20°N & 20°S

B.T. McElrath ~ Salty Dog Chocolate Bar

 

 

B.T. McElrath, Minneapolis, MN.

I used to sell B.T. McElrath products while working for Formaggio Kitchen a few years ago. I haven't seen their products in a while so it was nice stumbling upon them at Beacon Hill Chocolates. The Salty Dog sounded like just right thing too. Butter Toffee pieces in dark chocolate with with salt. God bless sweet and salty products. 

This is a really cute about page they have set up on their website.

 

A beautiful innocent 19 year-old server caught the eye of the chef de cuisine at a country inn on the Mississippi River. So he tossed a few peas and carrots at her. Stunned, she retaliated with ice cubes. Duly impressed by her quick response and sure aim, the chef married her. And together, they started a thriving artisanal chocolate company in 1996.

Meet Christine: Wife, Partner, Visual Designer, and Chief Taster.
“Brian opened my eyes to the world of cuisine, and fine chocolates. He’s a true artist in every sense of the word. From the freshest whole ingredients, he blends and balances flavors and colors with natural finesse.”

Meet Brian: Meticulous Artisan Chocolatier, Visionary, (still impishly young and doesn’t care about age; a Libra through and through, balance is his watchword in taste and in Life). A graduate of the California Culinary Academy, Brian worked fastidiously as a chef for 18 years at nationally recognized restaurants, bistros, hotels and clubs in the Midwest including the Nicollet Island Inn and Interlachen Country Club.

Read more about them here. 

 

At first when looking up their products, there wasn't much listed on the product pages about the chocolate being use. But luckily they have a pretty good FAQ page. 

 

Are B.T. McElrath Chocolatier products organic?

Cacao trees, grown only in the tropical rainforests, are part of a wide variety of plants, animals, and insects which provide a complex, natural pest-management system. On family farms, pesticides are expensive to buy and difficult to apply to cacao trees, making most cacao farms inherently organic.

While organic certification verifies farming practices, it does not ensure the quality of the cacao and/or the fermentation of the beans, two factors that fundamentally affect the flavor of chocolate. We are ensured of the quality of our chocolate ingredients through the well established relationships with our trusted suppliers, which go back for generations.

What kind of chocolate do you use?

Our chocolate products are sourced from premier chocolate makers in the U.S., Europe, and South America.

Our proprietary 70% dark chocolate blend is made exclusively for B.T. McElrath Chocolatier by Guittard Chocolate Company of Burlingame, California, under their E. Guittard family of products. We find this relationship forwards our mutual commitment to innovation, tradition, and a sustainable global community.

Our proprietary 40% milk chocolate blend is created in our kitchens with chocolate sourced from Wilbur Chocolate Company of Lititz, PA, one of America’s oldest manufacturers of fine chocolate, as well as several European manufacturers.

What is your policy regarding socially responsible sourcing?

Our commitment to quality extends to supporting global efforts towards sustainability and partnering with suppliers who are pioneers of socially responsible business practices which match those of B.T. McElrath Chocolatier.

Our chocolate suppliers are members of the World Chocolate Foundation (WCF), Cocoa Livelihoods Program (CLP), UTZ certified, Rainforest Alliance, and are licensed by Fairtrade Labeling Organization.

Our suppliers are actively involved at origin and purchase through agents selected by the farmers and in some cases bought through direct relationships with the farmers. A premium price well over market value is paid. These are long standing relationships and we are proud to be a part of that global supply chain.

 

 

Salty Dog Chocolate Bar

 

Type: Bittersweet, 70% filled.

Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Dark Chocolate (chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin), toffee (pure cane sugar, butter, soy lecithin, bicarbonate of soda, salt, natural flavor), sea salt.

Sample Size: 3oz or 85g. 

 

Big chocolate-y aroma of almonds, butter, smoke, berries, tobacco and hints of nuts. Nice deep dark brown chocolate color, shiny surface on a simple molded tablet with fat tabs. Simple monogrammed molding with some minor scratches on the surface. 

Salty and rich dark chocolate. Smoky flavors on the chocolate with a little bit of char, pen ink, and berries, that comes through even with the salt. Virtually no toffee to speak of, however. Pretty disappointed with that since that sweet and salty combo was what I was really looking for. Small, skimpy specks of it scattered throughout the bar.

I was hoping for that crunch factor with the toffee, but it came from the waxy chocolate. While it was smooth chocolate once it sat on the tongue and began to open, it was way too hard to bite into. The molding has everything to do with that leaving overly large and fat tabs. The salt lent for some nice crunch for a second until it dissolves on the tongue. 

Despite the disappointing lack of toffee bits, the chocolates flavor and aroma was good and strong. Lot's of good flavor characters in it and a good balance with the salt. The only issue here is lack of toffee and a hard texture. 

This could have been so much more had the Toffee been actually present. The chocolate was good and rich, and the salt was a good balance. I really need chocolate makers to start putting put products that are what they say they are on the packaging. If it's toffee, then there needs to be significant toffee in it. This is my main issue with Vosges skimping people on the bacon in their bacon products. You don't put it in there, or you go really skimpy on it, then you get a low score for misrepresentation.

I've never had this problem before with B.T. McElrath. I don't know what's changed. Hopefully this was just a fluke. It's been known to happen. But for now, C-. 

 

  score
 C-

 

Seattle Chocolates ~ Birthday Cake

 

 

Seattle Chocolates 

Birthday Cake filled truffle bar in milk chocolate. Yellow cake mix with confetti bits wrapped in milk chocolate. 

 

Birthday Cake

Type: Filled, truffle/candy bar.

Bean Varietal: N/A

Ingredients: White Chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, whey powder, soya lecithin, pure vanillia), Milk Chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, chocolate liquor, soya lecithin, pure vanilla), Confetti cake mix (unbleached wheat flour, sugar, colored bits [sugar, corn syrup, corn, palm oil, modified food starch, colors {elderberry juice, spinach extract, paprika, tumeric, citric acid}, baking soda, natural vanilla flavor, cream of tartar, salt, carob bean gum, guar gum), palm kernal oil. 

