Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Bisou Chocolate - Noir Chuao 100% dark bar - May 2, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Bisou Chocolate
Noir Chuao 100% Dark Chocolate bar
Good
Weight: .5 oz. (15 g.) / 1 oz. (30 g.) (per label) in total bar
Calories: 72 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $N/A - gift (Thank you Michelle!)
Purchased from: N/A - gift (Farmers Market)

Welcome to Day #1 of 100% Cacao Theme Week.

Today's Noir Chuao 100% Dark Chocolate bar was from Bisou Chocolate (Berkeley/Oakland, CA). Bisou offers small batch, bean-to-bar chocolate that can be purchased online or at Farmers' Markets in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their primary focus has been single origin bars.

This 100% cacao bar had one ingredient: cacao beans, grown in the Chuao region of Venezuela, known for its fine cacao. Fortunately for chocolate lovers, despite current challenges in Venezuela, cacao is still finding its way to the U.S.

The chocolate had a deep, dark aroma, and bitter and sour flavor notes (fruit acidity) interspersed with interesting, fleeting cacao notes. A very long and faint finish eventually led to a small uptick in sweeter cacao after-taste (about five minutes after eating a bite).

One hundred percent cacao bars are not for the faint of heart, but it's always interesting to taste cacao in unadulterated form. Bean quality and ideal fermentation are key, as there is no sugar, lecithin, vanilla or flavor additions to hide behind or to mellow out harsher notes in the chocolate.

Bisou's attractively packaged bars were imprinted with a botanically-shaped cacao pod and leaf segment design. And they were wrapped in attractive colored inner foils, surrounded by black outer wrappers with Art Nouveau-inspired design and lettering.




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