20°N & 20°S

Madécasse ~ Mellow 63%

 

 

I have been sitting on this chocolate for a short while. It's been stuffed in my massive library I have for review. Not too long though. I bought this chocolate with a small note in the order requesting information. They sent right after my order some details about their company along with their emails to contact them with any questions. Very friendly and it shows they are paying attention to the orders.

Madécasse (mah-DAY-cas) was formed by two men Brett Beach and Tim McCollum. After being inspired from their Peace Corps work, they decided to make a bean-to-bar chocolate with beans grown in Madagascar, and the bars are made in Madagascar as well. Instead of sourcing the beans and made here in the US, they make their product right there on the spot. They pay their farmers above fair trade prices and according to their packaging, making the bars in Africa "creates 4x more income than fair trade cocoa alone." Also mentioned on their website, 85% of the worlds cocoa is grown in Africa, but only 1% of chocolate is actually made there.

 

We’ve spent over 10 years combined working and living in Madagascar as Peace Corps Volunteers, and beyond. The island became home and the people our families and friends. Our products represent that personal connection to the island, a deeper understanding of the rich and complex flavors hidden inside the varieties of cocoa, vanilla and peppercorns found exclusively in Madagascar. The result is unique, satisfying products unlike anything you’ve tasted before.

 

There are only a few companies out there this committed to actually helping the environment and helping the people where their cocoa is grown and sourced. This is a wonderful thing they are doing. They also make vanilla extracts and sell whole vanilla beans, and pepper corns.

 

 

 

 

Madécasse - Mellow 63%

 

Type: Semisweet

Varietal: Unknown, but more than likely Trinitario or a hybrid of.

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

Sample Size: 75g or 2.64 oz

 

Appearance: Simple molding with a small monogram on each little tab. Smooth and shiny with only a few minor matted marks.

Score: 93

Snap: Nice firm snap, clean break lines, and a good snap sound.

Score: 93

Aroma: Big aroma right out of the package but soft at the same time. Roasted, a little smoky, cedar wood, soft tar, mild hints of berries. That immediate aroma dissipates quickly leaving a mild roasted aroma with smoky hints.

Score: 93

Taste: Sweet up front, hints of tar and bitter wood flavors, slightly medicinal, big cedar wood flavors right in the center of the flavor profile, finishes sugary and sweet.

Score: 92

Texture: Very waxy, slow melt time, it gets more creamy at the end, but it takes a while to get to that creaminess, opens up to a little bit of some rougher texture at the end but very slight. Overall smooth and creamy at the end.

Score: 82

 

It's certainly lives up to it's name. It's very mellow yet there are strong features on it's aroma. Even the taste that has big cedar wood flavors, yet it's still a rather soft and mellow chocolate.

Despite the waxy texture which really tanks the score here, it's very tasty and lovely soft Madagascar chocolate. This is a nice way to break someone into Madagascar cocoa. It has all the favorite things I love about Madagascar cocoa beans which is that big cedar wood flavor and yet has seemed to mellow some of the other flavors like the tar and medicinal flavors which can sometimes interfere in my opinion with the more desirable flavors. A bit sugary on the finish, but not an unwelcome feature. It is a semisweet after all.

To be perfectly honest I am going to take the rest of this bar and melt in a cup of steamed almond milk for a nice Madagascar hot chocolate. The sugary content of this bar will make for fabulous drinking cocoa. I am sure that's not exactly what they intended, but I as my sweet tooth drifts further away from me as my palate is shifting, this is a great way for me to enjoy it better.

 

Final Score: 90.6

   score
  B+

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-

 

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-

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.

Willie's Delectable Cacao ~ Javan Light Breaking 69%

Willie's Delectable Cacao

 

** This is just a straight up review. I promise to give more details and a more in depth write about Willie's with the next review.

“Sourced near Surabaya in East Java, Indonesia, this single bean cacao has been carefully roasted in our factory in Devon using traditional methods to capture the bean’s light caramel notes. Its characteristics change with each harvest – like fine wine.”