Sample Size: 2.5oz or 70g

 

Milk chocolate surface with Seattle Chocolates signature wavy patterned surface. Four large tablets. Shiny surface and creamy milk chocolate color with some slight surface marks. 

Smelled a bit artificial out of the package. The milk chocolate gives off a bit of a smoky and creamy aroma. Once spilt open, the center gives way to a creamy milk chocolate aroma. 

Nice and fully filled center. The center was a blend of white chocolate with cake mix and confetti's. The center was a little hard at first with crispy crunchy confetti bits. It melts away to a softer creamier texture. 

The white chocolate is a big distraction. If you are a white chocolate fan than this will be good, but if you were expecting cake flavor, it's dominated by the white chocolate. The milk chocolate was artificial tasting too and ends up being more distracting to the cake idea too. There is nothing really cake-like about this bar at all. Except with it's appearance when you break into the bar. It looks like a layer of cake covered in chocolate but the confetti's barely pop out. 

I wanted to like this bar because it sounded like fun and it sounded like a good idea. They ruined it with white chocolate in the center and the white and milk chocolate tasted completely artificial which ruined the taste for me completely. I don't mind white chocolate that much but it overpowered this bar and left no yellow cake taste. The confetti's added a fun crunchy texture, but the rest of it was hard and waxy at first until it began to open up and melt on the palate. 

Playful? Yes. Tasty? Disappointed. 

 

  score
 D-

 

Vintage Plantations ~ 65% Dark

 

 

Vintage Plantations

New product alert for me. And thank god it's a company who likes to include all the information. I can't tell you how amazing it is to be able to click on a product and have all of the information there. No one has beaten the level of information Taza Chocolate provides, but this is pretty good information here. 

 

About: 

Unlike most chocolates made in Ecuador, Columbia, or Venezuela that tout themselves as “Farmer’s chocolates,” Vintage Plantations is an independent company. Not having to satisfy outside investors allows us to prioritize the quality of our products over the size of the bottom line.

The Mission: To support the small chocolate industry in countries where the chocolate originates by re-designing the cocoa commodity chain, thereby aiding farmers to adopt better farm management practices, protect the environment, ensure crops are free of harmful chemicals, and maximize their income in order to encourage the farmers’ optimal re-investment in the development of high-quality chocolate. The post-harvest cocoa processing is done in the country of origin, hence our seal (P.I.C.O. – Produced In Country of Origin) and we minimize the carbon footprint by eliminating unnecessary shipping.

The Challenge: We make chocolate in cooperation only with entities willing to follow the Rainforest Alliance Guidelines, and we train them to achieve very high standards of quality. We only support small farmers and league with local small enterprises in both Ecuador and the USA for all services needed to run our company.

We selected among three roasters to find the Ecuadorian partner which had the finest equipment to convert all the work we had done on fermentation into a ground liquor without losing any of the organoleptic qualities we had so carefully developed during cocoa bean fermentations. Since we have established this process for creating very high quality chocolates, we are proud to say that 17 new chocolate companies have sprung up in Ecuador, Venezuela, and Columbia following our footsteps. Vintage Plantations pioneered the renewal of artisan, batch chocolate making.

We have reconfigured chocolate making — from beans to bars — by requiring best farming and business practices in accordance with the Rainforest Alliance Guidelines. Moreover, we strive to balance the profit at every stage of the commodity chain between farmer and consumer, in order to make it more sustainable for all actors, thereby bringing added value to the chocolate in your hand.

The Result: Our model aims to protect you, the consumer, from the degradation of chocolate quality that is often the consequence of the single-minded pursuit of meeting “profit benchmarks” in major confectionery and chocolate industrial groups. Our products are made only from fermented, native original Vintage cocoa beans and honor the local flavor of the plantations, each harvest, and the distinctiveness of beans from one farm to another.

In order to get back to the vintage chocolate process of yesteryears, we had to design a new commodity chain, where only parties contributing to enhancing the quality of the end product were invited to join; those merely seeking profit from the current market imbalances were left out. The savings derived from circumventing the usual players were passed along to the farmer and re-invested in the development of the farms.

At Vintage Plantations, we have the unique perspective of having forged this standard of chocolate making from beginning, including several trials and unsuccessful partnerships from which we have been able to perfect and further develop our process. The end result, we are proud to say, is the first chocolate made with the farmer, offering you a“Vintage” chocolate of the highest quality.

 

Click the About link to find out more about their history and the Rainforest Alliance.

 

Product details: 

65% Vintage Plantations Dark Chocolate Bar (3.5oz/100g), Rainforest Alliance Certified, Sustainable Cocoa Program.

Made of 100% shaded Ecuadorian cocoa varietal "Nacional" – a classified "fine flavor cocoa". Its flavor is smooth, nutty, with a long dominant chocolate note and no bitterness or acidity. To transmit the purest flavor, we did not add any vegetable fat nor vanilla covering aroma. Our chocolate bars have a high content of cocoa solids, less cocoa butter fat and a lower glycemic index. The cocoa beans are roasted slowly to preserve the high antioxidant levels of pure cocoa.

Vintage Plantations' mission is to safeguard heirloom cocoa varietals, encourage sustainable shade cocoa cultivation methods preserving the rain forest, and guarantee a fair price for cacao farmers.

This project is the coordinated effort of Vintage Plantations with the Rainforest Alliance, a conservation organization dedicated to implement better business practices for biodiversity, conservation and sustainability and “Conservacion y Desarrollo,” the Rainforest Alliance’s partner in Ecuador which audits the sustainable cocoa certification program. Vintage Plantations develops the chocolate and guarantees heirloom traceability from the farmer to you. Together we plan to protect the shaded Cocoa plantations.

