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Patric Chocolate ~ PBJ OMG

 

 

**Archived notes

 

Back to what works. This bar was reviews a month or two ago, but I have the taste in my mind right now remembering how good this bar is. I was supposed to have reviewed this last year, but I let it slip and then it just got too late to post it. So, I ordered a fresh round of Patric and decided to start over again.

The notes are not that much different from last year to this year. This year's batch was a little less jammy than the year before. Patric Chocolate is one of my all time favorite American bean-to-bar producers. He is finally having a lot of fun and coming up with insanely good new creations. Most recently reviewed was the amazing Salty Signature Seventy. And now my second time around with the PBJ OMJ.

While I think the name of this bar is corny, it is anything but in it's taste. Alan McClure blended peanut butter in just the right amount with jammy Madagascar dark chocolate to give a roasted peanut butter and defaulted jam flavor from the natural berry/fruity flavors on the chocolate. It's a brilliant idea and it's executed so well. Patric's Madagascar was some of my first introductions to Madagascar cacao and I have rarely run into anyone with the same level of quality and flavors.

 

 

PBJ OMG (Seasonal)

 

Type: Flavored dark chocolate

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Cacao, cane sugar, natural peanut butter (roasted peanuts, salt), cocoa butter, sea salt.

Sample Size: 2.3 oz or 65g

 

Appearance: Rich beautiful orange-ish brown color, monogrammed molding with no tab squares, matted textured surface from molding, but shiny and smooth surface. (Minor scratch on the surface came from me.)

Score: 95

Snap: Very soft snap, a little rubbery but still had a slight snapping sound and clean break lines.

Score: 83

Aroma: Nice full but simple aroma of roasted peanuts and jammy fruits. Sweet and rich cacao too.

Score: 94

Taste: Rich roasted peanuts right up front, a little bitter from the dark chocolate, good balance of sugars, fruity notes but more buttery and savory, a little tangy, faint hints of coffee, and Madagascar woody finish.

Score: 92

Texture: Super soft and creamy. Medium-fast melt-time, smooth texture.

Score: 93

 

I have to say, I am not a fan of the new molding from Patric. Well, not so new anymore, but I don't like the splatter paint design at all. His molding before was so much more sophisticated. Putting that aside, look at how gorgeous the color of this bar is. It's a great color, no surface blemishes, and a great shine despite a textured surface. It's a beauty of a bar.

The peanut butter has the same taste as the year before. Adds a nice richness and even some slight coffee notes with the roasted peanuts and bitterness of the cacao. It's a little less fruity than the previous year. But not by much. It's less tangy but more savory and buttery this year. Still has nice fruits that give off the intended effect of peanut butter and jelly. Leaves a classic Madagascar wood flavor on the finish from retro-olfaction.

The texture was fantastic and smooth, the aroma was to die for, and it tasted fantastic. Just a little weak snap was the only thing really wrong with the bar. It bent quite a bit before it snapped. But it still gave way to a slightly decent snap sound despite how soft it is.

Excellent flavored chocolate. A great blend of peanut butter without making it PEANUT BUTTER. It's such a dominating flavor. While, this bar is definite on it's roasted peanut taste, it doesn't take away from the gorgeous Madagascar cacao. I love that about this bar. It's a great blend that really shines on both elements.

 

Final Score: 91.4

   score
  B+

Olive & Sinclair ~ Buttermilk White Chocolate 45%

 

 

 

The bar that got me in trouble with my ordering. It all started with a simple tweet from Olive & Sinclair announcing they released these Buttermilk White Chocolate bars. I love all things buttermilk being a good southern woman at my core (when it comes to food only). I logged on to order this bar, and ended up with 5 bars of chocolate and two kinds of cacao nib brittle.