Javan Light Breaking

Type: Bittersweet, 69%

Bean Varietal: Unknown, but probably Trinitario.

Ingredients: Cocoa solids (69% minimum), cocoa mass, cocoa butter, Cuban raw cane sugar.

Sample Size: 80g or 2.82oz

Batch #: 3-0002



Appearance: Square tablet, monogrammed, light in color, soft brown, a bit banged up, with nicks on the edges that left chocolate particles all over the surface.

Score: 87

Snap: Excellent snap, firm and crisp. Unlined molding gives way to asymmetrical break lines.

Score: 94

Aroma: Roasted peanuts, sweet caramel, deep coffee notes, a little green leaf aroma, slight floral hints, and mild notes of tar and tobacco.

Score: 95

Taste: Sweet sugars up front, nutty, and caramel, then very quickly opens up a little green and woody, acidic and tart, lightly bitter like a medium body cup of coffee, roasted cocoa, tar, mildly fruity with hints of strawberries.

Score: 92

Texture: Smooth surface but a little rough on the tongue and lightly grainy, a bit chewy, medium melt time.

Score: 90


The aroma was simply amazing on this chocolate. Deeply rich and roasted cocoa notes with big roasted peanuts and a wonderful creamy caramel aroma.

The taste I feel like didn't match the quality of the aroma. While it was good tasting cocoa, it reminded me more of coffee than chocolate with the acidity and bitterness. It wasn't sharp acidity, but like I mentioned above, more like the kind of bitterness from a medium roasted cup of coffee. The bitterness lingers on the palate like a cup of coffee as well making it difficult for retro-olfaction flavors to come through.

I really wanted to taste big roasted peanuts on this bar as indicated in the nose. It had a nutty flavor but I feel like it didn't match the nose. I wanted the same thing for the caramel aroma. I wanted this chocolate to be buttery and sweet like the caramel aroma. It was flavorful and rich, but over powered by the lingering acidity.

Having said everything I wanted to see happen with this chocolate, it doesn't mean it wasn't good chocolate. It had interesting flavor spikes. Green leafy flavors, freshly cut wood, slight hints of strawberries, earthy charred flavors or tar. It bounces all over the place up front with these flavors but then they are overtaken with acidity.

The texture wasn't as smooth as I had hoped for, but with old school techniques, it's fairly smooth. It has an interesting chewy texture as well coupled with a medium melt time. 

Final Score: 91.6

score
B+

Montezuma's ~ Papua New Guinea 64%

Montezuma's organic dark chocolate with beans sourced from Papua New Guinea. Organic chocolate makers from the UK with a bittersweet single origin bar, part of their "Exciting Bars" collection.

Via their website:

A wild and raw country with an immense landscape that produces cocoa the like of which you will love or hate with some degree of passion. This cocoa comes from smallholder plantations in the Island Regions where the husbandry is uninhibitedly rural without a hint of intensive farming. Combined with uniquely rich and fertile soil the farmers proudly produce cocoa without comparison. 
 
Made from only Trinitario beans, this chocolate has a distinctive smoky tobacco flavour that needs to be savoured and enjoyed in a darkened and private room so nobody can disturb the experience!

Additional Information

Traces of Nuts
Genetically Modified Free
Additive and coloring Free
Soya Free
British Made
Preservative Free
Gluten Free
Vegan Friendly
Vegetarian Friendly
May contain slight traces of milk.

Again, they have the most certifiable details about what is and isn't in this chocolate. I love how that last stamp comes after the Vegan friendly stamp.

As mentioned in the review for the Venezuelan Milk, they have a tremendous commitment to fair trade and natural ingredients in their products. They give great details about their company and their ethics which I fully support.

What's mostly missing from their website though, are more details on the regions they source their beans from. Papua New Guinea is a strange but interesting place where new species of animals, bugs and reptiles are still being discovered. Describing the landscape of where this cocoa comes from would be amazing. Lot's of chocolate makers have a Papua New Guinea bar of some sort in their collection but not too many talk about the region itself.