By buying our bars, you support the farmers directly, help preserve shaded native cocoa varietal in Ecuador and safeguard the Ecuadorian rain forest.

Additional Information

Product Weight	3.5 oz. / 100 g
Sugar-Free	No
Vegan	Yes
Gluten-Free	Yes
No Added Aroma(s)	Yes
Soy Lecithin Free	No
Certified by the Rainforest Alliance	Yes
Chemical-Free	Yes

 

 

As mentioned in another review, I have to preface this review with the unusual circumstances this bar found itself in. I reviewed this last year, or took pictures and notes on it and put the notes away until now. This bar has a very slight appearance of bloom appearance because I found this bar hiding in a drawer. While it was far from expired or past it's prime, the storage conditions were not exactly optimal. Having said that, this bar has held up remarkably well. Stored in plastic, it has upheld an amazing aroma and still has a very glossy surface. Just some slight beginnings of dusting and some superficial plastic matting marks. For the sake of honest reviewing I am informing my readers of a mistake in storage. Although it really hasn't effected this bar in any serious sort of way, I will not be deducting points for the presence of slight bloom. 

 

65% Dark

 

Type: Bittersweet, 65%

Bean Varietal: Nacional

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, raw cane sugar, soy lecithin.

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

 

Appearance: Simple non-monogrammed tablet, glossy finish, deep rich brown color, almost a hint of particle detection in the surface, minor scuffs and plastic wrapper matting on the surface and some slight beginnings of sugar bloom. 

Score: 89

Snap: Good firm snap, dull and low thud snapping sound, moderately clean break lines. 

Score: 90

Aroma: Big full robust aroma, very perfume-y. Right out of the package it smelled like rich cream and butter, almonds, coconuts, and deep red wine aromas. After it aired out a bit it still maintained a big aroma and became more floral and soft. The snap gave way to some added red wine aromas. 

Score: 94

Taste: Sweet, earthy, flowery, fruity, coconuts, nutty, wood, deep bitters, no astringency, a little bit oak-y and flowery jasmine at the same time on the finish through retro-olfaction, some clean laundry-like flavors, hints of coffee, lingering pen ink and wood flavors.

Score: 96

Texture: Smooth and glossy surface, a little chewy, creamy, medium melt-time, drying effect on the palate.

Score: 91

 

A lot to think about with this chocolate. Some minor surface issues, and a medium snap quality aside, the aroma was huge and so was the flavor on this bar. The ingredients claim no added aromas or vanilla. Very complex aroma with deep red wine aromas, and a creamy butter aroma right out of the package. Hugely floral, with some coconut and almonds and nicely roasted cacao.

But the taste was complex. So much going there. Deep, rich wood flavors, complexly bitter, no astringency, and wonderful earthy coconut and nutty flavors mixed with clean flowery jasmine and perfumed clean laundry flavors. I know that sounds weird, but if you have ever smelled your dryer exhaust with big scented dryer sheets in there, then you know what I am talking about. Some interesting hints at the end of coffee and pen ink to round it out and complete a bizarre range of almost all flavors of South American Beans. All that's missing is the overly charred coastal region flavors. 

Very complex and complicated flavors. I liked this quite a bit. The only thing I didn't care for was that drying effect once again. It's becoming a hallmark of Nacional beans. I don't know if anyone else notices it, but I am really not a fan of it. The other textures of the chocolate were just fine though. It wasn't rock hard, it wasn't waxy and it wasn't too soft. It melted just slow enough to really sit back and think about this chocolate and allow each one of it's bold characters to come out. 

 

Final Score: 92

  score
B+

 

Artisan du Chocolat ~ Vietnam 72% Limited Edition

 

 

 

**Archived Notes

 

Finally an origin that I am not that familiar with. Sometimes there is a game to find new regions or unexploited regions for cocoa growing and be different or a step ahead of the curve. I am not against this race. It's a win win for chocolate lovers. "Why no, I haven't had a bar of chocolate with beans grown in Vietnam. Do tell." 

 

[Image Via Infoplease]

 

Via their website:

In Vietnam, small entrepreneurial farmers are remaking cocoa history by successfully farming fine cocoa commercially for the first time since the French period (late 19th century), making this batch of ground cocoa beans a precious and rare find. We chose well fermented and dried beans that morph into a silky chocolate with notes of raisin and oats. Surprisingly mellow at the start, this chocolate melts with a long and slightly peppery bitter finish. We meticulously select our raw ingredients for their flavour and wholesomeness: carefully fermented ground criollo and trinitario beans from chosen regions, pure cocoa butter and cane sugar. We mix, conche and refine each batch in our production in Kent. We make our own chocolate with love, devotion and the sole intent to bring you great chocolate
• Weight (e) 45g
• Shelf life 3 months
• Cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin
• Contains soya. May contain traces of nuts, sesame, milk and gluten.

 

 

 

I have to preface this review with the unusual circumstances this bar found itself in. I reviewed this last year, or took pictures and notes on it and put the notes away until now. This bar has a dusty, dry sugar bloom appearance because I found this bar hiding in a drawer. While it was far from expired or past it's prime, the storage conditions were not exactly optimal. Having said that, this bar has held up remarkably well. Just some light dusting but a really great surface despite that. And being stored in plastic, it retained and held on to an insanely good aroma. But for the sake of fairness to anyone reading this, I must note at all times when the mistake was mine. The mistake here was not knowing a few bars got left in a drawer and I won't be deducting points on the appearance for that.

 

Vietnam 72%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 72%

Bean Varietal: Criollo and Trinitario blend.

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

Sample size: 45g or 1.59oz

 

Appearance: Deep dark brown color, simple and light non-monogrammed molding, slight surface particles, relatively smooth surface, sugar bloom. 

Score: 91

Snap: Light but very firm snap, crisp snapping sound, moderately clean break lines. 

Score: 91

Aroma: Big full aroma of coconuts, roasted cacao, coffee, very creamy and nutty, and very slight hints of cinnamon.

