20°N & 20°S

American Heritage Chocolate

 

 

 

Lovely samples of a traditional colonial chocolate recipe sent to me by the Historical Division of the Mars company. A new line, American Heritage Chocolate, featuring old 18th century traditions of chocolate making and old Pennsylvania colonial-style recipes.

Handcrafted chocolate with natural ingredients with no additives or preservatives. Historians, chefs, food historians, and their chocolate makers collaborated to use only ingredients and spices available in that era. Recipes adapted and tested from Hannah Glasse and John Nott as well as others.

The blend of spices used for this chocolate are cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg, red pepper, orange, vanilla, salt, and annatto.

The hand made techniques are detailed as:

-Imported beans from Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.

-Cocoa beans roasted over an open flame, and shells were removed by hand.

-Mortars and Pestles ground the nibs. Often leaving behind traces of other spices and chili peppers. Grinding was also done in mills that ground ginger and mustard which would also influence some of the chocolate's taste.

-Heated stones or metate, was used to grind the nibs in to a chocolate paste.

-Then the hardened chocolate was grated into water or milk.

Watch a chocolate demonstration here: 18th Century Chocolate Making

 

 

I love the presentation of it all. From the wooden box it was sent in and the cloth bag the chocolate sticks were presented in. It's very fun.

 

Single Chocolate stick, pack of four chocolate sticks, and a block of chocolate.

 

 

 

I took one stick for one normal coffee cup and steamed *almond milk. I did take a small nibble off the end of the stick to see what the texture and chocolate tasted like on it's own. Naturally it was very spicy, but the texture was fairly waxy. One of only two issues I had overall with the chocolate.

It smelled fantastic. The spices were a good mix for the chocolate. It did however leave a bit of a cloying taste at the end though due to the spices. But I didn't care about that because it was very soothing and comforting to drink.

 

 

I do think one stick for the cup wasn't rich enough. Though I don't know how it will effect the spiciness with added sticks. After using all of my leftover chocolate scraps from reviewing chocolate and making hot chocolate out of them, I prefer a robust and bold hot chocolate. That's also from being spoiled from the richness of L.A. Burdick's insanely rich hot chocolate. I would try it with one stick for a normal coffee cup, and then gradually add more if you think it needs it.

I haven't baked with it yet, but as the holidays roll around, I will certainly find something to do with the block. For now, I am left with four sticks of the drinking chocolate. That means about 2 more cups. I will make sure I save them for an especially frigid night.

Even with this being a product of a "Macro" chocolate company, this is fun chocolate. This cool little experiment in history and recipe searching. You can find it at historical sites for now to purchase, such as Williamsburg, Va., Mount Vernon, The Smithsonian, Monticello and the Fortress of Louisbourg in Canada. And even better for me being in Massachusetts, I can get this in Deerfield, Ma. The also have teas and coffees.

 

 

*I have recently had to give up milk. It's one of two reasons, either the amount of hormones added to milk here in the United States, or the pasteurization of milk causes a make reaction with my skin. It's been the most devastating thing to ever have to give up. But in Europe, I had raw milk and nothing happened to my skin. Adding milk to my coffee, nothing happened. I still have yet to talk to a doctor about the matter, but my findings so far are leading to me to think it's the pasteurization. When milk is pasteurized a crucial enzyme in milk that helps human bodies process it is destroyed. This could be the reason it's taking it's toll on me. However as a life long milk drinker, this is first time I have ever noticed such damaging effects.

But not all is lost. Almond milk has really come through and saved the day. Vanilla Almond Milk to be more precise. It has vanilla in it, it's sweeter, very thick and creamy. It's like going through the process of making homemade hot chocolate but cutting out all the steps. It's very tasty. And despite being made from almonds, the nuttiness doesn't interfere as much as you would think. It's there mildly, but over all it enhances the richness of the chocolate being added to it. Without Almond milk, I might have considered tossing myself off a bridge if I had to live without milk.

Friendly Chocolate Trades

 

 

Sometimes I get chocolate right from the source or shipped out in pristine condition, perfect and ready for review. And sometimes I get some disasters. Chocolate that somehow got destroyed in transit. I don't think this is a fair way to review chocolate, but I do think that even with broken up bars they can still be talked about and discussed without having to be so technical or score them. Though deeply I would love to rate a few of these, this will make for one hell of a post instead.

 

 

A friend of mine though twitter was in New York a few weekends ago for a chocolate show. I happened to be in town on some other business. The two of us decided to meet and do a little chocolate trade. Unfortunately, all of the chocolate bars she brought to me were damaged. But the brilliant news is that my new friend, Louise Thomas, happens to be a chocolate consultant in London. She shares a passion for chocolate and brought me some really wonderful bars. As I mentioned before, these bars didn't quite make from London to NY and back up to Boston, but just because I can't fully review these, doesn't mean all is lost. And it certainly doesn't mean I am ungrateful for having the privilege of these chocolates even reaching me. Louise is a thoughtful person with a deep passion for chocolate and she was kind enough to bring me some gems.

Let's put all that aside now and just sit like friends and talk about chocolate for a change instead of hardcore reviews.

 

Duffy's Corazon Del Ecador Milk 43%

Red Star Chocolate LTD. Made in Lincolnshire and sold at Paul A. Young in London. Single origin bean-to-bar chocolate maker. They use organic bean, though no certified a organic, and practice fair trade.

Batch # 100103

Size: 80g

Ingredients: Organic sugar, cocoa beans, cocoa butter, and milk powder.

 

Unfortunately this was the most destroyed bar in the bunch. All I can say is that it has simple molding and a fairly decent snap for a milk chocolate bar.

Nice aroma for an Ecuadoran milk bar. Beans from Ecuador or Arriba Nacional beans haven't been my favorite. They are very subtle in flavor and it takes some real tricks to get their true floral aroma to present itself. It also has a drying effect to the palate which sort of wipes the slate clean from lingering flavors. Sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes it's a nuisance.

Here is where it gets tricky. There were some nicks in the foil wrapping. No doubt a lot of the true aroma has dissipated. However, the subtleties of Nacional beans could also be a big contributing factor to a lighter aroma. I won't be able to tell until I can do a round two these bars.

What I did pick up from smelling it was a sweet, mildly roasted cocoa nose, light, peanuts, slightly buttery, wood, mild hints of spice and *cinnamon.

*I found cinnamon to be a common theme in a few of these bars.

Cinnamon was the first thing I noticed on the taste as well. Tasted like a rich hot chocolate, slightly musty, sweet at first them creamy and buttery. Slightly chalky texture, with a medium melt time.