This is my first experience with Olive & Sinclair and I was quite happy with the Brittles being tastes first. I am actually a believer in white chocolate. I haven't always loved the commercial crap that is usually sold and used for baking. It's generally too sweet, and too artificial tasting. But having experienced craft white chocolates, I am sold on how good they can actually be. I am also a believer that white chocolate is in fact chocolate. Or at the very least a crucial part of the cacao bean and in some cases makes up more of the bean. So many hardcore reviewers and so-called experts will disagree vehemently that it is not chocolate because it does not contain cacao liquor. Without getting too technical, in my point of view, a cacao bean is made of roughly 55% cocoa butters or fats according to Beckett's The Science Of Chocolate Second Edition. It's the seed's food supply. The bean and winnowed down nib is made up of more fat that ends up pressed away. Low and high quality fats are pressed from nibs and separated. They go hand in hand. I am sure many actual experts will disagree and argue until they are blue in the face, but cacao cannot be without it's main food supply which is the fats that are pressed away for cacao liquors and pastes.

Where people draw the line is with the content of white chocolate is that it's made of up the pressed cacao fats, milk powders, vanilla, and sugar without having any cacao liquor or paste put into it. But again with the nibs and seeds being made up predominately of fats and cacao butters, I am inclined to consider white chocolate real chocolate. I welcome comments and debates about this subject.

Back to Olive & Sinclair. This is a white chocolate bar done with buttermilk powder, salt, and black peppercorns. This is not the Buttermilk White with Salt and Pepper bar though. I am noticing they hallmark some of their products with hints of salt and pepper. It does say they used "Unfiltered" cacao butter. I am wondering if that just means it hasn't been deodorized. Cocoa butter is aromatic and pungent and is often deodorized so that it can be added to chocolate bars without effecting the taste.

 

 

Buttermilk White Chocolate 45%

Type: White chocolate, 45%

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Cane sugar, organic unfiltered cacao butter, buttermilk powder, milk powder, kosher salt, black peppercorns.

Sample Size: 2.75 oz

Batch #: 041313

 

Appearance: Arrived broken, Creamy white color with black flecks of pepper, short and wide bar with large tabs, custom monogrammed molding, smooth surface with muted shine, slight particles on surface.

Score: 84

Snap: Nice firm snap, good snap sound, clean break lines.

Score: 91

Aroma: Big aroma of dry roasted cacao, nutty, wood, and cream, slightly peppery.

Score: 94

Taste: Creamy, lightly salty, very peppery, a little funky, tangy buttermilk flavors, slight lingering nutty flavors but mostly lingering pepper and milk on the palate.

Score: 76

Texture: Smooth surface, medium melt-time, gritty texture, a little chewy and gummy.

Score: 73

 

I like the molding on this bar. The tabs are wide, but not too thick to bite into. I am disappointed that it came broken though. All the bars were broken in the same place. But the color is good and the molding is great. Simple and monogrammed. Nothing too fancy.

I love love love the aroma on this bar. It's simple yet super full and wonderful. I love the huge dru roasted nutty aromas, and big wood aromas mixed with cream. There is really nothing more to the aroma than that except a little bit of pepper. I personally love this aroma. It's not what I expected at all for this bar. I expected sweet vanilla aromas and cream.

The taste is interesting. I wasn't entirely sold on it. The buttermilk makes it tangy and creamy, adds a little funk to this bar. But it's overwhelmed by the black pepper. The salt adds a nice contrast up front to the sugars, but then the tangy buttermilk and pepper take over and it's unbalanced. The tang and pepper detracts from the creamy quality of the white chocolate. I also think there are undertones of that nutty quality that wants to come out more but is overtaken by the dominating pepper. It's not supposed to be a salt and pepper bar either. Unless I got one mislabeled.

Not all is lost with the taste though. This needs to be cut up and baked into macadamia nut cookies. Buttery cookies with buttery nuts, and tangy, spicy white chocolate to add a different direction.

I had much higher hopes for this bar. I think it would be great without the black pepper. It's just too much and destroyed everything about this bar. The salt was fine even with the tangy buttermilk, it added a balance without interferring too much with the flavors. But overall, the taste just didn't work out.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time.....

 

Final Score: 83.6

   score
  C+