Score: 95

Taste: Sweet, lightly tangy and acidic, small hints of cinnamon, cereal grains, raisins, slight hints of strawberries, pepper on the finish.

Score: 94

Texture: Smooth, creamy, medium melt-time, slightly drying finish.

Score: 92

 

Really nice bar of chocolate. Very fun and interesting. Aside from the bloom, the bar of chocolate was in really great shape. The aroma was amazing. Not overly complicated just straight forward and full. Good snap quality too for a relatively light or thin bar of chocolate on the molding. 

The taste was layered and deep. it was sweet with some slight hints of cinnamon and depp raisins with a light strawberry taste. I loved the cereal grains in the middle of the taste, and the finish was just as the package describes with a long finish of pepper. There was also a slight soapy perfume taste in the finish but very faint. Nice and complicated. 

So, even though I inadvertently ruined it's appearance, this bar held up so well. I enjoyed it's complexities in its flavors but bluntness in it's aroma. This would be a fun bar of chocolate to take to some friends and sit around and talk about it. Chocolate geek chocolate. The kind that sit there with a pad and pen and write notes while they preform retro-olfaction and nod their heads at one and other and furrow their eyebrows in silent agreement as if they figured out some long lost secret. 

 

Final Score: 92.6

  score
B+

 

The Grenada Chocolate Co. ~ Nib-A-Licious 60%

 

 

 

**Archived Notes

 

The Grenada Chocolate Co.

The Grenada Chocolate Company Ltd. was founded in 1999 with the idea of creating an Organic Cocoa Farmers' and Chocolate-Makers' Cooperative. We produce high quality Organic dark chocolate in Grenada with our world famous cocoa beans. Our factory is nestled in lush cocoa groves in Grenada's pristine rainforest.

Our award-winning organic dark chocolate has the wonderful complex flavor of Grenada's fine-flavored organic cocoa beans, processed carefully in small batches. Producing chocolate right where the cocoa grows allows us to do our own fermenting which gives us a real advantage in creating the finest, most complex taste from the beans.  We use our own extracted cocoa butter in our chocolate also from Grenada's fine-flavored cocoa. This brings in a luxurious extra richness and chocolaty flavor.  Our chocolate has a truly deep and rich flavor.

We now have over 150 acres of organic cocoa farms in our cooperative and operate our own cocoa fermentry, located one mile from our little factory. This assures that we perform every activity involved in the production of our chocolate, from the planting and growing of the cocoa trees to the fermenting of the fresh cocoa beans to the processing of our fine dark chocolate. We grow our cocoa totally naturally without the use of any chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers and have been Certified Organic.

Our sugar is a fine organic raw sugar produced and milled by an organic growers' cooperative in Paraguy.

Whole organic vanilla beans grown biodynamically in Costa Rica provide our "dash" of vanilla.

Organic soy lecithin is used as emulsifier in extremely small amounts.

We are one of the only small-scale chocolate-makers producing fine chocolate where the cocoa grows.   Because small batch chocolate-making is very rare, we had to create our own processing methods, desigining our own machines and refurbishing antique equipment to meet the requirements of our unique situation. Most of our machines are based in design on those of the early 1900's, a time when quality had precedence over quantity in chocolate-making. Because we care about our environment, we use solar-electric energy to power our machines.

The original impetus and principle of our cooperative company is to revolutionize the cocoa-chocolate system that typically keeps cocoa production separate from chocolate-making and therefore takes advantage of cocoa farmers.We believe that the cocoa farmers should benefit as much as the chocolate-makers. 

 

Nib-A-Licious 60%

 

Type: Filled Semisweet

Bean Varietal: Trinitario

Ingredients: Cocoa beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa nibs, soy lecithin, vanilla beans. All Organic.

Sample Size: 85g or 3oz

 

Appearance: Nice shiny surface, deep dark chocolate color, pretty cocoa nibs sprinkled on top and through out the bar, signature molding with air bubbles on the top of the molded surface.

Score: 92

Snap: Good, deep firm snap, light crisp snapping sound, clean break lines. 

Score: 93

Aroma: All tar and rubber. very robust and charred smelling. Big pen ink aroma right out of the package, smoky, tobacco, and a little funky. 

Score: 78

Taste: Sweet and sugary, very slightly astringent, berries, inky, tar, hints of melon, wood, complex fruits.

Score: 90

Texture: Good cripsy and crunchy nibs. Not ovelry dried and not soft and limp. Perfectly crunchy, Smooth creamy chocolate texture with a medium melt-time. 

Score: 95

 

I didn't get a picture of the top surface of this bar. I thought I had but it was only the underside with the nibs. It had a nice glossy finish on the bar but there were a lot of air bubbles on the top surface of the molded side. The nibs were not just sprinkled on top, they were mixed through out. So the top surface does appear skimpy on the nibs, but it wasn't. It was better the top wasn't fully coated so you can see the nice shiny surface. 

This was very different from the first bar of Grenada I had. I remember that bar being super bright, and green tasting like fresh cut or new wood. But this bar was charred to hell on it's aroma. It was all tar and rubber. I didn't find that pleasing at all. But it's taste was complex and fun. This was due to a lot of sugars helping tone down that roasted char taste. There was an awesome fruity character underneath the sugars and pen ink flavors. I had a hard time telling exactly what it was though. It wasn't the sweet berries originally detected but something deeper. The cocoa nibs were awesome. Nice and crunchy and a good dried wood flavor. That added some depth to this chocolate. 

I am on the fence about this bar. I hated the aroma, but I liked the way it tasted. It's pretty funky chocolate with the huge tar and burnt characters, but those sugars really help keep this in check. 

This is one of those moments where I am saying that even though I didn't like the aroma and it's not scoring as high as some would like or expect, I think this is still good chocolate. This is for funk lovers. I mention this all the time about chocolate and remind people that certain funky beers don't always have the most pleasant sounding descriptors. But once you understand those beers there becomes a developed palate and love for the not so pleasant. What I am basically saying is that this wasn't my favorite but it's still pretty worthy and I think there is a niche out there for people who like these funky things. 