I really enjoyed how buttery am creamy this chocolate was. The texture was okay a Little dry and chalky. Could be refined a bit more. I think I like Montezuma and Rococo's milk chocolates a bit better, but their didn't have the big buttery taste that this one has. They just happen to be a little bit more refined which is what I personally like. For those who like it a bit more raw, then this would be a good milk chocolate for them.

 

Duffy's Corazon Del Ecuador 72%

Batch #: 100144

Size: 30g

Ingredients: Cocoa beans, organic sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin.

 

 

Smaller bar, custom molding versus the standard squared tablets. Once again broken up but not as badly as the milk bar. Light nose and again this could be based on the bean varietal, mild roasted notes, lightly nutty, light wood aromas, buttery, and cinnamon. Thin snap, but fairly decent for a small 30g bar.

Sweet, sugary, tart, acidic, citrus notes, wood, berries. A lot smoother texture than the milk and a faster melt time and a creamier texture.

A hallmark British chocolate. I have noticed that British chocolate tends to be a lot sweeter (a personal observation). This is a very sweet bar of chocolate for a 72%. Very sugary, but this helps tone down some of the citric acidic notes. Clean but sweet finish with some lingering berries. This is pretty robust in the middle and has big fruit characters, but like all Nacional bars, those profiles stick their heads out, and then disappear and the palate is completely dried out and wiped clean. You forget that there were deep berry characteristics and some citrus notes from the acidic content.

 

Let's move on to something a little fancier, or maybe not?

 

 

The Purist Chuao 70%

Lot #: 10214

Ingredients: Cocoa and soy lecithin.

 

Word on the street is, this might not be real Criollo. I am not going to come out and call them liars, but there has been a recent movement of bars being released and being called Chuao or Criollo with no real proof to back up those claims. Chuao is a small village in the northern coastal region of Venezuela where some of the most prized cocoa beans in the world come from. But pure Criollo is not an every day find. It's not unheard of by any means, but the bean is hard to maintain as Criollo is very susceptible to diseases hence all the hybrids like Trinitario for strong varietals (that's a vague nut shell description). Calling it Criollo sounds good, and these are rare and delicate beans. Also the Chuao region is known for hybrids as well as pure Criollo beans. But no mention of genetic testing leads to suspicions that these most prized and rare beans are being used for their name sake but not really in the finished product.

Here is a good article written by Allan McClure of Patric Chocolates that explains some of the issues with pure varietals like Criollo and hybridization. 

Chocolate-Myth Busters #3: Criollo Cacao tastes better than other types?

Having said all that, I shouldn't be taking out on them what a lot of companies are more than likely practicing today. And having never have contacted them to prove their beans are real, it's not exactly fair to single them out. However, I will note the pricing of this bar. For such rare beans, £5 for a bar of this so called rare chocolate seems a little low.... Maybe not by UK standards.

 

I love the molding that makes it look like a swath of chocolate with a simple monogram. Smooth shiny surface with some marginal mated patterns and one break in the bar. This is in pretty good shape considering the others. There are some long streaks running across the top, but that is from other things being pressed upon the bar. The packaging is very nice with pictures of the farms and brief descriptions about the rare beans in the bar.

The original founders of Hotel Chocolat, Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris, went to St. Lucia for Rabot Estate and use those beans from the Caribbean. I praise them for their commitment to regrowing cacao on St. Lucia, revitalizing that industry and working towards producing natural and pure chocolate bars. But unfortunately in my opinion, they over conched their beans and conched a lot of the good flavors right out of those beans with a gimmicky longer conching process. And like the St. Lucia beans, they have given these Criollo beans a 96 hour conch. If Criollo is so delicate, then why would they need to go through such a long process? Criollo is the exact kind of bean you wouldn't want to conch for long to protect it's delicate flavors. Granted I am not a Criollo bean expert or a Chuao regional expert.

 

It smelled like Venezuelan beans that's for sure. Those notes of rubber tires and tar, a little chemical and medicinal. I always pick those notes up on coastal Venezuelan varietals. Inky, nutty, sweet notes like honey, dried fruits. Very sweet, tangy, lightly acidic, bright fruits, fresh, green wood characters, red wine grapes Very smooth and creamy texture. Fantastic tasting bar.

Very complex fruits and deep flavors. I like this chocolate very much. It is far more superior than that of their Rabot Estate bars. But again I am left with the above questions, why conch these beans to death if they are so delicate. I think by far this was one of the best tasting bars I have had in this entire group, but show me the money. Show me some genetic testing behind this bar and then explain why such an excessive conch was necessary for delicate and rare beans.My guess is that these were hybrid beans falling victim to a silly gimmick such as excessive conching times. Luckily for them it worked.

I realize most people don't know this about Criollo beans or the Chuao region. And that the things I am asking are in fact geek-shit when it comes to chocolate tasting. But as someone who is a novice and just a taster, this is how I think. Imagine what it's like for the industry at large?

Whatever the case may be behind this bar, and my apologizes if this stirs up some shit for these people, (as if a small time blogger ever could get that sort of reaction), this is great chocolate. I liked it very much.

 

 

 

Duffy's Star of Panama 70%

Batch #: 100124

Ingredients: Cocoa liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin.

 

I haven't had cocoa from Panama before. I was anxious to try this too because it smelled differently from the other bars of chocolate. It was more dank and had descriptors that wouldn't necessarily sound that appealing. Not in a classical sense anyway. A lot of beers or cheese have similar funky descriptors. This chocolate isn't that dramatic but by citing cheese or funky beers, you get the idea that even though something may not sound very appetizing, that doesn't mean I am saying it's not good. You will find that I often do this with certain funky chocolates. More notably for the Patric Rio Caribe in which I compared it to a funky gueuze.

 

 

The aroma was dry wood, Earthy, musty, underlying stone fruits like apricots. Typical non-monogrammed molding, but good snap quality.

This is pretty bold chocolate. The taste was sweet up front, a little smoky up front as well, but then it opens up and is buttery, smooth texture, leather notes, musty, more sweetness as the chocolate opens up on the palate, dried wood, mild medicinal hints.

The flavor descriptors on the package say: Deep Chocolate, buttered toast, warm chestnuts, with a sweet almond aftertaste.

I get the chestnuts for sure and yes that sweet almond after taste and buttery. But I got more dried wood than buttered toast. More like oak barrels or whiskey barrels followed up with sweet sugary notes. Musty basement tastes mixed with chestnuts. Strange flavor, profiles but I really liked it. My husband said peat moss notes and nuts.

 

 

 

L'Artisan du Chocolat Jamaica 72% Dark

Lot #: 00003971

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

 

As part of their single origin bars collection, this is a limited edition bar using Jamaican beans. And my first time sampling some Jamaican beans.

