Chocolate of the Day: Blanxart Chocolate
(BB Chocolate Group, S.A)
Organic Dark Chocolate 77% Criollo Peru bar
Good ++
Weight: 1.1 oz. (31 g.) / 4.4 oz. (125 g.) in total bar
Calories: 177 calories in 1/4 bar
Cost: $ 8.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Village Market, San Francisco (Ferry Building), CA
Bienvenidos a (Welcome to) Day #6 of Chocolate and Peru Theme Week.Today's Organic Dark Chocolate 77% Criollo de Alto Piura Peru bar was a single origin bar made in Spain by Blanxart (Barcelona). Geography classes would be more fun if they were taught with chocolate; but I digress.
Made with white Criollo cacao from plantations in Piura, Peru, this was a bar you could enjoy every day. Not only was it large enough to share with others, but this high percentage chocolate might also be more approachable and easy to appreciate by those who fear 70+ percent chocolate.Lacking in bitterness or sharpness, this subtle, well-balanced dark chocolate bar was smooth without being boring, and sweet without being cloying. It had sweet, ripe fruit flavor (sweet white grapes/raisins, honey, peaches), a very slight sweet tobacco note, a very fleeting floral note, and a pleasant finish, with a faint honey glow to it.
The tasting notes on the bar's packaging also mentioned "a slight woodsy, smoky flavor with hints of licorice." I didn't experience the latter flavor note, but it speaks to a subtle complexity.
There was a very slight granular texture to this bar—like you might find in chocolate with less conching time.* I also felt added cocoa butter may have muffled the subtle Criollo fruit notes a bit; but overall it was a very enjoyable bar.
*More conching time for chocolate generally means chocolate is ground in a machine to a finer particle size, resulting in smoother, creamier texture and more neutral flavor. Some more volatile flavor elements—both desired and undesired—may also dissipate with additional processing; so this smoothness may come with trade-offs in terms of flavor complexity.
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