 

Final Score: 89.6

 

   score
  B

 

Slitti ~ Gran Cacao 90%

 

 

 

***Archived Notes

 

Gran Cacao chocolate. Typically when dealing with the title "Grand Cru" or Gran Cacao in this case, it usually means blend or best of. In this case it's the best of their blends from South America. There are no listings on what specific origins are in this bar though. 

 

 

Gran Cacao 90%

 

Type: Extra bittersweet 90%

Bean Varietal: Unknown, Blend

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, natural vanilla.

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

Lot #: I 606

 

Appearance: Deep dark brown color, large tab molding with singature molding patterns. Shiny smooth surface, slightly a little dusty, with some slight plastic matting marks on the surface. 

Score: 92

Snap: Light clean crisp snap, clean break lines. Thin molding lines give way to much smaller snap quality.

Score: 90

Aroma: Soft roasted cacao, wood slightly tannic, acidic nose, almondsvery subtle smoke and tobacco, slightly spicy, a little bit moldy and earthy smelling. 

Score: 94

Taste: Roasted, bitter, mildly acidic but no astringency, soft, wood earthy, dry, light and very soft flowery perfume taste on the finish but very faint. You have to wait until the deep bitter flavor dissipates to detect it.

Score: 89

Texture: Hard, a little dry, but not waxy. Long melt-time but opens up to a medium bodied texture.

Score: 87

 

The snap quality is good despite how I scored it. It was firm and it was clean. It's just how they mold it that I don't like. Overly large tabs and thin-ish snap lines. With a hard textured chocolate, it's very hard to bite into and too large to let one tab melt on your palate. 

I wasn't feeling this one as much. It's definitely a lot smoother than the Tropicale 90%, but it's almost too soft. As aggressive as the Tropicale was, there was full flavor in there with gorgeous black tea and jasmine flavors. This was just deeply bitter, roasted cacao with earthy wood tastes. There was a very slight perfume-y, flower taste detected from retro-olfaction. But as mentioned above, I had to wait a while until that bitter taste eased up on the palate. It's certainly not bad. Just not spectacular either. And this was a Grand Cru bar. Although the acidity is there, there is virtually no astringency which made this fairly mild to eat despite it's robust cacao percentage. It's deeply bitter but not sharp. The Italians, I find, are amazing about these high percentage cacao bars without that rough jabbing astringency that gets you in the neck and glands. You know that sharp reaction. This had none of that. 

It had a full and complicated aroma. In fact that aroma on this bar was the best part. I just felt like it sort of fell flat on it's flavor. I don't think this is very exceptional for eating, but with some added sugar and vanilla I am sure I can bake something fantastic with this. 

 

Final Score: 90.8

  score
B+

 

Slitti ~ Super Novanta 90% Tropicale

 

 

 

** Archived notes. 

 

Wrapping up some chocolate notes that I have been sitting on for too long. The burden of a chocolate writer is eating and tasting more chocolate than I can keep up with as far as blogging goes. I know, life is so hard. Luckily I saved all of my notes and took pictures. These notes are from 2011.

All natural chocolate with natural vanilla and no soy lecithin for an emulsifier. Blended cacaos from Ecuador.

 

 

Slitti Super Novanta Tropicale 90%

 

Type: Bittersweet, extra 90%

Varietal: Unknown, but being sourced from Ecuador, these are more than likely Nacional beans with some possible hybrids blended in.

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, natural vanilla.

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

Lot #: 1622

 

Appearance: Deep, dark brown chocolate color, signature molding with large squared tablet, Slight appearance of sugar bloom, mild plastic matted marks on the top of the of molding, but otherwise smooth surface.

Score: 90

Snap: Light crisp snap from thin molding lines, clean break lines. 

Score: 90

Aroma: Almonds, roasted cacao, sweet, Almond Joy aroma, slightly acidic, and a little funky with mild notes of feet. 

Score: 94

Taste: Bitter, bold roasted cacao, woody, jasmine, black tea flavors, coffee grinds.

Score: 93

Texture: Hard, waxy, slow melt time, very dry and drying to the palate.

Score: 84

 

The slight appearance of bloom isn't being taken out on in the score. I held on to this bar from fall of 2010 to spring 2011. There was definitely heating and cooling issues on my end. Although it wasn't close it's expiration date, I believe I am at fault for it's beginning bloom. It held up remarkably well from fall, to winter, and spring. 

The snap could have been better with a different molding. It leaves for very thin lines and too large of squares on the tablet. With it's insanely hard texture, it made it difficult to bite through the square. And the square was too large to let one just melt away on the palate. It was fairly waxy on the texture and dry. The dry bar coupled with what I think are a hallmark of Nacional beans' drying effect, didn't make for a pleasurable tasting experience. 

The flavors however were fantastic. An amazing aroma of pure, sweet almonds and roasted cacao were good and strong. A little funk coming through on the aroma too with some acidic characters and slight funky feet aroma. That may not sound desirable but then again funky beers and funky cheese never sound like anything you would ever want to eat but then it tastes amazing. 

Although I feel like this could have benefited from a lower cocoa percentage, more sugars, it definitely surprised me on the flavors of jasmine tea. Deeply bitter though. It takes a while to get through that bitter opening on the palate. But then it becomes beautifully roasted cacao and flowery jasmine with nice woody tastes. Lots of Chinese black tea on the finish from retro-olfaction. And at the very end of the taste are some coffee grind flavors. Very complex and bold. I am not one to usually praise Nacional beans, but this was fantastic on the flavors. I am still not in love with the drying effect from Nacional beans. As mentioned above, the texture and the natural drying effects left little to be desired there. 