Yes, in the second image, the dark smudge on the chocolate is indeed from my nose. I couldn't stop smelling the aroma on this bar and was fascinated with a few distinctive aromas. I got carried away.

Papua New Guinea Dark

Type: Bittersweet, 64%

Bean Varietal: Trinitario

Ingredients: Cocoa solids (64%), sugar (34%), Vanilla (<1%).

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5oz



Appearance: Smooth, deep brown chocolate color with simple non-monogrammed molding, a few plastic marks on the top surface. And no I am not taking points off for my nose mark.

Score: 92

Snap: Light snap for a thick layer of chocolate. Firm and crisp sounding.

Score: 93

Aroma: Deep, rich smokiness, fire roasted red chilies almost distinctively South American despite the cocoa beans being from Papua New Guinea, pen ink, deep dark berries, roasted cocoa, very slight hints of flowers, and a barely noticeable hint of cinnamon.

Score: 95

Taste: Sweet, deep, rich cocoa flavors, spicy with big chili flavors, woody, inky, a little banana-y, berries, more roasted chilies from retro-olfaction. Big bold flavors, complex, and rich.

Score: 93

Texture: Overall smooth texture but with a a few slight hints of graininess, creamy, medium melt time.

Score: 94

Big bold chocolate with rich smoky flavors, fire roasted chilies on the aroma and lingering finish on the palate. Big berry flavors, wood, and flowery berries. Their website describes smoky tobacco, I didn't pick up tobacco as much as I picked up distinctive roasted chilies.

There is a lot going on with this chocolate. It's very complex  and flavorful, but most curious of all is the chilies. It's all over the aroma as smoky chilies mixed with bold berry aromas.

There weren't a whole lot of subtitles with the flavor of the chocolate. It's all pretty straight forward, but there are a few small hints of flowers and cinnamon on the aroma to keep it interesting.

Delicious chocolate, fun to sit back and think about the complex chilies and smokey aroma.


Final Score: 93.4

score
A-

American Craft Beer (Fest) Dinner @ Green Street 6/16/10

Easily the best beer dinner I have ever hosted. Easily.

For those who are regular followers of this chocolate blog and may not realize, my day job is working for my husband Todd, who is the co-founder with his brother Jason, of BeerAdvocate.com. I manage and organize all the beer festivals we host in around Boston, and I set up tastings and dinners around the city as well.

The American Craft Beer festival was just last weekend. The week leading up to the festival was Boston Beer Week. Our official event was hosted on the Wednesday before the festival at Green Street in Cambridge with our good friend Dylan Black, the owner of Green Street.

We called it the American Craft Beer (Fest) Dinner not only because it was the official event for the American Craft Beer Festival, but because we included all aspects of American craft featuring beer, cheese, chocolate and cooking. All of which are in the same boat in this journey of making quality foods and drinks using the best ingredients all by fine American producers.

With chocolate being a passion of mine, and beer being the main event for the week we decided to host a beer and chocolate dinner including American craft cheese from New England. Emily Shartin, the chocolate buyer of Formaggio Kitchen, worked closely with me to help make this dinner come together. She helped bring in Jasper Hill Farm, one of my favorite cheese makers in the US and helped us secure our orders for the chocolate. She also regularly brings me chocolate to sample and try of some of her favorites and has been a hero to this blog.

We invited my good personal friend and founder of Sixpoint Craft Ales, Shane Welch to come be apart of the dinner. Sixpoint being from Brooklyn and working closely with artisan chocolate makers Rick and Michael Mast of the Mast Brothers Chocolate from Brooklyn, naturally we invited them to be paired together for the dinner.