 

Huge aromas. big wood, nuts, char, ink, roasted cocoa, soft and subtle berry and floral aromas on the top of this big aromatic bar.

Sweet up front, licorice, pen ink, buttery cocoa, and wood. The packaging did say licorice was a big flavor profile on this bar of chocolate. They weren't lying. But they also mention plums and jasmine which I feel like were totally lost on this plate due to other conflicting flavors.

This one has been my least favorite of the bars so far. It's big and bold in it's flavors but it's almost like they don't match on the taste. The packaging did say licorice was a big flavor on this bar of chocolate. They weren't lying. But they also mention plums and jasmine which I feel like were totally lost on this plate due to other conflicting flavors. Buttery cocoa and licorice flavors competing leave an awkward flavor. The char and ink flavors dominate covering up any berry flavors or subtleties.

I absolutely loved the aroma. It's big and has so many layers to it you could hold it to your nose and smell it for hours. But the taste didn't work for me. But too many contrasting flavors all vying for your attention on the palate and it left an undesirable aftertaste.

It's hard to say what the score on this one would have been. High marks for aroma and lower marks for taste.

 

 

 

Zotter "Labooko" Brazil 70% Amazonia and 60% Medicilândia

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

70% minimum cocoa, and 60% minimum cocoa.

 

 

 

A two for one package with some funky art on the cover make for an interesting bar(s) of chocolate.The artist responsible for the designs is Andreas H. Gratze. It makes for wonderfully cool packaging. I encourage you to look at the Zotter website (especially on their Austrian site) and see the rest of the products and designs. Also important to note is the environmentally friend paper and ink used for the packaging.

The idea behind this series is to compare cooperatives, regions, and percentages in cocoas.

I only worry about one thing with the way they are packaged. They should be sealed in plastic if they are going to sit on top of or right next to each other in their package. If one has a bigger or more robust aroma, it could infect the other bar or interfere with the aroma of the other bar.

Here is a bean-to-bar producer from Austria, Josef Zotter, who prides himself on using fair trade products and certified organic ingredients. It is sold through out the UK which is how it came to be in my collection.

Another first for me as I have not had Brazilian chocolate before.

 

Brazil 70% Amazonia

Amazonian rain forest cocoa, mildly roasted, slowly rolled, and intensely conched for 32-34 hours.

The only negative about the name would be to have a more specific region to detail or list. Saying Amazonia might as well be like saying the world since the Amazon jungle is so big. I realize that's a small detail but consider this: Venezuela could probably fit inside the Amazon at least four or five times over. They have at least 8 specific regions where the flavors of the cocoa beans are so drastically different from one and other. Not to mention that 60% of the vast rain forest is inside of Brazil.

 

This, like the Duffy's Star of Panama, was most interesting on the nose. Subtle dry aromas like paper, roasted cocoa, musty, burnt notes, a little acidic, and medicinal, cherry Robitussin. Again I know how funky this sounds, but this doesn't mean it's bad.

Sweet upfront, tart, roasted cocoa, cherries, lightly acidic, mild charred and burnt flavors, cedar wood, and a slight herbal hint on the finish

It's very fruity and Earthy at the same time with the rich wood flavors. It's so much like Venezuelan beans. Bright cherry flavors a little acidic and tart, but followed up with rich woods and roasted cocoa flavors.

This is very nice chocolate. It's complex and fun at the same time.

 

 

Brazil 60% Medicilândia

Located at what Zotter calls a town like the "Wild West" in Medicilândia at the Trans-Amazonian Highway. The major highway that crosses through the country and rain forest.

 

Both images via Wikipedia.

 

The aroma on this bar has a much softer aroma, nutty, cinnamon, slightly creamy like a candy bar. Like a milky way or nougat.

A much creamier taste and texture. It's almost like a dark-milk chocolate. Again some tangy notes, but very sweet and rich. Rich tobacco notes, milky, caramel, cinnamon, some complex fruits underneath the cream, and lightly hidden wood characters. Some lingering astringency on the palate.

This is delicious chocolate. It's a good balance for the milk chocolate lovers and the dark chocolate lovers. It has the best of both worlds as far flavor profiles go. I would definitely give this an A.

 

And there you have it. Excellent chocolates from the UK. Once again I am grateful to Louise for thinking of me and making a good trade with me. Zotter was my favorite in the tasting experience with a side by side tasting of two regional Brazilian cacaos. I think pound for pound the Duffy's is great chocolate but the Hotel Chocolat Chuao bar was by far the tastiest despite whatever controversies I may have drummed up for it.

Claudio Corallo ~ Soft 73.5% with Nibs

 

 

 

Picked up in Brooklyn with the advice that this is extremely good good chocolate. A brewer gave me this chocolate, and once I smelled it, I now know why. More of that later when I get to the aroma.

Once again, very excited to have a website with good information about the cocoa and it's origins. A lot of cutting and pasting but definitely worth the read.

 

Claudio Corallo

Corallo spent years growing coffee in the middle of the Congo jungle, and through that experience cultivated his exceptional talent for producing agricultural excellence in the most difficult of growing conditions.

Corallo has spent nearly a decade on the tiny African island of Principe converting the abandoned Terreiro Velho plantation that once grew superb cacao into a world-class estate producing cacao unlike any other. The harvested cacao is then transported to the neighboring island of Sao Tome where it is fermented, dried and sorted, where only the finest cacao moves on to being crafted into chocolate. Through careful study and meticulous experimentation, Corallo personally developed innovative techniques that transform his cacao into unforgettable chocolate.

 

 

Origins

The first historically documented emigration of the cacao plant was to the island of Príncipe in 1822 by order of the Portuguese King Dom Joao VI.

Realising that Portugal would soon lose its immense colony of Brazil (which happened in 1822), the King sought to save part of the income that Portugal derived from the famous cacao plants of the Bahia region by transporting a good number to another of Portugal’s colonies: the peaceful São Tomé e Príncipe. It could not have been easy to keep the delicate young plants alive during the long voyage from Bahia to Príncipe, and the effort shows how important that mission was. By the 1900s this microscopic archipelago was the world’s biggest cacao producer, something not even King Dom Joao VI could have hoped for. Over the last 50 years the old varieties of cacao were replaced by modern hybrids that were more productive, as happened to coffee bushes and so many other fruits. But tiny Príncipe was forgotten and the precious original cacao somehow managed to survive there.

 

The Plantation

We found the old cacao plants on Principe Island, at Terreiro Velho plantation, scattered throughout the invading forest. They had naturally reproduced through the years -- thanks to monkeys.  With years of passionate work, we cleared the rainforest ground, replanted the shade trees that had been cut down for wood, and started seeding the original plants.