 

Final Score: 90.2

  score
B+

 

Ritual Chocolate ~ Costa Rica 75%

 

 

Cool Colorado chocolate makers from Boulder who share a connection with me via beer. Colorado happens to be one of the best states for awesome craft beer. So they know all the same people I do and share a love for local producers. Now to get the beer to recognize a local chocolate producer and life is all good for the folks of Boulder, Colorado. Not to mention that one of their names is Robbie Stout. How can that not be beer and chocolate destiny? 

I want to thank Anna and Robbie for sending me this chocolate to sample. I am always grateful when someone finds my blog or my taste worthy of sending samples for review. Most kind and most generous. 

About:

Ritual Chocolate is a Colorado-based chocolate manufacturing company that is developing a line of direct-trade, organic, dark chocolate bars. Through our specialized approach to roasting, milling and aging, we are able to preserve the flavors that are unique to our single estate cacao beans. We are involved with the entire chocolate making process, from the bean to the bar, because we want to ensure that our values for the highest achievable quality are present every step of the way, including the traceability of ingredients, sustainable living for the cacao farmers, and inspiring our customers to explore the world of chocolate.

 

According to the enclosed note, their process is a bit different in that they are experimenting with new techniques and that they process their chocolate in four separate grinding machines. A nib grinder, granite melanger, 3-roll mill, and a longitudinal conch. Techniques they learned from their pal, chocolate legend, Steve DeVries. 

Read about their techniques here. 

 

As the label indicates, this is batch 8 of vintage 2009 trinitario beans from Guapiles, Costa Rica. Complete with a born on date of Nov. 3, 2011. 

 

 

 

 

Costa Rica, 75% Batch 8

 

Type: Bittersweet, 75%

Bean Varietal: Trinitario

Ingredients: Cacao beans and cane sugar.

Sample Size: 2oz or 57g

 

Appearance: Nice rich mahogany color, shiny, simple non-monogrammed molding, wide-spread surface matting. 

Score: 87

Snap: Nice firm snap, light snapping sound, clean break lines.

Score: 92

Aroma: Intense blackstrap molasses, very savory aroma with licorice, berries, and tar. Dissipates very quickly though but the molasses hangs on. 

Score: 93

Taste: Robust flavors of molasses, deep roasted cacao, char, acidic, bitter, bold berries, very deep wood flavors, lingering bitterness coupled with floral flavors similar to fresh clean laundry or dryer sheets. 

Score: 92

Texture: Very smooth and creamy, medium-fast melt time.

Score: 93

 

Aside from some surface matting, the color of this chocolate was nice and rich and shiny. Simple molding but nice and firm for good snap quality.

The aroma and flavors are nice and complicated. It's very robust and assertive chocolate. It's all about the blackstrap molasses. From the huge savory aroma to the flavor. It is flavor is deeply complicated once you get through some acidity and bitterness. I feel like it's a bit imbalanced with the bitterness and acidity, but the flavors are so big and complex and the sugar is perfectly balanced, that it helps add good depth. Deep berries and an awesome woody flavor, roasted cacao flavors and char. It's sweet, bitter, savory, fruity, and mildly floral. 

This is very complicated chocolate. I liked it very much. I think there needs to be some tweaks to the acidity and charred bitterness flavors, but luckily the flavors are so big that you don't solely focus on that. 

I feel like a nice mild milk stout or an oatmeal stout that isn't too bitter or hoppy would go well with this chocolate. The milky qualities would help tone down those charred flavors without over powering the chocolate. The chocolate will dominate, but it will play together nicely. But maybe a nice huge roasted Yeti from Great Divide just might do the trick with a little roasted char taste on roasted char to cancel each other out. I had to throw in some beer suggestions here just because it's Colorado chocolate and they are surrounded by good beer everywhere.

 

Final Score: 91.4

 

  score
 B+

 

Zotter ~ Labooko Ecuador 70% & Nicaragua 80%

 

 

**Archived notes

 

Art by Andreas H. Gratze.

Lobooko Duo Ecuador 70% and Nicaragua 80%. Dueling bars from different regions of Central and South America and slightly different cacao percentages.

 

 

The description for the Ecuador bar was only in German. So, with a little help from Google, I have a rough translation of the package descriptions. 

 

Ecuador, das Kernland der Inkas, birgt noch heute große Schätze. Die Provinz El Oro- das Gold liegt im Südwesten des Landes an Pazifikküste und an der Grenze zu Peru. Hier kultivert die Kooperative Urocal den Cacao Nacional. Dieser landestypische Kakao verströmt schon beim Rösten einen unverwechselbaren Geruch und taucht unsere ganze Manufaktur in eine unglaubliche Schokoladenduftwolke ein.

Dunkle Schokolade mit 70% kakaobestandteil bietet für meine Begriffe den höchsten Schokoladengenuss. Das ist genau die richtige Menge Zucker für die feinen Kakaoaromen. Diese Süße beflügelt ohne dominant zu sein. 

Beim Walzen wird der Zucker mit dem Kakao verbunden. Dieser wird ihr Aroma also, im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes, aufgedrückt. Und zum Abschluss folgt die Meiserschaft der Schokoladenproduktion, das Conchieren. 

 

Ecuador, the heartland of the Incas, to this day a great treasure. The province of El Oro gold lies in the southwest of the country's Pacific coast and along the border with Peru. Here, the cooperative Urocal the Cacao Nacional kultivert. This typical cocoa during roasting exudes a distinctive scent and immersed in our entire manufacturing an

incredible chocolate fragrance cloud.

Dark chocolate with 70% cocoa solids offers the highest terms of my chocolate. This is exactly the right amount of sugar for the fine cocoa flavors. This sweetness inspires without being dominant.

When rolling the sugar is associated with the cocoa. This is their flavor, then, be suppressed in the truest sense of the word. And the conclusion follows Meiser the shaft of the chocolate production, the conching.

 

    

 

 

Ecuador 70%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 70%

Varietal: Nacional

Ingredients: Cocoa Mass, raw can sugar, cocoa butter, salt. 

