20°N & 20°S

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. 

 

Supporting Your Local

 

 

I support my local. If given a chance to order chocolate from far away or support the local makers in my community, obviously I am going to support the local makers. With more and more people venturing in to making their own chocolate or making their own truffles and confections, the choice is pretty easy these days. I count my blessings for all the new shops and new makers in the Boston area opening up. 

Over Thanksgiving, I decided I was already baking and making enough food to feed a small army. I didn't want to spend that much time baking more desserts. I had already made my own fig jam and port wine truffles and chocolate cake, not to mention several other things. I remembered a great local truffle maker in my area, Valerie Conyngham of Vianne Chocolat. I had tasted some of her treats before, but she now has several new truffles. She tweeted out that she had some Mulled Cider Caramels. That's what I had to have. That's what I wanted on Thanksgiving Day. It just sounds like the holidays. It was cold that day too. They worked like a charm. Plus I love her packaging. It's so cute and makes for great little gifts to pass around with the family and taste all the yummy goodness. 

Luckily for me, she came and met me for a drink and delivered me a nice big order of fun things. I ordered Mulled Cider Caramel Cups, Peanut Butter Hives with a Kick, Irish Whiskey Truffles, and Pumpkin Cups. 

The Peanut Hives with a Kick were my favorite. Lovely peanut butter truffles with a touch of honey and a really nice kick of heat from cayenne pepper that does exactly what I want, slowly build on the palate. I am a wuss about hot and spicy food. So if it's not a slow builder, then I don't want it. These were great. I don't have pictures of them because they were very popular at Thanksgiving. But they come in cute hive-shaped truffle molds. 

 

 

Irish Whiskey Caramel Cups

This wasn't supposed to happen. They are pretty popular and she said didn't have any left, but fortunately one box did make it into my bag. Thank you Valerie! 

These are my kind of caramels. Belgian chocolate shells, boozy aroma straight away, as soon as you open the box as a matter of fact. A little green shimmer hand painted on each one. Soft, runny burnt caramel center with a nice boozy kick of whiskey. What's not to love? Butter, caramel, nutty chocolate, and whiskey. Good stuff. 

 

 

Pumpkin Cups

Dark chocolate shell with pumpkin seeds on the top and real pumpkin puree in the center. So many times things that say pumpkin are usually about the pie spices and not actually about the squash itself. This is largely the case with many pumpkin ales, but that's a story for another blog. This has the puree in it and you can taste it. The spices were great too because the truffles were lightly spiced. Pumpkin pie spices tend to be over done and end up cloying. Add a little but of nuttiness from the pumpkin seed and we got a winner here. Perfect holiday truffle. 

 

 

Mulled Cider Caramel Cups

The reason I'm here with this post today. Dark chocolate cups filled with mulled cider caramel and dried apple bits on the top. Very sweet and buttery. Spiced just right like the Pumpkin Cups, soft and runny, buttery burnt caramel center flavored with mulled cider. The dark chocolate leaves a nice lingering coffee-like flavor. Perfect after dinner caramel. 

 

Valerie is really nailing it with these wonderful caramel cups and truffles. I recommend sneaking in a last minute order for your holiday gatherings. A box of one of these these flavors would make for a really nice gift for someone at work too. The packaging is so cute and chic. 

L.A. Burdick ~ Ecuador 73% - 75%

***Archived notes. 

 

This is another Burdick bar that made it through the Spring and Summer with some marginal heat damage. Not nearly as bad as the Bolivia Bar. Because of this, there will be a slight adjustment in the appearance score. These bars were shiny and elegant when bought. The slight ashy appearance is due to to some temp changes and my struggle to keep bars at 60 degrees. 

Burdick's cocoa is single sourced, but not bean-to-bar. They are a couverture company using Felchlin (Swiss) and Valrhona (French) chocolate. This is a fantastic article by The Nibble from 2008, all about how Burdick's began and his history overseas learning chocolate techniques. And the reason behind using some of the worlds finest couverture for their products. From the bars to the truffles, and Burdick's famous hot chocolate. If you've never had Burdick's hot chocolate, you are really missing out. It's so rich and so thick, the antioxidants in it alone are probably enough to give you a super power like Heroes or the X-Men. It's truly some of the best and most rich and decadent hot chocolate on the market. 