I also invited a new friend to the Boston area, Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate in Columbia, Mo. to come and be apart of the dinner. He stayed for the whole weekend to check out the beer festival. Hopefully more beers on the market will be made with his products. Pairing beers for his chocolate was the tricky part. With the Mast and Sixpoint, they already have a good working relationship, Alan sells cocoa to Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, but since Jolly Pumpkin hasn't been available to attend one of our beer festivals for a while, and Patric makes some very serious, and amazing chocolate, I had to find a brewery worthy of the match.

And then it came to me, Cambridge Brewing Co. Local and long time friends Will Meyers and Megan Parisi, both Head Brewer and brewer for CBC. I couldn't have been more right to have chosen them for this dinner and you will see why as I get into this dinner.

This dinner despite all the planning, discussions, and tastings with brewers, really belongs to head chef Greg Reeves. I worked with Greg once before to host the Ithaca Beer Dinner, Green Street's first beer dinner as well as hosting various tastings with Greg for special beer releases paired with Green Street's infamous tacos. Simply put Greg is masterful. If there is a beer he hasn't tried, he just needs a few key descriptors of the beer to knock it out of the park. Most chefs worth their salt can do this, but after having worked with a lot of amazing chefs, I don't think anyone is better at it than Greg Reeves. I do have to honorably mention Steve Brand from Upstairs on The Square who is also very masterful at beer pairings and truly loves beer.

I should preface that this had a very strange sounding menu. Things that sounded odd, and seemed strange ended up being some of the best pairings I have ever had.

I also have to preface that my old, outdated camera that has done me well for so long doesn't like beer apparently. It loves food and gets wonderful shots of food, but never seems to do me any justice on beer pictures. So please don't mind my shoddy photography on the beer.

Welcoming: The Audacity of Hops from Cambridge Brewing Co. A Belgian IPA. From Will's notes, Audacity of Hops (Belgian Double I.P.A., 8.8%): grass/fruit/floral nose, hints of phenol/sulphur yeast Belgian notes, funky. Quick pale malt notes and floral hop finish, medium hop bitterness.

We then opened with some of Green Street's famous tacos. We wanted to get the expected out of the way early. Molé is to be expected with chocolate pairings. Savory and classic. So we introduced a chicken molé taco and the Mast Brothers placed some cocoa nibs on each table which we loaded up inside the taco as well. It wasn't a deep brown mole taco, more of an essence to the taco. This ended up being the perfect match to the Audacity of Hops. It was a little spicy, and the hop flavors from the Belgian IPA interacted nicely. The chicken and the sweet malts enhanced one and other.

[The Audacity of Hops on the right in first pic.]



First Course: Cured & cooked hams with mint, basil, melon, cocoa nibs, and a chocolate aioli. Patric Chocolate Madagascar cocoa nibs, and Patric Chocolate 70% Madagascar Bar with nibs.

Beer: CBC's Spring Training IPA, (Will's Notes) American IPA, 6.3%: fruity/floral/grassy nose, low bitterness, clean malt palate.

[My bad pictures of the beer.]

This pairing came together on one request, that we definitely use Patric's Madagascar cocoa nibs. It was the first thing I sat down with Will Meyers and Megan Parisi to taste. Interestingly enough it worked out really well with the Spring Training IPA. Normally I wouldn't have gone this route haven't had little or no success with pairing chocolate and IPA's together. But with these nibs from Madagascar and the hallmark flavor profiles being woody, cedar wood, cherries, and a tart base, it ended up being a natural fit for the grassy and fresh IPA which isn't hop heavy.

Chocolate aioli? What? When Greg mentioned he wanted to make this, I think all of us at the planning meeting were a little curious. It sounded weird, and being paired with melons and ham it really didn't sounds like it would work. I have learned to trust Greg, and I went with it. Mainly because I was curious as to how we would pull this off. It more than worked.

The Sambirano Delta River Valley at the top Northwest of this map. Just barely inside the parallel of 20N and 20S. This is where Patric sources his Madagascar beans. Read my original reviews for the 70% with nibs to get a full understanding of this chocolate.

70% with Nibs review.



