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Marou ~ Bà Rịa 76%

 

 

Le sigh, le sad face, le shit....

My final review with Marou. It feels kind of sad. But I can't complain. This has been a very generous offering of samples sent to me and I have really enjoyed writing about them. Not since Alan McClure have I felt this connected to a chocolate maker and talked to them through each review and learned more as the reviewing went on. And talk about a geography lesson. I knew next to nothing about Vietnam. My least favorite subject involving wars. This was a nice way to set all that stuff aside explore the southern tip of the country by way of cacao.

Our final stop takes us to the Bà Rịa-Vang Tau province just a little bit north-east of Ho Chi Minh City. Beans sourced directly from family farms. You can one of the other surrounding provinces from the other bars.

 

[Image via vietecon.org]

 

 

Bà Rịa 76%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 76%

Bean Varietal: Trinitario

Ingredients: Cacao, cane sugar, and cocoa butter.

Sample Size: 100g

 

Appearance: Dark brown surface, but an ashy lighter brown interior. More like a subdued mahogany color. Monogrammed molding, a little scuffed and a little bit of particle matter, but over all in great shape. Still fairly shiny and looking good.

Score: 91

Snap: Good firm snap, not too hard this time. Crisp snapping sound. Slightly crumbly break lines, asymmetrical break lines against it's own molding lines.

Score: 92

Aroma: Very inky right up front, roasted cacao, char, subdued earthiness, brewed coffee through retro-olfaction, and a soft, mild sweet aroma on top like honey. Not a direct wild flour smell, but a sticky sweet smell sitting on top.

Score: 93

Taste: Big fruits right up front, tannins, sour and acidic, big wood flavors, char, roasted coffee flavors and bitterness, very faint traces of grapes or jam in the fruit flavor, lemon rind finish. A lot of lingering flavors on the palate. A tad cloying.

Score: 87

Texture: Smoother texture, medium melt-time, creamy center once it begins opening up. Not too hard despite it's thickness.

Score: 92

 

The final bar and it held up well. Really great shape. Different color from the others. An interesting ashy mahogany color. No significant scuffing or damage from transport.

The snap was so much different than all the others. Same thick molding, but this chocolate was so much different for some reason. It snapped easier, and felt almost airy compared to the other bars. Crumbly and asymmetric break lines, but still so much more pleasant the others. Great crisp sound too.

Very straight forward and big aroma. Just the brewed coffee from retro-olfaction that isn't exactly clear until you breathe back, but it's definitely there. Big fruits, a little sweet, but some tangy acids that get a little aggressive. It's not totally un-welcomed, but definitely toeing that line. I think the sugars and the big fruits help hold it at bay, but it is very aggressive on the flavor and sour, tart notes. It has some deep bitters, and bold wood flavors as well.

Samuel said this one was the fruitiest one of the bunch, but to be honest, the fruits on the Bển Tre 78% were better. They were only competing with bitterness. The fruits compete with too much sour on this bar so it's hard to focus on them. But I will say, just for a second, I got some jamminess (probably not a real word), a split second of the taste of grapes. The wood flavors and char add a nice depth and something great in the bar than just the strong bitterness.

The texture was much nicer than the Bển Tre though. Much smoother. Same melt-time, same creaminess that opens up in the center, but not hard like the others. None of the drying chalkiness observed on the other bar.

This bar hits all the technical marks, but the acidity and sourness is just too much for me personally. It's still good chocolate, but I would say it's the least favorite for me out of the group. The Dồng Nai 72% wa by far the best. Really interesting chocolate, all 4 bars. Each very different than one and other and the regions the beans are coming from are not very far apart from one and other

Marou has proved to be a great new company with a very unique perspective by actually living in the jungles where their beans are sourced from. I hope to see more of their presence in the U.S. But I know a certain Bangkok chef eagerly awaiting his chance to try something sourced pretty much locally from his point of view. I patiently await Bangkok street-food and S.E. Asian chocolate fusion dishes......

 

Final Score: 91

   score
  B+

Marou ~ Bển Tre 78%

 

 

 

My third bar from Marou, Faiseurs de Chocolat. French chocolatiers whom uprooted their lives and moved to Ho Chi Minh City and became chocolatiers using cacao beans directly from their source.

Bển Tre province of Vietnam. Situated on the Mekong Delta just below Tiền Giang in southern Vietnam. Rich crop producing area known for coconuts as well as durians, and mangoes.