By giving them air and just the right amount of light, the old plants gained new vigour, producing healthy and abundant fruit, as if thanking us for our work. The perfume from their pulp, ever more intense and fresher, made us jump for joy.

I visited other plantations to see their fermentation process but none made me very happy. They were not transforming the perfume; in fact, it was being eliminated. Through years of testing we developed a natural fermentation method where we move from one perfume to another - just what I wanted.

Now it was time to dry all the cacao that we had worked so hard on. We had to find the exact thermal curve and the most practical way to reach it. After tests, designs and results that weren't successful, we finally got it right.   

he cacao came out of the dryers but, with the humidity in Sao Tome & Principe, we found it didn't stay dry for long. So there was no alternative but to dehumidify the warehouse and the work area. In the rainy season we have to be especially vigilant.

Once the beans are bagged, we put them onto small boats to travel the 90 ocean miles from Principe to Sao Tome.

 

So in a nut shell they restored and rebuilt an abandoned plantation in Principe, they then send the beans to Sao Tome for fermentation They tweaked and developed their own methods of fermentation.

 

Bean to bar

Some 20 hours after leaving Principe, the cacao arrives in Sao Tome and Arlindo do Espirito Santo, who is in charge of our chocolate laboratory, is the first person to jump on board before unloading.

He checks all the bags to make sure none have broken open or got wet. It is very important to do this before offloading because if even one bag got slightly wet we need to understand why and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Only after Mr. Arlindo clears the load does the offload onto the dock start.

Bags of 30 kilos each work best for us because they pass easily from hand to hand from start to finish on the journey from Terreiro Velho to our staging area on the Nova Moca plantation without ever touching the ground.

The Nova Moca team is ready to receive the beans. One by one the bags are opened, checked, re-weighed, organised by harvest date and placed in our dehumidified storage area.

At this point, with the dried cacao beans at Nova Moca, we can easily say that 60 percent of our work is done, as we already have the essentials for an extraordinary chocolate.

Before roasting, our cacao beans are selected by hand. Empty or defective beans are removed. The beans are now clean and checked. For a uniform roasting process, we make sure that beans of similar sizes are roasted together, with the same amount of heat and time, so the beans will release their best flavour.

Roasting is, without a doubt, a risky operation, because it is during this phase that the chocolate’s aroma is developed, and where even small errors in terms of time or temperature can ruin all the work done up to now. To get the best result we need the ideal thermal curve. We need to know when to interrupt the roasting, neither a second too soon nor too late because this is when the chocolate’s aromas are developed to their fullest. From 1980 to 1995 we roasted a lot of coffee in Zaire but very little cacao. We have a lengthy and well-rounded experience with a wide range of roasting machines and many species and varieties of coffee. The cacao was another matter altogether.

When you roast coffee, a color change is one of the parameters that tip you off as to timing. But with cacao, which must be roasted still covered in its integument, the colour doesn’t change, so there is no tip-off.

Throughout each roasting tests we gathered a huge amount of data regarding time and temperature. Our notes filled whole binders.

A low temperature and a long roasting time "take away happiness from the cacao". If temperatures are just a little too high or the time just a moment too short it will yield a rough flavour. Little by little we got there. At first, 95 percent of our efforts were either too short or too long. But that 5 percent that were just right led us to realize that any shortcoming was due to our own fault. Most roasted cacao tastes like nuts or burnt. Thanks to the extraordinary quality of our cacao, we gradually found that "magic second" that led us to the perfect roasting down to a fraction of a second. We finally succeeded!

Cacao beans are covered by a woody tegument. Underneath lies a small film called endosperm. Inside this endosperm there is a hard and bitter wild root.

From our chocolate nibs it might seem that the next phase is very brief, but that’s not the case. Cacao is a product that is alive, that wants to be known and cared for, and that likes to remind you of this by making you pay for even a moment’s distraction. At every different point in the refining, the taste and intensity change in a non-linear manner, with continuous and diverse sensations. Refining is another risky phase. We are now close to the 100 percent perfection that we dream of, the basis of all our chocolate, 100 percent perfection from the moment the cacao is picked off the tree until it reaches you.

 

I apologize for all the cutting and pasting, but there is a lot of good information for a novice chocolate fan. It was worth repeating. Hopefully someone out there is learning something from this blog.

 

 

73.5% with Nibs

 

Type: Bittersweet

Bean Varietal: Hybrid, wild beans

Ingredients: Cocoa, sugar, cocoa butter, 70% minimum cocoa.

Sample Size: 50g or 1.76oz

 

Appearance: Two tablets with no molding or monograms. Both tablets broken, slightly ashy, and cracked.

Score: 71

Snap: Soft, dull thud, asymmetrical break lines due to no molding,

Score: 73

Aroma: Huge aroma! Roasted cocoa, bitter, chocolate coffee stout, roasted coffee, fresh coffee grinds, burnt toast, tar.

Score: 99

Taste: Sweet, inky, tar notes, bitter, a bright green citrus hit of oranges and pine needles that seems to permeate but doesn't last long over the bitter roasted coffee flavors, cereal grains on the finish.

Score: 94

Texture: A little grainy, soft, soft nibs with a slight crunchy texture.

Score: 89

 

This one of those chocolates where the technical marks do not do it justice. The aroma on this chocolate has one of the most robust armoas I have ever smelled on a bar of chocolate. It smells like I poured a massive stout in a pint glass. A huge robust stout like Espresso Oak Aged Yeti from Great Divide. It's a wonderful smell. Huge coffee and roasted cocoa, bitter notes of burnt toast and tar, and fresh ground coffee beans. This is beer lovers chocolate right here.

The taste is quite unique as well. The same aroma flavors of coffee and roasted cocoa, but with a fantastic hit of oranges and pine needs and finished with cereal grains. It's also a lot sweeter than I would have expected. I expected all bitterness.

This is wonderful chocolate, but unfortunately it's appearance and snap quality takes it's average way down. I still encourage anyone to pick this up, cut the top off the package and just hold it to your nose and breathe away. Then taste it after you have finally come to terms with this fabulous aroma.

 

Final Score: 85.2

 

    score
     B-

 

Liddabit Sweets ~ The Snacker

 

Yeah, I mainly review chocolate bars or tablets, but that doesn't mean I am not interested in handmade candy bars!

Liddabit Sweets is the creation of Liz Gutman and Jen King. Specializing in handmade sweets such as pȃte de fruit, caramels, brittles, lollipops, and candy bars. With a commitment to using local and seasonal ingredients as much as possible, this makes them a step above the rest.