The flavors were all in perfect balance. The light floral, grassy IPA being balanced with the salty hams and sweet melons. The basil added the right herbal pop to the dish. The chocolate aioli made with the melted down 70% Madagascar bar with nibs was salty, buttery, rich with roasted cocoa, and savory adding more of a balance in bringing out the ham's flavors and more of a sweetness to the IPA. This course was fresh, light, and extremely flavorful. A great way to get started.



Second Course: Warm handmade pretzels sandwiches with melted Cabot clothbound cheddar (aged at Jasper Hill Farm cellars) with Mast Brothers Patanemo Grand Cru bar 75% (Ocumare de la Costa, Venezuela) melted for dipping.

Beer: Sixpoint's Righteous Ale, 7.2% Rye Ale

Handmade pretzels with kosher salt, and salty cheddar cheese balanced by sweet malty rye beer, and an amazing new grand cru chocolate from the Mast Brothers. This is the one course I couldn't stop dipping my finger in the chocolate until it was all gone.


A new bar for the Mast Bros. from the Ocumare de la Costa region of Venezuela. This is going back to their roots a bit. Originally the base for their bars was made with Venezuelan beans. Not the same region, but still Venezuelan. They have switched to Madagascar, but I didn't think was entirely the right move. While their Madagascar bars taste good, it tastes a bit unbalanced to me. I found their Venezuelan bars more more balanced and refined.

[Source: travelmarcelo.com]

Ocumare de la Costa is in the northern coastal region in the Aragua State of Venezuela.

Via: The Nibble

•Criollo & Trinitario •Darker, robust •Cashews, peanuts •Spice, pepper

Ocumare 67. Originally from the Ocumare de la Costa valley, a Criollo and Trinitario hybridized blend. Interesting flavors of cashews, peanuts, spice, pepper, and sometimes dairy. The tone is a little darker than Ocumare 61 and it does not possess 61’s sharpness. It is more robust than 61 in overall character, with a heavier body.

The salty pretzel and salty cheddar were nearly too dominating, until you dipped it into the chocolate and took a sip of the rye beer. Then it was magic. Originally I thought the chocolate would be melted into the pretzel together with the sandwich, but the chocolate was so rich, it was better to have dipped each bit in the chocolate.

The chocolate was rich, fruity, and bold. Awesome roasted cocoa flavors which helped soften the cheese and pretzel. I wasn't able to fully get the range of this chocolate with everything going on for this pairing, but the rye was a spot on match for the chocolate. The rye actually stood out on the beer and the sweet malts softened the bitter edges of the chocolate allowing more robust fruity notes to come out and helped tame the salt and bitterness of the cheddar.

Once again something no one quite expected and wasn't sure how would be based on the way it sounded. Salty, big, robust cheddar on a pretzel with melted chocolate. And of all things paired with a rye beer. This dinner just kept getting better and better.


Third Course: Pan Roasted Duck breast, Patric Chocolates Rio Caribe (Venezuelan) 70% Chocolate Rissotto, Cherries, chocolate gastrique.

Beer: CBC's The Colonel. Will's notes: Tart barrel aged Porter with Brettanomyces, 6.5%. Complex fruity nose, tart bright acidity, a little funk/barnyard. palate hits tart and fruity first, then roast characters come out with mellow American oak - hints of vanilla and char - in the finish.

 

This is the chocolate I reviewed like a beer geek might review a lambic or a guezue. Very funky, deep, rich chocolate from the North Eastern coastal region of Venezuela. I ended my review of this chocolate with "I am not even sure if I really like this chocolate, I think I just like how raw and aggressive it is. This is not a beginners chocolate."

Rio Caribe 70% review.


Of course both Greg Reeves and Will Meyers loved it as it isn't even remotely close to what you might expect chocolate to taste like. The funkier and more different it is, the bigger the challenge and the more fun it is to pair is how they both looked at it.

The duck breast was cooked perfectly. Soft and game-y and a little steel-y tasting which I happened to love. The cherries and cherry gastrique added the right pop of sweetness to the dish and interacted extremely well with the beer. The sour Brett notes of the beer along with it's roasted porter notes worked so well with the chocolate risotto.