 

 

 

 

Ecuador 73%-75%

 

Type: Bittersweet, Between 73% and 75%.

Bean Varietal: Probably Nacional

Ingredients: Cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter, may contain vanilla, may contain soy lecithin. 

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

 

Appearance: Non-monogrammed small squared tablet, deep dark ash brown color, smooth, unblemished surface. *Minor matting on surface with some slight sugar bloom. 

Score: 90

Snap: Medium snap quality. Not too firm or crisp and not too soft either. Low snap sound but very clean break lines. 

Score: 89

Aroma: Huge aroma! Lightly sweet, big almonds, big oak wood, almost marshmallow-y, vanilla, soft roasted cacao notes, a little spicy. 

Score: 95

Taste: Subdued cacao, bitter, sugar, roasted cacao, almonds, slightly inky and flowery, oak wood, vanilla, mild hints of cinnamon, subdued berries, *Indian spices, *Curry, marshmallow. 

Score: 93

Texture: Waxy up front, opens up nicely with a medium melt time, slightly viscous and smooth texture. 

Score: 89

 

Again the score on the appearance is based on what it looked like when I bought it. It was super smooth and shiny. It's not scored too high because of the boring molding and dull ash brown color of the chocolate. I mentioned the matted marks on the surface, but did not take that out on the score. I also wanted to explain the ashy  sugar bloom for those not familiar with that kind of bloom and what can happen with temperature fluctuations. 

The snap was pretty boring. Nothing special to write home about there. I have had better snap quality on other Burdick bars. 

The aroma had quite a lot going on. Lightly sweet with huge almonds and oak wood. It was very floral and pretty. It had a sweet candy marshmallow scent on the aroma with some soft roasted cacao and even some vanilla aromas. Some mild spicy characters too. I was most please with that huge woody oak aroma. I loved that and sat there inhaling it for about 15 minutes really trying to take it all in. Very good aroma. 

The flavor also had some interesting notes to it. It has some subdued bitterness, and soft roasted cacao, then it opened up with its sugars and almond flavors. There were berries there, but they were being subdued, definite oak wood flavors, slight hints of cinnamon. I put stars next to Indian spices and curry. While I was tasting, I accidentally read the package which mentions it's flavor profile of black tea and Indian spices. I think I let that interfere with my tasting. If I thought enough about it, I could taste those flavors in the bar. I can't tell if it's really in there or if I was influenced. If it is there, it's very slight and subtle. The package did mention mint flavors, but I did not detect though.

I am not the biggest fan of Ecuadorian beans especially Nacional varietals. I feel like they tend to dry the palate out kind of like the difference between rye on a beer or in whiskey. Similar flavors to bourbon but a unique drying effect on the palate rather than cloying sugars. I think that's what was holding down some of the bitterness, and keeping the true potential of the berry flavors at bay. This was actually okay just this one time because it allowed for amazing oak characters and earthy spices to come out and play. 

A lot to think about with this bar. Lots of good aromas and flavors. One of the better Ecuador bars I have had. I would like to put this side by side with Askinosie's San Jose Del Tambo bar. 

It did have a bit of a waxy texture of front when tasting it, but then it smoothed out fairly nicely and left a smooth creamy texture. Overall this is a fairly good bar of chocolate. Lots to think about with the taste and the aroma. It goes back to my early roots with describing chocolate, "It's thinking chocolate." That used to drive some of my more knowledgeable chocolate friends crazy. "What do you mean 'thinking chocolate'?" I mean I need longer than I usually take to review this chocolate to really let it sink in. To really understand if my palate was influenced or not by the packaging descriptors. Let those rustic earthy oak woods sink in. Not bad for a couverture bar and not a bean-to-bar.

 

Final Score: 91.2

  score
B+

Chuao ~ Panko in Semisweet 60%

 

Another fun and unusual filled chocolate bar from Chuao Chocolatier. I loved the Milk Chocolate and Potato Chips bar. Crumbled salty chips broken up into a milk chocolate bar. As if you even need to ask if that would be good. It was amazing. 

Today we have panko. Japanese bread crumbs typically used for their fine texture and coating for breading and frying things.