 

 

I like to call these adult candy bars. Unfortunately, when it comes to homemade and locally sourced, things can get a little pricey. $6.50 to $8.50 for a candy bar isn't exactly what you want to toss around in a 12 year olds Halloween basket. But for the adults, it's a small price to pay for handmade gem that doesn't contain a whole list of chemicals and ingredients you can't even pronounce.

They also offer cool varieties like the Pumpkin Pie bar, Pecan Pie bar, S'mores, Lime-in-the-coconut, and The King.

 

 

Right away these candy bars are extremely aromatic. Huge aromas of chocolate and peanuts. It smells like a Snickers bar but 100 times better.

Sweet and super soft texture. The nougat and caramel are very soft and not overly chewy. I would have liked a few more peanuts in my bar to add a bit more of a salty contrast or a bit more salt in the caramel, but this thing really hits the spot. And yes I am writing about this at 4 pm in the afternoon really needing a treat like this to make it through my day. Believe me, I am sold. Alas, the salty peanuts I was looking for were hiding at the ends of the bar. Defintiely makes it more worthy.

If you like Snickers but like to support your local or a small producer, then this is for you. It's a big candy bar, it's tasty, satifying, sweet, salty, and most importantly they nailed how to keep the caramel and nougat so soft.

Kudos Ladies!

Halloween Chocolate 2010

 

 

What is cool and scary looking for Halloween this year? I have decided to highlight some awesome winners for this season. And not the corny stuff either. Some stuff that I like, that I think is cool.

 

Life size and realistic chocolate skulls anyone? Pictured above. There is little information about these except that they make them using Belgian chocolate. You can get them in blends to look more realistic. And they cost about $120 bucks. I hope they come in the cool case that is pictured on their website. They better for $120 bones.

Source: Chocolateskulls.com

 

 

How about some angels and demons? Chocolate icons from Alma Chocolate in Oregon. The Charming Devil or the Anatomical Heart might be right for Halloween. Or an Our Lady Gualalupe for Dia De Los Muertos. Or perhaps a Celtic Cross to fend off any other nasties?

 

 

Source: Alma Chocolate

Skeleton/Heart image via: Oregon Live

 

 

 

 

Speaking of Icons, Alma isn't the only game in town running that offer. Bond Street Chocolate in New York, also has a selection of deities to worship in chocolate form. And the offer high cocoa percentage (72%) skulls.

 

We all know Jesus wasn't really a white man, so a chocolate Jesus just might be in order. Just don't let it get too close to your prayer candles.

Source: Bond Street Chocolate

 

 

 

Let's get morbid shall we?  Chocolate artist Stephen Shanabrook with Body Parts, wounds, and incision wounds box set lovingly called "Morgue." How about a chocolate sculpture called "The Remnants of a Suicide Bomber?" Maybe some Choir boy's being water boarded? It's Halloween after all. Just because we turn the scary into cartoon-ish images, doesn't mean there isn't some real creepy stuff out there. If you are going to do gross, go big or go home!

Wonder what kind of chocolate he uses?

 

Source: Eat Me Daily

 

 

 

For something less offensive and more tasty, how about some skull and ghost truffles? Vianne Chocolat Nibs-n-skulls truffle and L.A. Burdick's Ghost truffles. Keeping in with the spirit of Halloween without getting too gross about it. Cute and tasty.

 

Source: Vianne Chocolat

Source: L.A. Burdick's

 

 

And since Halloween seems to be the time to pull out the hot spices or peppers in chocolate, why not go with this slick Mutha Fuckin' bar of chocolate right here? Mast Brothers Dark Chocolate + Serrano Peppers.

Brooklyn-based, American Craft Chocolate producers, and now friends of mine, Rick and Michael Mast. Dope packaging, spicy chocolate, Dominican Republic beans. You can't go wrong.

This bar is in my own personal collection right now just waiting to be reviewed. Soon, my spicy friend. Soon you will be eaten and destroyed.

Source: Mast Brothers

Montezuma's ~ Ecuador 71%

 

 

 

 

Via their website:

Ecuador is a small but perfectly formed part of South America's Andean highland. This chocolate comes from the now rare Rios Arriba bean recognised as one of the finest varieties of cocoa in the world due to the intense concentration of flavour. 
 
The highest cocoa content has a soft and subtle flavour with just a touch of earthiness you may expect from such an aromatic and flowery variety. This chocolate just melts away and leaves you craving for the very last crumb in the carton!

 

 

 

 

 

Montezuma's Ecuador 71%

 

Type: Bittersweet

Bean Varietal: Arriba Nacional

Ingrdients: Cocoa solids (71%), Sugar (29%), Vanilla (Less than 1%)

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

 

Appearance: Smooth, simple non-monogrammed molding, a bit nicked and matted from plastic wrapping, still shiny on most of the bar, deep dark brown color.

Score: 89

Snap: Deep, robust snap, firm and loud snap with clean break lines.

Score: 93

Aroma: Roasted cocoa nose, nutty, soft, lightly sweet, slightly tangy aroma, coffee notes, cinnamon, and lavender.

Score: 94

Taste: Roasted cocoa, earthy, spicy, cereal grains, slight hints of leather, very low-acidity, but a lightly tangy after taste. Mild bitterness but it's subdued by the dryness of the texture, soft and subtly wood flavors, a small hint of berries and lavender on the finish.

Score: 94

Texture: Hard then opens up smooth and creamy, medium-fast melt time, dry and leaves the palate dry.

Score: 91

 

Another fairly complicated chocolate. But I am happy this time with the Arriba Nacional Beans. I haven't really been too keen on them as their flavors are interesting yet way too delicate at times. And the drying effect these beans seem to have on the palate isn't my favorite. But Montezuma's seems to have really dragged out some raw flavors on these cocoa beans. Their packaging suggests subtle hints of earthiness. That's true in a way when trying to sort out all the different elements in this bar that make it earthy. But to me, I found it to be fairly robust for an Arriba Nacional bar.

They pulled out earthy, rustic flavors with the roasted cocoa, and the lavender is not too perfume-y or flowery it doesn't over take the palate. I am really impressed with the spiciness, and the cereal grains on the flavor. There is an interesting bitterness that surrounds the entire palate but the dryness of the chocolate sort of eliminates the impact of how bitter the chocolate is.

Still the dryness of Nacional beans leaves little to be desired in my opinion. There is dry, and then there is palate killing dryness. I am not a fan of that quality. But overall I am happy with the flavors that were able to come through on this bar.

 

 

Final Score: 92.2

score
B+

Montezuma's ~ Peru 70%

 

 

 

 

Peru is the new hot origin for single origin chocolate bars these days. Peruvian beans are being sought after by all the high end chocolate makers from around the world.