The chocolate risotto was expected to be slightly bitter due to the chocolate, but ended up being amazing. There was no bitterness, only rich, savory, roasted chocolate notes. Lovely chicken stock added a glossy shine to the perfectly cooked rice, and a hint of a spicy character to the risotto.

The beer was something I was slightly concerned about as I am not personally a big fan of Brettanomyces beers. But this was fantastic. The tartness, was not overbearing and the oak flavors added a lovely richness to the steel-y game taste of the duck breast. Naturally the cherries and the the roasted porter notes were a hit. It was extremely drinkable and delicious.

I have never had anything as odd as this before, yet so right.


Fourth Course: Bayley Hazen blue cheese on toasted brioche with a Mast Brothers Madagascar 72% chocolate-strawberry confiture with Mast Brothers Nibs.

Beer: Sixpoint's Old Krusher, 9.8% Barleywine made with farmed Amish Maple Syrup.

A huge way to end the already super-flavorful night. Sixpoint's new barleywine made with Amish maple syrup and Bayley Hazen blue cheese was a big hit.

This blue cheese is a personal favorite of mine with big Earthy notes, salty, bold, and big steel notes from the blue veins. This can be considered a more rustic blue cheese, but don't let anyone fool you and say it's mild. I usually pair this cheese with Double IPA's for the same reasons behind pairing it with an American-style barleywine. Lot's of hops with alpha acids to cut through the cheese, and sweet malts to help mingle with the steel-y blue veins. It's a no-brainer, natural, and amazing pairing.

The strawberries added the right balance of tart to the course with the sweet brioche that had the consistency of an English muffin and it helped round everything out. I didn't notice much of the cocoa except for a few hints with the nibs. I think the cheese was frankly too big to notice the subtitles of the chocolate, but it still managed to work incredibly well with the beer.

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the beer and I didn't do the right thing by taking a sip of the beer first to try and get an understanding of it before the pairing. I do know I liked it a lot with this course and am anxiously looking forward to finding more of it. 

We finished our night with more beer from CBC and samples of Mast Brothers bars and Patric Chocolate bars. I was able to taste that Patanemo Grand Cru from the Mast Brothers in bar form. All I can say is that I can't wait to review it.

It only took 3 cocktails after the dinner to tone down the effects of the chocolate. I heard from several people that it took a long time to finally unwind and sleep after that dinner.

I had a wonderful time meeting the Rick and Michael Mast of Mast Brothers Chocolate and Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate. It was a very big deal to me that they would travel all that way to come to my beer dinner. And of course it was great to hang out with Will and Megan both of whom I have known for years and absolutely love. And I can't forget my close friend Shane Welch, whom helped me convince those hipsters at Mast that coming up for one of my events would be more than worth it. Dylan Black of Green Street really did a great job of hosting this event and making it all possible for us.

A big thank you to Valerie Conyngham of Vianne Chocolat for coming to attend the dinner and David Goldstein of Boston Chocolate Tours for attending as well. Also on hand were the chocolate makers of Taza Chocolate. 

I am sure a lot of this dinner sounds interesting, bizarre, weird, strange, amazing, fantastic. It was all of the above. If you missed it, I can't say I feel sorry for you unless you live out of town. It was truly an amazing dinner and Greg Reeves is amazing. Everyone had a lot of fun and left very happy and full.

Look for more events of this nature from me through BeerAdvocate as I launch a new series of beer dinners called "Things We Love." I have no doubt chocolate will come up again.

Montezuma's ~ Venezuela Milk 43%

As I wind down the last few bars of the British Chocolate Invasion, I draw close to the end with an organic chocolate producer from London called Montezuma's. Luckily I have five bars to go through from Montezuma's.

Alas, a chocolate website after my own heart. Chock full of information. I hate it when I don't know much about a producer and have to go digging for information further than I need to go which should be the very source of the product it self. It's not about lazy blogging, but sometimes you have to read 20 pages or more of other sources just to gather up enough information for one post here.