 

Click to enlarge images.

 

 

 

 

Panko in Chocolate Bar

 

Type: Filled Semisweet, 60%

Varietal: Hybrid

Ingredients: Dark chocolate (cacao, sugar, cacao butter, soy lecithin, vanilla), panko (unbleached wheat flour, dextrose, yeast, salt), salt. 

Sample Size: 80g or 2.8oz

 

Appearance: Deep dark chocolate color, very dark brown, Shiny and beautiful bar with almost a glittery-like effect from the panko on the top of the surface. Monogrammed tablet, textured surface on the back with a well blended and filled bar. 

Score: 94

Snap: Deep, firm snap with fairly loud and crisp snap sound, crumbly break lines due to the panko. 

Score: 90

Aroma: Sweet, deep and hidden berry notes, pen ink, lightly smoky, roasted cacao and tobacco notes.  

Score: 90

Taste: Tangy acid notes, very fruity, big berries and sweet cacao, very small hits of salt. 

Score: 91

Texture: Smooth but very hard chocolate, a little waxy, medium melt time, very gritty panko crumbs but a nice crispy crunch. 

Score: 87

 

Beautiful looking bar. Nice shiny and unblemished surface with the panko on the top almost looking like glitter. Click the first picture in the set of the bars to see what I mean about that glittery effect. Cool surface on the back and proves that the bar is evenly distributed with panko crumbs. 

Good, very strong snap. I only scored it lower because of it's grit it leaves when snapped. That is of course, due to the panko, but I have to say it is one of the more messier bars when snapping a piece off. But the firmness of it and the sound was excellent. 

The aroma was kind of weak. It had all the hallmarks of big South American chocolate but it was so subdued. I wonder if the sugar content had something to do with that or if the panko crumbs stifled the aroma. But it did have berry notes, smoke, and tobacco. All trademarks I have come to know from Venezuelan beans.

A bit acidic in the first taste. Tangy and tart. Very sweet and sugary with big berry flavors. Not enough salt to handle the sugar content of this semisweet bar. The panko didn't have as much of a toasted taste as I wanted and pretty much just added a crispy texture and absorbed all the flavors of the chocolate. I found it to be too sweet over all. There simply wasn't enough salt for this bar. The sugars from the chocolate completely trumped the salt and panko. 

The panko ended up being a bit annoying for me in the end. It didn't add enough flavor, just a crispy texture that I did like, but then it ended up being gritty and kind of obnoxious as I was trying to focus on the finishing flavors but ended up rinsing my mouth to clear it of the crumbs. 

I think this is one of those bars that sounds good on paper but didn't come out as well as it could have. Put this on milk chocolate, and add more salt and you would have a winner despite the lingering grittypanko crumbs on the finish. The creaminess of the milk chocolate, the added creamy milk flavors and the salt would help tone down the acidity of the chocolate and the huge berry flavors and allow all the flavors to present themselves nicely. 

A milk chocolate would be a nicer melting chocolate as well. I get that you are supposed to bite into and crunch it up. But there was still a slight hard waxy texture to the chocolate. It should have been smoother and softer to accommodate or not get in the way of the crispy panko. 

 

Final Score: 90.4

  score
B+

 

Galler ~ Kaori

 

I have to preface this post by saying my customer service experience at Galler has changed. And when I say changed I mean it was a night and day difference in the attitudes of the people who work there. 

The first time I walked into Galler, in Central Place in Brussels, the woman behind the counter was rude, bored, and barely lifted a finger to help me. Offered no information about anything and it wasn't because of a language barrier. She spoke English and was completely rude. But that was last year. 

This year I was back in Belgium only this time I was in Bruges, when I found another Galler store. I reluctantly went in, but found an excellent shop person behind the counter. He not only talked to me, he went through every product, even let me sample some of the chocolates on his own prompting. He gave me a curry truffle and it was fantastic. Beautifully spiced, not over done and balanced well with milk chocolate. I was so happy and completely over the moon with the night and day difference in customer service. I even told him about what happened the last time I was in Belgium. He said no more. Galler had made it a point to focus more on customer service. This makes me wonder who else had issues in the past. But no matter, things have definitely changed and for the better. They have also taken a more hands on approach to the chocolate. When I went to buy the Kaori sets, he told me he just packaged them. They make and package certain things right there in the small stores now. Freshness is important. I couldn't be more pleased. 

