Friday, September 11, 2015

Carre2 Chocolat - Aragua Venezuela bar - Sept. 11, 2015

Chocolate of the Day:

Carre2 Chocolat
Aragua Venezuela 78 percent bar
Good ++
Weight: .626 oz. (17.7 g.) / 2.82 oz. (80 g.) in total bar
Calories: 94 calories (estimate) in 2/9 bar
Cost: $18.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: CocoaBella Chocolates, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #10 of Chocolate and Venezuela Theme Week.

Today was another delicious milestone in the Chocolate Banquet journey. I had a birthday. But, more important, today marked nine years that I've been eating a different chocolate every day.

And enjoying a series of single origin bars from Venezuela this week has been an excellent way to celebrate my ninth year of chocolate.

This Limited Edition Aragua 78% bar made by Pierre Marcolini (Brussels, Belgium) was sold as an exclusive for/at CocoaBella Chocolates, located in Westfield San Francisco (Shopping) Centre* (San Francisco, CA).

This bar had a pleasing flavor and thick, but smooth melt (likely influenced by amount/type of soy lecithin and cocoa butter). The "fat" seemed to obscure the full impact of the potential flavors, but it could have been that the "fatter" mouth feel was the right way to go for this particular batch. It might have balanced out other flavor elements or because they wanted a richer melt. I wasn't there tasting the beans, so I don't want to second guess the chocolate maker.

Aragua is a state (estado) in Venezuela. And the Criollo Primitif (heritage?) cacao beans came from Hacienda Chuao. It is: "Chocolat Puissant, Fraicheur Acidulee et Fruitee."

Chuao is a small, relatively inaccessible village in the northern coastal range in Venezuela, known for its cacao plantations. One can't drive there; access is by boat or by foot.

*CocoaBella Chocolates has a second location, further south, in Westfield Valley Fair shopping center, Santa Clara, CA.

The content and images on this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.


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