuelan or from the Dominican Republic.

Striking packaging as usual though.

 

Crown Maple

 

Type: Flavored bittersweet, 73%

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Cacao, maple sugar.

Sample Size: 2.5 oz

Batch # 21081211

 

Appearance: Deep dark brown color, shiny molded surface with streaky back side. Regular, non-monogrammed molding.

Score: 90

Snap: Light and dull snap sound, clean break lines with a chalky appearance on the break lines.

Score: 82

Aroma: Roasted cacao, smoky, little woody and a little tangy, caramel, medicinal, earthy, inky.

Score: 90

Taste: Tart, very acidic, inky, sour, big bold wood, toast, no maple taste whatsoever.

Score: 45

Texture: Very soft, grainy, fast melt time. Creamy but the grainy texture messes that up.

Score: 63

 

Tastes like something from Venezuela, but completely out of balance. This is the second time ever I have to report that I found a chocolate to be gross. It's terribly sour, extremely acidic, there is no natural harmony with the extremely robust flavors of the chocolate and the maple syrup. They're using a great product like a wonderfully natural maple syrup from small craft producers in the Catskills, you would think they would want that to shine through even just a little bit. I couldn't taste any of it in this bar. The chocolate is so over the top raw and untamed, it left little to be desired. I never thought I would say that about the Mast Brothers ever, but this bar was out of control.

It actually made my throat a little sore after eating a few squares from the acidity. I don't know what to make of that.

The appearance was simple and good. Just some odd streaking on the back of the bar. The aroma was fairly decent. But the snap was dull and weak and the texture was good up until the overly large granules of the chocolate interfered with that.

I am so frustrated with this bar. This is certainly not Mast Brothers quality that I am used to. In the past I have noticed consistency issues, and an acidity issue that I felt might become a problem if they didn't get on top of it. I noticed it in a couple of different bars making it a signature issue of the makers and not the beans. I have always said these guys are amazing. If they just tweak a few issues, they will be one of the best in the US. This bar was a huge step in the wrong direction.

This score should be lower than it is because taste is everything, but it's other technical marks hold it up higher than it should be.

 

Final Score:

score
D+

L'Amourette ~ Rio Caribe Superior 75%

 

 

Round two with L'Amourette. This time a Rio Caribe bar. Coastal Venezuelan region that has become very popular for all the bean-to-bar or small artisan chocolate makers right now. If looking at a map of the northern Venezuela coastline, Rio Caribe is on that eastern arm that branches out a bit from the mainland.

 

Via their website:

The luxuriant, fruit filled aroma with a hint of citrus is released when the silk-like texture melts before your tongue.

The taste is balanced—an intricate agreement between cacao butter and beans, made from hand selected

Rio Caribe Superior beans imported from Venezuela— hand crafted, giving individualism
to each bar.

Delicately roasted beans, 36-hour conching process.

 

Fair trade, Kosher, and vegan product.

 

No fooling around, let's get right into this.

Click images to enlarge.

 

 

Chocolat Noir 75%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 75%

Bean Varietal: Unknown, probably Trinitario.

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

 

Appearance: A rich mahogany color, nice and shiny and glossy, custom signature monogrammed molding, large square tabs, and it has chocolate particle dusting on it but much finer than the other bar I reviewed from them. Again, I think that was due to shipping.

Score: 92

Snap: Same issue with the other bar so I am literally cutting and pasting the exact same description and score.

"Very weak snap due to thin molding lines and overly large tabs. It's a light crisp snap from the molding lines, but a deep hard snap when breaking the fat tabs in half with moderately clean break lines."

Score: 86

Aroma: Big tar aromas, smoky, burnt, wood, nutty, acidic, mildly medicinal, and soft floral overtones.

Score: 92

Taste: Fruity, sweet, tangy, but still mild on astringency, herbal, tar, inky, complex bitters, buttery, slight hints of coconut, roasted cacao, earthy, peanuts, lingering bitter palate.

Score: 94

Texture: Smooth texture, medium melt time, this bar is much more creamy than silky and smooth like the other bar, but still very nice. 

Score: 94

 

Rio Caribe hasn't been one of my favorite regions. It gets high marks for it's deep complexities, and technical scores. But having said that, this was better than what I am used to. More depth of flavor than the typically over charred characters from the roasting on these beans. As mentioned in the previous review from L'Amourette, I heard that a lot of the beans that are sourced from Rio Caribe are roasted in the same facilities. This is why that overly charred taste on a wide range of brands using these beans. I haven't confirmed that, but it does make sense. However, there are certain hallmarks that I tend to find on a lot of coastal region beans from Venezuela, especially Rio Caribe. The deep earthy and medicinal flavors, tar and pen ink, and a deep bitterness.

I gave this bar high marks on it's taste because it was layered with lot's of complexities. One didn't interfere with one and other they just stripped away like peeling paint to revel the flavor underneath it. This bar had many different things going on, coconuts, peanuts, earthy, musty, dirty, tar, charred toast, butter, and fruit characters. The only thing I didn't really like was how bitter it was and how long it holds on after the chocolate has long melted away. It was fairly tangy on the first taste, but not sharp with acidity. Just deep bitters that over take the palate in the end.

I liked this much more for being less charred and more layed with flavors even if it's not my favorite region or favorite flavors. The coconut was faint and interesting as was the peanut character. But the medicinal flavors are not something I look forward to. Some people really dig funky flavors. Like sour heads who love Guezue and Lambics from Belgium. Which is why I always called Rio Caribe, a beer lovers chocolate. This is nerd chocolate, geek chocolate, thinking chocolate. This bar just happens to be more layered than usual and not dominated by the charred characters.

Texture was great, snap was weak with overly large tabs, but a full aroma and big full taste. Another winner I'd say.

 

Price point highlight: $4.80 a bar from their website.

 

Final Score: 91.6

   score
  B+