Earlier this summer, Art Pollard of Amano Chocolates, Stephane Bonnat of Bonnat Chocolatier, Alan McClure of Patric Chocolates, and Colin Gasko of Rogue Chocolatier all took a trek to Peru to source beans and discover the region. Now their origin bars are coming out. 

Although cacao has been growing in the region for centuries, this bandwagon for new origin regions or newly discovered cacao varieties is certainly exciting for the chocophiles.

 

Via Rueters:

"It's truly the year of Peru," said Stephane Bonnat, the director of commercial relations for Bonnat chocolates of France and the descendant of a long line of chocolatiers."

UNDISCOVERED VARIETIES

The genetic diversity of Peruvian cocoa has protected crops from pests and disease that have hindered production in neighboring Ecuador and Brazil, according to a 2006 Annals of Botany report.

Numerous varieties also entice those in constant search for exotic new flavor profiles.

"There are types of cocoa plants in Peru whose flavor is not yet known. I feel like Christopher Columbus discovering a new world," said Valentine Tibere, an ambassador from the Salon du Chocolat, a Paris-based trade group.

 

So with that new varieties, new tastes, new flavor profiles to discover and Montezuma's has a pure organic version.

Via Montezuma's website:

Peru has everything you would expect from an ancient and sophisticated South american civilisation; fortunately for us, this includes some of the world's finest cocoa. The organic cocoa we use is a blend of Trinitario and Criolla beans, best described as Ariba quality: that means the best of the very best! Our cocoa from Peru comes from a cooperative made up of many tiny plantations in the San martin and Huanuco region to the east of the Andes in the tropical lowlands. That description just wants you to dive in and experience the mystery of Peru. 
 
This chocolate contrasts interestingly to our 73% cocoa Dominican Republic chocolate, in that it has a distinctively fruity flavour with a hint of tropical fowers. We don't even add vanilla to this chocolate because of the naturally fruity overtones. This is a mild and natural rich chocolate which is simply brilliant!

And of course comes Montezuma's stamps of various approvals.

 

 

 

 

Montezuma's Peru 70%

 

Type: Bittersweet

Bean Varietal: Blend, Criollo and Trinitario

Ingredients: Cocoa solids (70%), Sugar.

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

 

Appearance: Simple lined moldings, shiny and smooth with a few minor nicks and matted marks on the surface, deep brown color.

Score: 90

Snap: Deep robust snap, frim crisp snap sound, clean break lines with a few crumbles.

Score: 93

Aroma: Delicate, lightly sweet nose, light roasted cocoa, mild hints of spice, creamy and nutty, a little floral.

Score: 94

Taste: Slow opening, sweet and lightly flowery, big cedar wood and tangerine characters up front, inky and lightly bitter, spicy, nice bold fruit characters, some lingering bitterness and floral notes on the finish. Also a little spiciness like black pepper on the finish. Very slight though.

Score: 96

Texture: A little hard at first, smooth, and creamy once it opens up on the palate. Medium-long melt time.

Score: 92

This chocolate took it's sweet time to open up. It was a little hard in texture but did eventually open up a creamy and smooth texture.

It's sweet chocolate with lingering bitterness and flowers on the finish, but opens up with sugar and light flowery taste. There is a big, beautiful cedar wood taste as soon as the chocolate opens up on the palate. A little spiciness to go along with big wood and tangerine flavors.

Interesting that they compare this to their Dominican Republic bar. Both are extremely woody in character. Though they are right, the Peru is distinctly more fruity and floral with no vanilla added to it. Also the cedar wood on the Peru is distinctly bigger. With the Dominican Republic bar I wanted to melt it down and drink it. It had savory wood characters that I wanted to add spices and chillies to. With this bar I wanted to savor it tiny bit by tiny bit. It's sweet, floral, fruity, with bright cedar woods.

You will need to take your time with this chocolate. You will get the wood characters right away, but you will need to savor a few squares before you fully understand all the nuances on the chocolate. It's pretty complex chocolate. Despite having only a few descriptors in the review for taste and aroma, I am still thinking about this chocolate.

 

Final Score: 93

 

    score
     A-

Montezuma's ~ Very Dark Chocolate 73%, Dominican Republic

 

 

 

73% dark chocolate using beans from the Dominican Republic. As in previous reviews of Montezuma's, they use all organic ingredients, and do well to highlight all the proper stamps for their products.

 

 

Traces of nuts.

Genetically Modified Free.

Additive and Coloring Free.

Soy Free.

British Made.

Preservative Free.

Vegetarian.

Organic.

Vegan.

Gluten Free

May contain traces of milk.

 

I always laugh at the conundrum of the Vegan stamp, but the possibility of milk stamp at the end. This is also fair trade chocolate.

 

Click to emlarge images.

 

 

 

 

Very Dark Chocolate 73%

 

Type: Bittersweet

Bean Varietal: Trinitario

Ingredients: Organic cocoa solids (73%), Organic sugar (26%), Organic Vanilla (less than 1%).

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

 

Appearance: Smooth and simple non-monogrammed molding. A few matted spots from the plastic wrap, a tiny bit ashy, but still very shiny and smooth. Thick bar, simple lined pattern for the molding. It's also very dark brown in color.

Score: 89

Snap: Very firm snap, loud hard snap sound, clean break lines.

Score: 97

Aroma: Big roasted cocoa aromas, smoky, rich roasted coffee notes, nutty almonds, coconut, lightly floral.

Score: 94

Taste: Bitter right up front, a little inky, slow to open up, roasted cocoa, rich wood flavors especially new wood flavors and cedar wood, very subdued berry flavors hidden underneath the big wood flavors, lingering nutty flavors on the finish. Long flavor experience. Due to the medium-long melt time it took it's time to open up giving more than enough time to think about this chocolate and it's flavor profiles.

Score: 94

Texture: Smooth and creamy, but medium-long melt time.

Score: 95

 

This is fairly straight forward chocolate. It takes it's time to open up allowing you to get the full impact of it's flavors. There is nothing exactly exotic about the flavors, but the wood and nuttiness of this chocolate is fantastic. It's wonderfully rich, very bitter right up front but it doesn't discourage any of the other rich flavors to come through. There is an inky, berry flavor in this chocolate but it's very slight and hidden underneath all the nutty flavors and wood. Still fun to try and find it.

I almost want to melt it down for hot chocolate because of the rich woody and nutty flavors on it. Add some sugar, vanilla, and steamed milk, and maybe some cayenne or a smoky chili pepper to it.