Sample Size: 35g 

 

Appearance: Medium dark brown color, signature Labooko molding with wavy air dry patten on top. A bit of scuffed surface from rubbing. Either from the bars the way they are packaged and rubbing together or from storage or transport from London to Boston.

Score: 91

Snap: Medium-firm snap, light snapping sound, clean break lines. 

Score: 90

Aroma: Soft roasted cacao, almonds, oak wood, fruits, sweet and candy-like. Almost reminds me of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum. 

Score: 96

Taste: Sweet but deeply bitter, subdued flavors, lightly roasted cacao, oak wood, raisins, plums, very subtle hints of buttered toast and possibly some tiny hints of cinnamon, earthy, traces of black pepper. Smoky lingering aftertaste.  

Score: 93

Texture: Chewy, with a medium melt time. Medium-soft texture with a slightly creamy melt. 

Score: 91

 

This is all about the aroma. A strange candy-like aroma that smelled similar to Juicy Fruit gum. It was kind of crazy, I had to keep my nose on this thing just to be sure I was actually smelling Juicy Fruit on the aroma. It also had big oak wood on the aroma and almonds. To me the aroma was the best thing about this bar. 

Although there were some hints of rich flavors in this bar, I felt like it was very subdued on the flavor overall. This seems to be a symptom of Nacional beans. A drying effect on the palate similar to the difference in rye's versus bourbons. Similar flavors, but one is more dry and less cloying. That would be the Nacional beans in this case. But for chocolate, the drying effect is not something I care for as much. It feel like it holds back the natural flavors being drawn out. I can't be sure if this is a real phenomenon, but it's something I have noticed more than once on Nacional beans from more than one chocolate maker. 

Because of this perceived drying effect, the sugars are much more apparent as well as the bitterness from the cacao. No acidity or astringency, but a bitter "ear wax-like" taste was left covering my palate and making it hard to notice the flavors of the chocolate. This bitterness is natural in a lot of chocolates, but I don't think it would as noticeable in other bean varietals. Unless it's technique flaws, but I doubt that's the case here. 

Good snap quality and only slight surface issues with the appearance. An interesting chewey quality to the texture with a medium melt time. Creamy texture and chewy at the same time like fudge or caramel once it gets opened up a bit on the palate. 

I have a feeling that this is one of those bars that most people in general will like more than I personally do. I don't think it's bad chocolate at all, I just think Nacional beans are not my favorite. I have been saying that in other reviews, but I am a little more convinced after this bar. It's hard to write a review like this. It's personal preferences and I am trying to be as technical as I know how to be as far the review goes. And it's pretty good technically. But then trying to express my personal dislike for bars that could be holding back the true flavor potential. I need more time and understanding of Nacional beans, but now, the aroma was the best part of this bar.  

 

Final Score: 92.2

  score
B+

 

 

 

Nicaragua 80%

 

Type: Bittersweet, 80%

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, cocoa butter, raw cane sugar, salt.

Sample Size: 35g

 

Appearance: Deep ashy brown color, monogrammed with signature air-dried ripples on top, slightly damaged surface from rubbing and sugar bloom. 

Score: 82

Snap: Nice firm and crispy snap. Clean break lines. 

Score: 92

Aroma: Char, Pepto Bismol, menthol, medicinal, earthy, buried fruits and berries. 

Score: 91

Taste: Deeply bitter, slightly astringent and tangy, sweet sugars, wood, buttered toast, char, bitter pen ink, deep berries, black pepper.

Score: 94

Texture: Slightly hard, medium-long melt time, 

Score: 89

 

I didn't take too much out of the score for the rubbing appearance. I have had Labooko bars before that were just fine so I don't know if the rubbing happened from transport. I did take points off for bloom. One bloomed and the other didn't so I don't think it was due to improper storage. I generally make notes about that if I think me or my apartment was the culprit. 

This is see-saw chocolate. Up and down up and down. It opens deeply bitter and it coats the whole palate, then the sugars come through and sort of wipe out the bitterness leaving tangy astringent notes. The bitterness brings out a charred flavor and a pen ink flavor, but the sugars let the berry flavors sand out. Stuck in the middle is a buttered toast flavor and wood flavor. 

This was fairly bitter for me. Deep lingering bitterness on the finish too. It grabs a hold of the palate and refuses to let go. It's fairly cloying that way. The sugars help let some of the other natural flavors come out, but the bitterness and astringency come back and retake over the palate. 

This is beer geek chocolate. Beer nerds who love sours and the funky flavors that they produce will like something like this. It's not as funky as Rio Carribe chocolate, but it's in that same vein of descriptors that may not sound very appealing, but really are if you like things funky and deeply complicated. 

I scored it pretty high on it's taste because these flavors were complicated and very present or apparent. Even though it's not my favorite kind of chocolate or flavors, it's something that I can see the value of and see where people would find this appealing.

 

Final Score: 89.6

  score
 B

 

Beer And Chocolate Pairings At The Star Bar, Denver

 

 

For all of my Denver chocolate and beer nerds, this post if for you guys. Or anyone who is a lover of beer and chocolate, or Great Divide fans. 

The Star Bar in Denver is one of my favorite newish bar discoveries. It's a small dive bar, that has tons of awesome craft beer, and a skilled cocktail maker behind the bar who also specializes in beer cocktails. You can bring food in from across the street which is perfect because the most awesome hot dog joint in all of the land happens to be right across the street from the Star Bar. Biker Jim's! So, not only is there awesome beer, outside food, and cocktails, but there is a pool table and it's a dive bar. Greatest discovery of Denver. I am in Denver at least once a year for the Great American Beer Festival and this is pretty much where I hang out. 

 

 

Justin Lloyd, the owner, created one of my favorite beer cocktails and it's currently featured in our BeerAdvocate Magazine Issue #59 Dec. 2011. 