 

Kaori: Perfume, scent, fragrance. 

"The Japanese call a beautiful calligraphy 'calligraphy with taste'. The emotion is in the movement and in the expression of what resonates within us." 

 

Chocolates: 

Saffron

Cardamon

Yuzu

Ginger

Vanilla and Coconut

Strawberry and Balsamic

 

Compositions: 

Orange and Cocoa Nibs

Matcha and Opium Poppy

Kalamansi

 

The idea is to take each flavored chocolate stick, which is kind of like a truffle or bon bon stick, and dip them into the flavor pots creating different flavor combinations. Unless you lick each chocolate before dipping, it doesn't work so well without the Kalamansi which is the pot that looks like honey. Kalamansi is an Asian citrus fruit with tangy, sour notes. 

The orange and nib pot is pretty flavorful with orange and slight tannins with the bitter cocoa nibs. The matcha and opium poppy pot is very earthy. 

 

The best flavor profiles: 

Vanilla and Coconut with the Kalamansi and Matcha and Opium Poppy.

Cardamom with Kalamansi and Orange and Cocoa Nibs.

Ginger with Kalamansi and Matcha and Opium Poppy.

Saffron with Kalamansi and Orange and Cocao Nibs.

Yuzu (so tangy and powerful in it's own right) works well with both. 

Strawberry and Balsamic with Matcha and Opium Poppy. 

 

This is a wonderful and unique tasting experience. The flavors and spices were perfect and the tasting cups were a fun and interesting mix and match set up. This is a perfect gift to bring over to a dinner party or to share with friends who really like tastings and flavors. For people who really appreciate this kind of thing. And no, I won't say foodies because I deeply hate the term and the obnoxious trends around it. This is for people who enjoy nice things. 

Really fun, really tasty, and a simple elegant design. You can sit around for ages reflecting on each flavor and each combination. Cardamon was my favorite stick flavor. The yuzu was my least favorite only because it's tanginess surpassed the other flavor combinations. Though it did work quite well with both, it was just a bit too tangy.

If you bring one of these over for a dinner party, you will be a big hit amongst your friends.  

**Forgive the appearance of the chocolate sticks. They suffered through some heat issues traveling back to the States with me. This was due to the aggravating situation at the Le Meridian Hotel in Brussels. They had no working a/c, only heat and it was dreadful and miserable for the one night staying there. It was the reason my Westvleteren 12 truffles had melted to ugly shapes. That's in another post. I expect other chocolates that I brought back in bar form to have the same issues. But the ashy appearance is due to that. When I opened one of the Kaori boxes on our beer boat cruise in Belgium, they were shiny and beautiful. 

Vosges ~ Creole Bar 72%

 

 

An homage to New Orleans with chicory root spiced coffee in dark chocolate from Vosges' exotic bar collection. 

Via Wikipedia:

The cultivated chicory plant has a history reaching back to ancient Egyptian time. Medieval monks raised the plants and when coffee was introduced to Europe, the Dutch thought that chicory made a lively addition to the bean drink.

In the United States chicory root has long been used as a substitute for coffee in prisons.^[38] By the 1840s, after New York, the port of New Orleans was the second largest importer of coffee.^[37] Louisianans began to add chicory root to their coffee when Union naval blockades during the American Civil War cut off the port of New Orleans creating a long-standing tradition.^[37]

 

Inspire The People Around You.

 

Creole Bar

Type: Flavored/Filled bittersweet, 72%

Bean Varietal: Unknown, probably Forestaro

Ingredients: Dark chocolate [cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla], chicory coffee, cocoa nibs. 

Sample Size: 14g or .5oz

 

Appearance: Deep, dark brown color, inspirational quote monogram, scratched up surface, and no shine. 

Score: 76

Snap: Good crisp snap. Small thin sample, but still produced a nice audible snap. 

Score: 90

Aroma: Char, coffee grinds, hints of licorice, trees, wood, earthy, spicy, rustic.