The matted appearance from the plastic drags this score down a bit, but I need to say that I love this kind of protection for the chocolate. It keeps the aromas and flavors sealed for a longer shelf life. Most people don't know that chocolate can last for a very long period of time. The purists will tell you to consume in a few weeks after it was molded to a few months for optimum flavor profile. They are absolutely right, but chocolate can keep for a while.

 

Final Score: 93.8

 

    score
     A-

 

William Curley Caramel Mou's

 

 

You might recall a while back when I posted about a package that William Curley sent to me from London. As part of that package came caramels. Lovely, divine, chocolate covered awesomeness.

 

 

 

These were different caramels to try, Caramel Mou. The first time I had a William Curley caramel, I nearly died trying the filled sea salt caramel bar. It was so unbelievably good. These new caramels recently added to their collection, are chewier and not like the former filled bars.

 

Assam Caramel Mou

 

Sweet, sugary caramel infused with very nice hints of floral Assam tea notes. Big tropical passion fruit flavors as well with the floral notes. Buttery richness comes along and finishes in the palate. This is delicate, and flavorful caramel. Very sweet and sugary, but not unwelcomed. Simply gorgeous.

 

 

 

Sea Salt Caramel Mou

 

 

Rich, buttery caramel, sweet and salty, more of a chocolate presence and linging taste of chocolate. Buttery flavors linger on the finish like the Assam Mou. This one is more balanced with the salt, but still fairly sugary. I love that the chocolate interaction is more noticable on this one. This caramel tasted much more classic.

 

 

It's funny how I never really cared that much for caramels before. Not that I didn't like them, but they usually aren't the first things I go for in a sweet shop. But I really love the differences in these two. I love the floral, tropical fruit notes and rich sweetness of the Assam Mou. I equally enjoyed the classic richness and buttery, salty balance of the Sea Salt Mou.

Rabot Estate ~ 65% Dark 120 Hour & 96 Hour Conching

These chocolates came to me though my good friend Angelo from London's Borough Market, then transported to Belgium, and home with me to Cambridge, Ma.

I met up with Angelo in Belgium as part of a beer business trip. That business being my husband was getting Knighted by the Knighthood of the Brewers' Mash Staff (Belgian Brewers' Guild).

Angelo being an excellent partner in drinking, is also a main contributor to my blog. Contributor in the fact that he finds and sources all the best chocolate in London for me to write about. Also, some nice gems from Italy.

West Indies Chocolate. Where do I begin? Thankfully the Rabot Estate website is chock full of information. 

The Rabot Estate is Saint Lucia’s oldest cocoa estate, and was first established as an agricultural estate around 1745.

It was bought 5 years ago by two UK based entrepreneurs, Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris, the original founders of Hotel Chocolat . At that stage cacao growing on Saint Lucia was on its knees; no future, no investment, no pride and no quality.

Angus grew up in the Caribbean and always wanted to connect chocolate and cacao. A customer sent him an old book published in 1920 about cacao growing, which he read while he was visiting his father who lives in Barbados. This was a moment of serendipity which inspired him to get into cacao growing. Peter always wanted to have a farm, so although he is a Chartered Accountant and naturally quite cautious, he was game on too!

Since then, Angus and Peter have invested heavily, re-planting thousands of new cacao trees, raising the quality of the fermentation to get a fantastic quality bean and putting together a team of local talent led by Phil Buckley – a resourceful cacao tree hugging eco-engineer. His wife Judy is an expert on team building and quality control. They have reached out to the other cacao growers on the island to stimulate a Cocoa Renaissance as part of their Engaged Ethics programme.

There are now 80 growers who have formally joined the scheme.

They get a commitment
- all the beans they grow will be bought, giving a secure and guaranteed market
- they will be paid about 30% above world cocoa prices
- will be paid 1 week after delivery
- free technical help
- subsidised cocoa tree seedlings to plant out

Now there is a thriving cocoa growing sector and an estimated 300 new jobs have been created amongst these growers. Sustainable benefits brought about by making investments of time, money and passion. 

I really admire websites that include detailed information about their chocolate. The Rabot Estate has included some good information about the bean varietal Trinitario including some genetic confirmations.

Making Chocolate History:

Saint Lucia is home to some of the world’s most sought after, fine flavour cocoa – the Trinitario bean. It’s a natural cross between the brilliant, but difficult to grow, Criollo strain and the hardier, but less complex, Forastero. So it’s strange, but true, that the world has never before tasted chocolate made with Saint Lucia’s Trinitario cocoa – previously all St Lucian cocoa has been exported and mixed into blends.

This enterprise has enabled the taste of Saint Lucian chocolate to be tasted for the first time ever.

The rare chocolate on sale currently is from the fourth harvest of beans from Saint Lucia and includes cacao from 80 of our neighbours. The cacao arrives at Rabot Estate ‘wet’, which is to say freshly scooped from pod, so that we can ferment and dry the beans to our exact scientific specification – because that's where the true flavour profile of the bean is developed.

With each batch of chocolate improving on the last, this, our fourth cuvée is the best yet. And with each harvest, our experience and knowledge of how to get the best out of these fine flavour beans grows. This year the beans have been subjected to a lower temperature roast, for a slightly longer time, which has preserved more of the multi-layered flavours and resulted in something milder and more sophisticated in nature.

The recipes, as always, contains no vanilla, allowing the true flavour notes to come through unimpeded.

Finding Dr. Pound's Lost Cacao:

In 1727 something catastrophic hit the island of Trinidad that changed the complexion of cocoa forever… THE BLAST

Some say it was a hurricane, others suggest it might have been drought or disease. Whichever way you look at it however, the “blast” that hit the West Indian island of Trinidad in the 18th century all but destroyed the island’s cocoa industry, one of the world’s largest at that time.

It was the Spanish who first brought cocoa to Trinidad around about 1525 and they brought with them the fine flavour Criollo trees. But it wasn’t until the beginning of the 18th century that Trinidad’s cocoa industry really took off – thanks to the French who colonised the island after the Spanish. So when the “blast” hit, it devastated the fledgling industry.

In 1757, efforts to rebuild the industry began in earnest with Forastero trees imported from nearby Venezuela – known for their resistance to disease. The new trees then interbred with the remaining Criollo trees and formed a brand new strain of cocoa, which was called Trinitario. The new strain combined the best of both parents – the hardiness of Forastero and the fine flavour of Criollo.

The Science Bit:

The hybrids quickly multiplied and formed the basis of most of the estates that needed replanting. After that, there was no looking back and over the next 150 years cacao came to dominate the Trinidadian economy. The vast array of trees in Trinidad contained just about every combination of characteristics known to cocoa, so it was no surprise that they attracted a world famous expert from Imperial College, FJ Pound.

