Two very different products reviewed from Olive & Sinclair, the Brittles and the Buttermilk White Chocolate. Now back to our regularly scheduled program with some regular dark chocolate.
Tennessee chocolate artisans with a bittersweet chocolate bar on that line of semisweet and bittersweet. Stone ground chocolate using Ghana beans and brown sugar instead of cane sugar.
Type: Bittersweet, 67%
Bean Varitetal: Unknown
Ingredients: Cacao beans, brown sugar, cocoa butter.
Sample Size: 2.75oz
Batch #: 120912
Appearance: Wide square bar, with large, monogrammed tablets, deep dark brown color, sloppy backside with fill lines and slightly ashy, broken from shipping, some matted and scuff marks on the surface.
Score: 84
Snap: Decent snap with clean break lines, crisp snap sound.
Score: 91
Aroma: Nice full fudgy aroma. Brownies, sweet brown sugar, dry wood, and almonds.
Score: 94
Taste: Cocoa powder, very bitter up front, sweet sugars, brownie batter, almonds, rich full flavors.
Score: 91
Texture: Slightly hard, medium melt-time, but smooth texture. Fairly smooth and creamy texture once opened up.
Score: 91
The appearance on this bar is interesting. I like the shape and molding of the bar. The tablets although wide, are not too thick to bite into. Great thickness. I always love monogrammed moldings too. But it arrived broken, and it had some matting on the surface. Not too bad but enough to impact it's score. The back of the bar you could see fill lines. Mixed bag on the appearance.
Good snap. A little weak at the molded lines, but snapping a tablet in the center provided a nice snap with clean break lines.
The aroma was straight forward and very indicative of Ghana beans. All fudgy brownies. You could smell the sweet brown sugars too and a little bit of dried wood and almonds. Lovely aroma and simple.
The taste is as straight forward as the aroma. Fudgy brownies, cocoa powders, almonds, sweet brown sugars. But the bitterness is interesting. As sweet as it is, it opens with a bitter kick up front and then hangs on and lingers throughout the taste giving good depth to the sweet brown sugars. It's very bitter for a 67%. Not acidic or tart, just deeply bitter. That bitterness also allows an interesting clean taste on the very, very end of the finish. Like a slight hint of a perfume-y laundry soap. Very faint though.
The texture is a little hard with a medium melt-time, but not gritty. A little drying but overall creamy once it opens up. Nice texture for a stone ground. You listening Taza? The things you can acheive when you are not riding on mistakes as historical representations.
I liked this bar. I wish it was on my regular store shelves. That brownie taste is so classic of Ghana and it's really wonderful and rich. I would bake all the time with this kind of chocolate. I am going to have to order a bunch of 67%'s and bake a Mississippi Mud cake with it. I will post the results of that if I do order more. Winter is coming though, chocolate cake season is upon us.
Final Score: 90.2
B+
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