Hot and tropical, a natural fit for cacao production.

 

[Image via: Traveling Vietnam Tours]

 

In the last two reviews, molding and appearance were the subject of some of the lower marks received on the bars. After talking to Samuel about it I learned a bit more about the molding of their bars. As Samuel noted, one of the reasons for the thick molded bars is due to the heat in Vietnam. You can get by with regular molding or they would melt too quickly. I should have probably made that connection myself, but it is an interesting approach.

Just today they blogged about the evolution of their molding from metal baking pans to custom moldings.

Breaking the Mold.

The shipping is one of the reasons for some of the more superficial appearance issues. This bar unfortunately, took more of the brunt than the others. It's not easy getting bars from Vietnam to Michigan and then off to Cambridge. I take those factors into accountability when reviewing the bars. Ultimately it's about the taste.

 

 

Bển Tre 78%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 78%

Bean Varietal: Trinitario

Ingredients: Cocoa, cane sugar, cocoa butter.

Sample Size: 100g

 

Appearance: Deep dark brown color, monogrammed molding, broken in two pieces with lot's of particle matter on the bar and some scuffing. Couple of air bubbles in the chocolate once snapped open.

Score: 87

Snap: Very hard snap, loud audible snap sound, crumbly break lines.

Score: 89

Aroma: Big aroma of roasted cacao, a little sweet smelling, fruits, inky, tar, brewed coffee, mild floral aromas, and a spicy character than almost comes off like a faint cinnamon aroma.

Score: 94

Taste: A mild hint of cinnamon right up front coupled with a bit of mustiness. Bold, very bitter, lot's of big fruit, charred cacao, inky with deep wood flavors, a little acidic, toasted biscuit flavors, very subtle floral flavors towards the finish. Lingering toast flavors on the finish.

Score: 92

Texture: A little hard, medium melt-time, a little chalky and slightly drying on the palate, but it does have a medium balance with the creaminess and rawness of the chalky texture.

Score: 89

 

I realize the transport issues took the worst toll on this bar in particular so I didn't take too much off for that in rating it as I mentioned before, but the effects were undeniable and it lost it's luster and some shine from all the particles and forced ashy appearance from those particles. There was some scuffing but it was very minor. Again, this is a tough call on rating when external issues are the problem and not the skills of the chocolate makers. I have to give it a grade but I always let my readers know if there are caviats to consider.

Again with the hard snap. It makes sense now that I understand the heat issues in the region they are at, but still makes it hard to break up. Although this one wasn't as hard biting into as the previous bars had been. Still, too thick for this climate.

The aroma was quite big with a lot of individual nuances. Sometimes the smells sort of blend together and that's when I get generic descriptors like pen ink. But this aroma had a lot going on and presented themselves separately. An interesting cinnamon-like aroma on this bar after all the big char and fruity aromas made it interesting.

The flavor was big. It's 78% so it warns you about how bold it's going to be but the flavor isn't as dynamic as it's aroma. And by dymanic, I just mean it's not as nuanced. It's very straight forward. Very bitter, a little bit acidic, but it had a huge fruity flavor. I wish it carried the coconut flavors the cacao trees grow next to in this region. That would have been awesome. Natural coconut without vanillas forcing it out. Like the Bali bar from Artisan du Chocolat with the natural banana flavors from growing in the same terroir.

It does have that slight hint of cinnamon on the opening taste, but that's quickly overtaken by the bitterness and fruits. Bold wood flavors, a little mustiness. It's such a mixed bag of dank rawness and big fruity complexity. Very big flavored chocolate. This is for the fans who like their palates aggressively inundated. The fruit in it made me want to bake with it. I think this would be some of the worlds best baking chocolate. It's also making me think about wine pairings. I am wondering which way is the right way to go with something like this. Sweeter ports or muscats to address the bold and deep bitters? Or pair a dry red with similar deep bitter flavors essentially canceling each other out to bring out even more of the fruits? I will have to take what's left of this bar and test it out at one of my local watering holes.

The texture had a confusing blend of chalkiness and creaminess. Good melt-time, but a little drying on the palate. It roughed up my palate a bit. A combination of the bitters and the texture.

This bar is for the hardcore bitter fans. It's so robust and bitter yet holds it's own with a big fruit taste and even some faint traces of a floral aspect to it.  If you like your coffee black and heavily roasted, you will love this.

 

Final Score: 90.2

   score
  B+