 

Mole Yeti

1 oz Dagave Extra Agave Spirit, or any quality Anejo tequila

3/4 oz Leopold Bros. Three Pins Alpine Herbal Liquor

1/2 tsp Crushed Chipotle powder

6 oz Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout

Combine spirits with ice in mixing glass, stir to mix and chill, and strain into a clean mixing glass. Then add the crushed chipotle powder, and stir vigorously to completely incorporate the spirits and spice. Strain into a goblet or an hour glass Pilsner glass. Pour in chilled beer with a two inch laced head. 

 

 

The Star Bar partnered with The Chocolate Therapist of Littleton, Colorado to come up with a beer and chocolate pairing. They featured Great Divide beers, another personal favorite of mine. Brian Dunn is the nicest guy in craft beer and his beers are some of the best out there. 

I wasn't at this pairing event so there are no pictures are accompanying these pairings. But I will be as detailed as I can with what I know about chocolate and the beers featured. 

 

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter and Sea Salt / Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout

I can imagine this combination working with the peanut butter and natural chocolate-coffee flavors on the beer as well as the wood flavors from the oak. The sea salt more than likely helped tame the sweetness of the oak aging on the beer. 

Milk Chocolate Amaretto Cappuccino / Great Divide Grand Cru

The Grand Cru is a Belgian-style dark ale with an 11% abv. The milk chocolate was more than likely the right pairing for the malts. As sweet as milk chocolate can be, the nuttiness and milky quality of it will help with the sweet overbearing malts of a big Belgian-style like this beer. Sometimes you have to pair sweet on top of sweet to allow the flavors from both beer and chocolate to come through. Otherwise the sugars will take over everything. Sweet on Sweet will allow the subdued flavors to come forward. The cappuccino flavors would no doubt add some depth of flavor and tame the boozy esters from the high abv. 

Milk Chocolate Orange / Great Divide Hercules Imperial IPA

Hercules is a big malty double IPA. That means bigger hops and bigger malts which leads to a higher abv. These are technically imbalanced beers. Having the cold is the way to drink them and as they warm up the imperfections of the doubling come through. Sticky sweet malts, or the excessive bitter hops. This is what people love about these beers once they have warmed and open. I personally prefer mine very cold so the balance is still intact and all the ingredients are still on an equal playing field. 

The orange is all about the hops. Bitter citrus flavors of hops and sweet orange oils and flavors are a natural fit. But the milk chocolate is all about the malts. As explained in the pairing above. Sweet on sweet and probably drew out some natural creamy milk flavors and nuttiness. 

Dark Chocolate Covered Ginger / Great Divide Hoss Rye Lager

I am surprised about this pairing. Dark chocolate, at least 65% is great with rye beers. Rye tends to have a bit of a drying effect on the palate and the dark chocolate interacts well letting sweet flavors and deep fruity complex flavors of chocolate come out. With Hoss' natural fruity flavors, they probably brought out the best in each other with fruit flavors. The ginger is the surprise for me. For me ginger is spicy and soapy. Sometimes it has a clean flavor and other times it's all soap. I can only imagine this working with the spicy rye flavors and the malts rounding out the earthy flavors from both rye and ginger. 

Milk Chocolate Maple / Great Divide Hibernation 2009

I am not sure what the 2009 flavors produced for this beer, but as a fairly big English-style ale with dry hopping and big roasted malts I can imagine this pairing working with the milk chocolate nutty flavors again and big roasted malts, but also the maple probably drawing out more toasted flavors from the malts. 

Cayenne Pepper Savouries / Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout 

This one is a wild card for me. I am not sure what type of chocolate was used here but like the cocktail posted above, the cayenne pepper spicy heat just mingles and marries good heat with chocolate flavors from the Yeti. I am sure the chocolate also drew out the natural toffee and roasted flavors from the beer. 

 

Chocolate and beer are a wonderful together. A lot of people tend to dismiss beer still thinking it all tastes the same or it's like Bud/Miller/Coors. To some of you reading this, this is a no brainer, but to others this might be an eye opener. Beer and chocolate can and do work amazing together. And to be honest, beer has such a larger range of styles than wine, especially American styles, and has endless combinations to explorer. So if you are interested in thinking outside of the box, start taking bar of chocolate with you to your favorite bars that serve a good range of craft beer and start experimenting. Start buying bottles of beer from your local package store and do some exploration at home with some chocolate samples. It's fun and it's a lot cheaper to crack into a beer than it is for some wines. 

 

Pairing tips: 

** Using beer review sites like BeerAdvocate.com and gathering a collective of opinions from various reviews is a great way to begin to understand a beer before you try it. Look for the similarities in reviews. Similar flavor notes and flavor descriptors. 

** Hops and chocolate are not a good match. IPA's especially are not the best match for chocolate, but IPA's work well with cream or fats. So think of chocolate covered caramels, soft caramel or mou's. And even think about toffees or chocolate cheese cakes or rich cream based truffles as a place to start with IPA's. Chocolate covered fruits are a good place to go with IPA's too. Not just chocolate covered orange peels, but lemon peels, mangoes, pineapples, anything with a nice tart citrus flavor. It's tough to get IPA's and chocolate right. It doesn't mean it can't be done, it just means that you will need a variety of influences for a pairing other than just chocolate.

** Imperial Stouts are not always the right match for chocolate. It seems like it's always supposed to be imperial stouts and chocolate but some American Imperial Stouts have a hop flavor that is just too strong for the chocolate. Make sure you understand which stout you are buying into. Beware over overly roasted, acidic, or bitter stouts. They could be too robust for the chocolate. And if you have a chocolate with the same characters, you could be burying or cancelling out those flavors that make the beer or the chocolate distinctive and unique. 

** Have fun and try not to over think things. Taste is subjective. If you find something that works for you but others may not like, it doesn't mean the pairing is wrong. 

** If you are tasting big ester-y alcohol notes more than you are tasting flavors in the beer or chocolate, then it is a wrong pairing. The same rules apply for any alcohol and food pairing.