Score: 93

Taste: Deep dark chocolate, sweet, tart, acidic, coffee grinds, 

Score: 92

Texture: Smooth chocolate, quick melt-time, gritty yet crispy bits, very small bits of nibs. 

Score: 91

 

Another disappointing appearance for Vosges. What's up with the heavy scratches on the bar? There was no damage to the box so I can't figure out how it would get so scratched up. And another matted surface with no shine. Strange matted appearance on the back of the bar with a weird dotted pattern. I am not talking about from the nibs in the bar either. 

 

 

Wonderful earthy and rich aroma of spices, coffee, char, and wood. The taste was a little acidic and tart, but also sugary and sweet with coffee flavors. It's hard to explain. It's very coffee-ish and strong, but not beating you over the head with coffee flavor. The nibs added a nice earthy bitterness as well. 

But once again, the skimpy fillings and flavorings are becoming a bad hallmark of Vosges. "Here is a flavorful bar of chocolate and doesn't these ingredients just sound really good and special? We're going to tell you about it and show you glorious packaging of all the spices and flavors but only add scraps to the bar." The nibs in this bar are pathetic. They add enough flavor, but it could have been a much more dynamic and rich bar with actual nibs in the bar and not some shavings. 

It almost has a Taza Chocolate-like grittiness on it because the nibs are so scant and small. It's evenly spread out though and makes for a more coffee grind-like texture. Which means only slightly larger granules than Taza's texture. The texture is more crispy instead of of crunchy and full. The chocolate is smooth and nice with a good melt-time. 

This is a nicely flavored bar. Good coffee flavors but not over the top and no coffee jitters to add to the cacao caffeine. Good rich Sao Tome chocolate base and chicory flavors that are nice and mellow although a little tart and gives way to that acidic jab in the neck glands. The nibs do provide a nice earthy and rustic flavor, but would have been a lot better had they been fuller pieces. 

Final Score: 88.4

 

  score
 B

 

Vosges ~ Woolloomooloo Bar 45%

 

As part of the exotic bars collection from Vosges, the Woolloomooloo bar is an Australian inspiration. If the name didn't give it away that is. Or the macadamia nuts. 

The inspiration:

Macadamia nuts, native to Australia, were originally harvested by the Aboriginal people who occupied the eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range. This chocolate bar is named after the famed suburb Woolloomooloo in Sydney and meant to honor the Aboriginal claim to the scrumptious macadamia nut.

I have been to Australia before and I do recall Woolloomooloo. I never went there specifically but I was close. It was one of those names that is so distinctly Australian.

One of the best things about Australia are the macadamia nuts. Something everyone must try when visiting are the Weis Ice Cream bars. Half and half mango and macadamia nut ice cream bars. It's to die for and you can find it in any corner store or convenient store in Sydney. Or just buy a large tub of it. But this post is about chocolate. I must stir myself back or I will get lost in my own thoughts about Sydney and Australia. My favorite place in the world.....

 

Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover.... Unless it's a Vosges Bar.

 

 

 

 

Woolloomooloo Bar

Type: Flavored/filled Milk chocolate, 45%

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Milk chocolate [sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, dry whole milk powder, soy lecithin, vanilla], roasted macadamia nuts, hemp seeds, coconut, salt. Chocolate ratio: 36% cocoa solids, 15% milk solids. 

Sample Size: 14g or .5oz

 

Appearance: Darker milk chocolate color, appearance of seeds and chopped nuts on the surface, monogrammed molding with inspirational message, Matted surface, no shine.

Score: 64

Snap: Very low and dull thud snapping sound. Very soft snap. 

Score: 73

Aroma: Big milky and creamy caramel-like aroma. Soft roasted cacao and a strange vegetal aroma almost like alfafa sprouts or mold. Very earthy.  

Score: 94

Taste: Slight earthy hemp taste up front but is quickly over taken by the sweet sugars and salt from the macadamia nuts, slightly nutty, milky, 

Score: 94

Texture: Creamy smooth chocolate, very quick melt-time. Slightly crunchy seeds, particle size nut pieces and chewy but scarce bits of coconut. 