About Montzuma's:

Ex-lawyers turned chocolate entrepreneurs, Helen and Simon Pattinson, founded Montezuma’s in 2000 hand making their chocolate with one little machine and one shop in Brighton.

"It seems incredible that just a few years ago the smell of chocolate was one of the things that made Simon and I want to abandon our careers in the law despite the fact we had spent many years studying to become well paid solicitors in a large law firm in London.

Having become totally disillusioned with London, law and all the trappings of a money dominated life, we resigned from our jobs, sold our Putney house and put all our possessions into storage, leaving for South America virtually on the next plane.

We cannot remember why South America attracted us but I think it was probably the huge diversity of climates, cultures and landscapes . . . we were not disappointed.

Read more about their story here. 

Ideals and Fair Trade:

We have founding principles that we shout about and aren’t shy to thrust into the limelight.  We call this Trading Fairly.

These principles haven’t been bolted on or constructed to join a bandwagon, and for us that means working in harmony with the environment, our partners, our customers, and of course the societies we touch. 

It’s fair to say our ideals run deeper than our pockets and always will do.   Even if you’re mad and don’t want to buy any chocolate, please, please, read some of this stuff about what we actually do and think; including why we are not always comfortable with “Fairtrade”.  Shock horror!

Our Mission

Our World

Our Trade

Only Natural Ingredients:

The difference between good, bad and ugly foods depends largely on the quality of the constituent ingredients and chocolate is certainly no exception. 

We take great pride in sourcing and using only the finest ingredients; from Dominican Republic cocoa beans we consider to be the world’s best to fine and dark Madagascan vanilla.

The only thing missing from the website is the region of Venezuela the beans come from. Just a vague description of a "Lost World" type of environment some where in Venezuela. But there is a definite answer on bean varietals using Trinitario and Criollo blends. The beans were probably sourced from the northeast coastal regions of Venezuela.

But they do make up for it with the tags for this chocolate on their website indicated extensively what is and what isn't in this product and who this product is suitable for.

Traces of nuts.
Free of Genetically Modified ingredients.
Additive & coloring free.
Soya free.
Preservative free.
Suitable for vegetarians.
Gluten free.
Contains dairy.
British made.

Venezuela Milk

Type: Milk, 43%

Bean Varietal: Trinitario and Criollo

Ingredients: Cocoa solids 43%, milk solids 19% whole milk and powder, sugar, and vanilla.

Sample Size: 100g or 3.5 oz



Appearance: Smooth and shiny bar with basic non-monogrammed molding. Virtually blemish free and gorgeous light caramel coloring.

Score: 98

Snap: Fairly good snap for a milk chocolate, but still rather dull with a low thud versus a crisp snap. Clean break lines.

Score: 92

Aroma: Butter, cream, caramel, soft roasted cocoa.

Score: 95

Taste: Sweet, huge caramel taste, lovely light roasted cocoa. Tastes like a rich hot chocolate made with milk in bar form.

Score: 96

Texture: Smooth, creamy, fast melt time.

Score: 94

This was fantastic milk chocolate. It tasted exactly the way a rich hot chocolate made with steamed milk tastes. It also had wonderful, rich caramel notes. Soft roasted cocoa aromas with a lovely roasted cocoa taste. With 43% cocoa for a milk chocolate, it's borderline on a dark-milk giving way to much richer cocoa flavors that interacted well with the milky and caramel tastes.

It was a touch sweet, but balanced by rich butter caramel flavors. It had a creamy smooth texture with long lingering cocoa and caramel flavors. But interestingly enough it finished fairly dry on the palate.

Sometimes I don't need to go into a lot of detail to explain why something tastes so good. It is what it is and I say it's great. It's as simple as that. Given what I have said about butter, caramel, creamy hot chocolate flavors, that should be enough to let you know that you should buy this product. And buy a lot of it.

Final Score: 95

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