His thorough studies over a period of years culminated in his identification of 100 different strains of Trinitario tree, selected for high yield and good quality beans. They were called the Imperial College Selections (ICS) and were numbered from 1 to 100. The next step was to carry out field trials at the San Juan Estate in Trinidad to further refine the selections – it became the most successful cocoa breeding programme in the world.

However, by 2001 only 57 of the original 100 ICS clones remained…

The Rabot Gene Bank:

We now travel north up the West Indian island chain, as Trinitario cocoa trees must also have done, passing Grenada and St Vincent and arriving at St Lucia. Here, on the Rabot Estate, we’ve been conducting our own studies into the cocoa found on our plantation. With the help of a UK university, world experts in cocoa genetics, we’ve managed to identify many of the types of cocoa growing on the estate, but there’s one in particular that has got us very excited and not only because we’ve just seen the first pod produced by the cloned trees that we have planted out.

They confirmed that they are definitely Trinitario, however, there is no exact match with any of the survivors from the original ICS clones. But they do share some ancestors, so they could well be part of the lost ICS 100 selected by FJ Pound.

A rare breed indeed...

Furthermore, it’s known that Dr Pound collected some upper Amazonian trees and later produced some more hybrids using the ICS strains. So our trees could also be part of this lost Pound selection. The university believes that, eventually, they can be fully identified. But from where ever they have been lost, they have now been found on the Rabot Estate and it seems that they are very rare. We can’t wait until more trees bear pods so that we can make the very first chocolate from these exceptional beans.

My apologies for all the cutting and pasting. I love websites that detail their information. I also wanted to be sure everyone read it versus just putting the links up.

There was a third bar to be reviewed, but while hanging out at the Moeder Lambic in Brussels, the gang of rabid drunks I was sitting with demanded we try one on the spot.

All I can say about this poor soul, was that it was delicious. My palate however was properly shot from drinking hop bombs all night like the freshest De Ranke XX, I have ever had.

This beer with all of it's fresh and floral hops no doubt was the reason I tasted unripened mangoes on the chocolate. But the rich nutty characters as well as leather and rich tobacco would not be overshadowed by my hoppy mouth.

Conching (in a nut shell) is a process in which cacao beans are broken down in to finer particles releasing more aromas and flavors or softening acidic qualities from fermentation. These are two examples of a 65% dark cacao conched at different times. 

** I do want to note that I am scoring the appearance of these bars slightly different than normal do to all the travel circumstances. These bars were packed in a way not meant for world traveling. They held up pretty good none the less.

 

 

65% Dark 120 Hour Conching

Type: Bittersweet, 65%

Bean Varietal: Trinitario, Hybrids

Ingredients: Cocoa solids (minimum 65%, sugar, soy lecithin.

Sample Size: 35g or 1.23oz

Lot #: 10137

Appearance: This bar held up well for being taken from London, to Brussels, to Boston. It did suffer a major break in the bar, but the overall appearance was nice, not nicked up, smooth and shiny except near the major break line. Monogrammed molding with intricate pattern, but no molding lines leaving for asymmetrical break lines.

Score: 91

Snap: Lightly firm, but barely audible snap. Clean, but asymmetrical break lines.

Score: 88

Aroma: Bright acidic nose, tart and citric, nutty, roasted cacao, and then a strange flowery powdered sugar nose. Like cotton candy and the remnants of a once flowery perfume sprayed on a testing paper days ago still holding on for dear life. Very faint though. Very interesting.

Score: 93

Taste: Sweet, and very sugary right up front, deep berries, dried fruits, roasted cacao flavors, nice woody characters, tiny hidden hints of bananas, lingering bitterness once all the sugar goes away.

Score: 89

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

Score: 94

I was hoping for a lot more with this chocolate, but sadly it was overly sugary which really took away a lot of potential for this bar. Any flavor that presents itself makes a quick appearance and then quickly dissipates. It's a shame because I really wish those fantastic, deep, woody characters would have stuck around.

Conching for 120 hours seems like a good a idea, but not if you conch all the flavor right out of your bar and you make up for it by overloading it with sugar. For all the information they give you about how rare these Trinitario beans are, you would think they would want you to actually taste them.

However, those with a super sweet tooth will really dig this chocolate bar. This is not for chocolate purists, but more for those who want to crush a hankering something really sweet.

Final Score: 91

score
B+

 

  

65% Dark 96 Hour Conching

Type: Bittersweet, 65%

Bean Varietal: Trinitario, Hybrids

Ingredients: Cocoa Mass (minimum 65%), sugar, soy lecithin.

Sample Size: 35g or 1.23oz

Lot #: 10188

Appearance: Slightly more banged up than the other bar and the same big crack at the bottom. Still shiny none the less despite the nicks and marks on the bar. Intricate molding with no lined patterns.

Score: 90

Snap: Slightly more firm than the 120. Better snap sound, but still fairly subdued. Asymmetrical break lines, but clean.

Score: 91

Aroma: Much softer nose, green, flowery, roasted cacao, subdued berries, mildly inky, very, very slight hints of cinnamon.

Score: 92

Taste: A lot less sugary than the 120, slight pop of acidic notes, but quickly leaves the palate, lighter wood character, bigger dried fig and raisin taste, finishes a lot more mellow than I would have expected.

Score: 93

Texture: Very smooth and silky, medium melt time.

Score: 93

Once again, I expected more from this chocolate. It's fairly tame, although the figs and dried fruits presented themselves more significantly. But the woody characters were muffled. They come out for a quick pop, but then went away quickly. There is a slight acidic taste right up front with this chocolate, but that too goes away quickly. I didn't have time to recognize if it was grapefruit like their packaging suggests you might taste.

I liked this bar better, but only marginally. Flavor wise it was much better and far less sugary than the 120.

I liked the stark contrast in the aroma's between this and the 120, and there is a fairly significant difference in taste, but I was hoping for bigger contrasts. Enough that makes sense on why they would do a 120 and a 96 hour conching.

It could be that these conching times make sense when tasting the chocolate right then and there. But allowing it to sit in weak packaging may have lost some of the intended flavors.

Final Score: 91.8

score
B+

So what happened to this chocolate? It could be a few things. There might be an over emphasis on just how good or rare these beans are from St. Lucia. There is a gimmick for new islands, new locations, new origins. Despite there being a long history with St. Lucia and cacao, there isn't a whole lot of products with these island beans. There may be an attempt to make this sound more exotic or more fantastic than it really is. Like emphasizing long conching times.

Or the extended conching really is a wonderful tactic, but the flavors are so delicate or the intended effect doesn't have longevity.

Not that this isn't good chocolate. It's fairly solid, but perhaps some more skills and less gimmick is required to make these cocoa beans really shine.