Score: 93

 

It's funny that the message is "Don't judge a book by it's cover." Did they need to have that there to cover up for the fact that none of their bars ever have a desirable appearance? I have yet to have one bar from Vosges that has a nice surface or appearance. 

I had a hard time deciding on the aroma. I liked it but it's strange. I liked the creamy and milky aroma. Lovely soft roasted cacao, and then a strange green and vegetal aroma that smelled like mold or alfalfa sprouts. Very earthy, but it seems out of place with the sweeter and creamier milk chocolate. 

It tastes good but the palate is overwhelmed with milkiness, cocoa, and salt. The nuts barely leave a tangible nutty flavor, the coconut is skimpy and the hemp seeds seem irrelevant for the most part. They left a richness to the aroma but the taste was overwhelmed. This is due to Vosges going skimpy on the ingredients. Everything sounds good on paper, but when it comes to executing it, they skimp so badly. And it makes me mad because their prices and fancy packaging lead you to think that they are something more than they are. 

The coconut is so scarce that it leaves no impact on the flavor unless you happen to be lucky enough to get a piece of coconut to chew on. The hemp seeds leave a slight marijuana taste, with some earthiness and green taste up front but it's not enough to hang on or greatly impact the flavor. There is virtually no nuttiness to speak of except for some slight hints and the salt. There are some lingering seed tastes at the end, but that's only if you get pieces big enough to taste. The micro particles of macadamia nuts leave little or no flavor, but plenty of salt. Can we be sure there are even macadamia nuts in this bar and not just large kosher salt bits? 

The sweet and salty balance is fantastic. And for a milk chocolate it's great. But pretty underwhelming for the bar it claims to be. How is this an homage to Australia? Where are the macadamia nut chunks? Pretty weak and pretty pathetic if you ask me. And if I were Aboriginal, I would feel cheated. 

This is exactly the same problem I had with Vosges and their bacon and chocolate bars. Flavor wise the bacon taste is there, but the pieces in the bars are so pathetic. And these bars are not cheap. I want more. I want more macadamia nut pieces. I want more bacon. 

This was a good tasting milk chocolate bar. It's due primarily to the salt content of this bar. But overall I am not impressed with this. It should have been prettier than this, it should have been richer in flavor from the added ingredients. 

Final Score 83.6

   score
 C+

Galler ~ Blended Venezuela Papouasie - 43%

 

 

**Archived notes. 

 

I have been going through my little Doctor Who notebook where I take all of my chocolate notes, and I found this gem I forgot to blog about. I was in Belgium last year while my husband was being Knighted for his efforts with beer. In The Grand Place is a tiny little Galler shop where I picked up a couple of bars. 

This one is a milk chocolate bar and I almost forgot I bought it until I went through these bars. I kind of grabbed bars to hurry up and get out of the shop. The woman who was working there at the time was very unpleasant and would barely talk to me when I tried to ask questions. It wasn't a translation thing either. It was a rude bitch issue. But I must make note that since that time, I have gone back to Belgium, and Galler's customer service has improved immensely. But that's for another post. I will detail the dramatic change when I write about Galler's Kaori set. 

A blended bar of Criollo beans from Venezuela and Forestaro beans from Papua New Guinea. I have been really happy with the quality of milk chocolates I have been fortunate enough to taste since starting this blog. It's almost converted me to say that some of these milk chocolates are more favorable than the bittersweet, dark chocolate bars. Almost, but still some of these milk bars are changing my mind every day. 

 

Blended Venezuela Papouasie 43%

Type: Blended milk, 43%

Bean Varietal: Criollo and Forastero

Ingredients: Sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, whole milk powder, soy lecithin, natural vanilla. 

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

 

Appearance: Deep caramel color, monogrammed molding, large tabs tablet, some minor matting marks on a few of the tabs, shiny smooth surface. 

Score: 93

Snap: Light crisp sound is due to thin lines from the molding, tabs too big to snap for comparison. But very clean break lines. 

Score: 90

Aroma: Cream and smoke. Milky creamy caramel aroma with light hints of smokiness. There were some deep underlying complex fruits but the milk dominates leaving a caramel aroma. 

Score: 94

Taste: Mellow and subdued, low smokiness, light tobacco leaves taste, creamy, lightly sweet, lingering smokiness on the finish, milky aftertaste, slight strawberry fruity notes. 

