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Fleurir ~ The Midwest Bar

 

 

 

Virginia chocolate from some Virginia pals for a Virginia girl. Thanks to Jeff Evans who sent this to me.  I may be a Masshole now, but I never forgot where I came from.

Jeff was nice enough to send up Fleurir bars in a big shipment of beer that was sent to us by Chuck Triplett. They had a good time at our Extreme Beer festival, and this was a very generous thank you. I have followed Fleurir on twitter checking out some of their truffle flavors like peanut butter and banana. They have been on my radar for a little while.

They are actually pretty funny too. Check out their "About Us" page.

Their blends and flavors on these regional inspired bars, in a way, remind of Chocolat Moderne. Different concepts as Chocolat Moderne is into art and art history, but the flavor blends with dried fruits and Valrhona chocolate blended bases is more what I was thinking. Although Fleurir is more artful in their packaging and their splatter painted molded bars.

 

 

The Midwest Bar

 

Type: Filled, blended bar.

Bean Varietal: N/A

Ingredients: Dark chocolate (cocoa bean, sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin), Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, cocoa beans, soya lecithin), Michigan cherries, and black walnuts.

Sample Size: 75g or 2.7oz

 

Appearance: Deep dark brown color, standard non-monogrammed molding, very shiny, artful splatter paint design on the top surface of the bar, large visible walnuts and cherry fillings on the back side, Some drying by the walnuts, and some plastic matting marks on the top surface.

Score: 92

Snap: Good snap, mildly audible but firm, crumbly break lines.

Score: 90

Aroma: Soft aroma with mild smoky notes and nuts.

Score: 85

Taste: Sweet, a little tangy right up front, inky, and bitter cacao flavors, nutty, wood flavors, tart and tangy dried cherries, dry walnuts. Straight forward.

Score: 93

Texture: Smooth and hard up front, medium melt-time, nice chewy dried cherries, and crunchy walnuts.

Score: 91

 

I love the way this bar looks. Simple molding, even some pretty big plastic matting marks, but that could not detract from the brightness of the spattered paint design on top contrasting the dark brown color. Super shiny too.

Very straight forward bar. Bold Valrhona cacao with big woody flavors, mixed with nutty flavors and ink. I would be really awesome if I could identify the Valrhona in this bar. I am good, but not that good. Not yet anyway. And not with the fillings adding their own flavors.

The natural wood and nut flavors on the cacao are very different than the walnuts. The walnuts give added depth. They also do not dominate the bar because the cacao is so rich. I recently had a discussion about whether a chocolate maker should add more nuts to their candy bars. He said he was worried about the pecan flavor dominating the bar. I disagreed because it was the one flavor you were looking for and was sort of lacking. Also for textural reasons. But in this case, the walnuts, although they can be a more subtle flavored nut, prove me right. More is always better. The cherries don't even dominate this bar. It's all a nice harmony. The cherries give a nice tart bite, and then a textural change with chewy on top of the crunchy nuts. But they are present themselves and still leave the chocolate flavors as the dominant feature of the bar.

I find the walnut flavors and the difference in the nuttiness on the chocolate fun to taste and the best part as far as thinking in depth about this bar. They are so different. There were some lingering inky flavors and bitterness, but the sugars balanced this bar nicely as well as the dry nuts, and the tangy and tart cherries.

I hope the Midwest is happy with this bar because it tastes good. There is not a lot of guff with with bar. Just a pretty looking bar and a nice balance of flavors. Full flavors, but straight forward. The only thing weak about this was the aroma. Virtually nothing there but a little smokiness, and walnuts. Not very strong or dynamic.

 

Final Score: 90.2

   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+