Score: 85

Texture: Slightly waxy upfront, but smooths out and has a creamy texture, medium melt time. 

Score: 91

 

This was a mixed bag for me. It's very robust on the aroma, with deeply rich caramel notes, cream, and smokiness. Then the taste is totally washed out. I can't tell it's due to the blended of cacao beans or wasted out in too much milk powder. It says on the wrapper 19% is milk powder. 

The color is gorgeous, and it despite it's very delicate flavor, the creaminess of this and it's texture make for good melting chocolate for hot chocolate. It's aroma and appearance really give this bar high marks. There was a bit of a fruity aroma, but the taste ended up being like strawberries and cream mixed with a little bit of smoke and a little bit of tobacco. Nice flavor even if it was faint. 

Although I expected more from the flavor, I still adore this chocolate and it's creaminess. This is a bar for weak or sensitive palates. But in my mind it's designed for creamy hot chocolate. 

 

Final Score: 90.6

  score
B+

L.A. Burdick ~ Bolivia 68%

 

 

**Archived notes.

 

A single origin bar from Burdick's but not bean-to-bar. They source from a Swiss chocolate company. 

This is a bit of a different review. This is a chocolate that survived, marginally, through the changing seasons of a cooler spring to summer. Though these are archived notes, I wanted to show you what happens when it's my fault that the appearance is a mess. This won't be taken out on Burdick's in the review. There are some surface issues that can be scored, but I will note that in the review. Again, this is what happens when temperatures are not controlled. I write about that often when I get chocolate that hasn't been handled properly. Usually it's not my fault. But in this case it is. And for reviewing purposes I will always make a note of conditions, circumstances of travel, or longevity in my reviews. 

 

L.A. Burdick Bolivia 68%

Type: Bittersweet, 68%

Bean Varietal: Unknown, probably Trinitario

Ingredients: Cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter.

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz

 

Appearance: Dark chocolate brown color, it was shiny on the surface but had a few plastic matted marks on the surface from it's plastic covering and some chocolate particles on the surface. Standard square patterned molding, non-monogrammed. (Ashy, dusty, sugary appearance comes from the heat damage. This is what makes it look matted and dull. It was very shiny.)

Score: 89

Snap: Firm snap, with low and dull snap sound. Clean break lines. 

Score: 89

Aroma: Big aroma of soft roasted cacao and oak wood. Mildly astringent and tart, deep dark fruits. 

Score: 92

Taste: Soft roasted cacao, berries, pen ink, a little tangy, oak wood, sweet but balanced sugars, and a little bit of char on the lingering finish. 

Score: 93

Texture: Smooth, a little hard and waxy at first, then opens up to a nice silky texture with a medium melt time and creamy texture. 

Score: 92

 

This is interesting chocolate. It's very subdued and mild. This is a good midway chocolate for the milk to dark fans. It has a big roasted nose of deep berries and rich oak wood, but it's flavor comes off as soft roasted cacao, balanced sugars, mellow fruits and berries, and a slight hint of lingering char on the finish. Some mild pen ink and hints of bitter astringency, but not enough to over power. 

This could have been a much more dynamic bar, but I kind of like it's subdued quality. You don't always need kick-you-in-face robust flavors to have a worthy bar of chocolate. 

 

Final Score: 91

   score
 B+

Zotter ~ Labooko Soya & Green Tea

 

Artist: Andreas H. Gratze

 

** Archived notes. 

 

 

Zotter

Labooko Duo bars Lactose Free Soya and Green Tea

Duo flavor bars from Zotter with soy and green tea flavors. Both lactose free for those with special dietary needs.

As mentioned on the packaging, both bars are soy bars with soy powders replacing the milk powders. This would otherwise, qualify as milk chocolate with the lower cocoa percentages and balance of milk solids. And as promised by the Zotter brand, these are organic bars with organic and fair trade ingredients and non-genetically modified soy products. 

 

 

Green Tea

Type: Soy, 30%

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Cocoa butter, raw cane sugar, soy milk powder, whole cane sugar, sesame, green tea powder, vanilla, salt, cocoa mass, soy lecithin.

Sample Size: 35g or 1.23oz

 

Appearance: Creamy soft green color, monogrammed molding with signature blown dry ripples on the surface, *broken piece*, small flecks of green tea or matcha mixed in, large chocolate particle pieces on the surface. 

Score: 91

Snap: Light crisp snap, clean break lines, decent snap sound. 

Score: 93

Aroma: Cream and matcha, earthy, dirt, and copper.

Score: 94

Taste: Green tea, matcha, creamy, milky, earthy and dirty, fresh tea, lingering soy flavors, sweet, fruit flavors, possibly strawberries, no cocoa flavors. 

Score: 94

Texture: Hard, long melt time, waxy. 

Score: 82

Tastes like a creamy, milky cup of sweetened green tea. Delicious and not one ounce of real milk in this bar. A little bit of lingering soy on the finish. Clean finish despite the robust matcha and cream flavors upfront. Sweet but not sugary, an excellent balance. And a little bit fruity. I can't tell what kind of fruit I am tasting, but it's got that fruity vibe making an appearance at the finish. Almost like strawberries. 

The texture is the only issue with this bar. It's not soft, it's fairly hard and waxy and doesn't really open up to a quick melt or softer center. It's full flavored, but not silky or creamy in texture. The nose gives off an impression that it might be creamy, soft. 

I recommend this to people who may not be fans of white chocolate. It has all of the hallmarks of delicious white chocolate, the creamy aroma and milky taste without the lingering milk aftertaste. The soy helps make the creamy flavor pop, but also keep it's in check on the finish. It tastes like full earthy green tea and cream and not loaded with sugar. This would make a great introduction to white chocolates despite not being actual white chocolate. A starter chocolate or gateway chocolate if you will.  

**I am not deducting from the appearance based on the broken bit. This chocolate has travel quite a way to get to me and anything could have happened. I noted the broken bit but again, points weren't taken off for that. 

 

Final Score: 90.8

  score
B+

 

 

 

Soya

Type: Soy, 40%

Bean Varietal: Unknown

Ingredients: Raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, soy milk powder, cocoa mass, sesame, whole cane sugar, vanilla, salt, soy lecithin. 

Sample Size: 35g or 1.23oz

 

Appearance: Soft milk chocolate color, up close it's a bit like lightly creamed coffee and a touch translucent, monogrammed logo with signature blown dry ripple marks on the surface, a little ashy, and chocolate particles on the surface. 

Score: 91

Snap: Very firm snap, clearly audible, clean break lines.

Score: 96

Aroma: Soy, tiny hint of astringency, slight hints of nuts, cream, mildly smoky tobacco, and black licorice. 

Score: 94

Taste: Soft cocoa, cinnamon and licorice up front, creamy soy in the middle mixed with the spiciness of the licorice and cinnamon. Soy milk finish. 

Score: 93

Texture: Hard, waxy, a bit drying on the palate, and slightly chalky, long melt time.

Score: 84

 

There is a lot going on with this chocolate. Insanely good snap quality, interesting coffee like color, and the complexity of the nose and flavor make this an odd yet delightful bar. 

The nose smelled like soy and had a tiny bit of tartness or astringency up front, that goes away once the bar has breathed a bit. The cream, tobacco, and licorice dominate giving it a unique aroma. The taste is all cocoa and licorice with cinnamon and cream. Soy completely dominates and rounds out the finish with tiny hints of lingering cinnamon and licorice. 

Once again the texture is the worst part of this. Of all the crazy good things happening with the aroma and taste, the texture doesn't match. It's hard and waxy and a bit chalky. It does open a bit creamier than the Green Tea, but still in the same boat, too hard. 

But what a surprise this turned out to be? So many interesting flavors. I wish I knew which origin or blend of cacao Zotter decided to use for these bars. If they could just manage the texture better, these make for some very good tasting bars. A bit heavy on the soy taste for the Soya bar, but with everything else going on in the flavor, it balances nicely. I do think some milk purists might take issue with that especially on the Soya bar, but not so much the Green Tea bar. It's creamy and milky. As a milk lover and purist myself, I rather enjoyed these. And besides these aren't for the milk lovers anyway. These are for the lactose intolerant. 

Final Score: 91.6

 score
B+