Monday, August 26, 2019

Goodnow Farms Chocolate - Esmeraldas Ecuador 70% Cacao Premium Dark bar - Aug. 26, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Goodnow Farms Chocolate
Esmeraldas Ecuador 70% Cacao Premium Dark Chocolate bar
Good +++
Weight: .97 oz. (27.5 g.) / 1.94 oz. (55 g.) in total bar
Calories: 135 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Ecuador Theme Week.

Today's Esmeraldas Ecuador 70% Cacao Premium Dark Chocolate bar was made by Goodnow Farms Chocolate (Sudbury, MA).

The company specializes in high-quality, small batch, single origin bars (some with flavor inclusions). They make their own chocolate (and press their own single origin cocoa butter) at their farm in New England.

This bar was flavorful and very well balanced. It had bright berry fruit and true chocolate flavor with nicely balanced acidity, and a very faint, pleasant, roasted sourdough note. A very light, astringency/acidity tickled the back of the throat in a lingering, late finish.

The maker's notes read as follows:

"The cacao for this bar comes from the Salazar family farm in Ecuador's Esmeraldas region. The family controls the entire post-harvest process resulting in an exceptionally flavorful bean. This bar has intense flavors of berry jam and classic cocoa, with a long, pleasantly tannic finish."







Choquiero Chocolate - Luca Maca Lucuma and Vanilla Bean bar - August 25, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Choquiero Chocolate
Luca Maca with Lucuma and Vanilla Bean 60% bar
Good+++ - Very Good
Weight: 1.6 oz. (45 g.) in total bar
Calories: 250 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $5.59 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Ecuador Theme Week.

Today's Luca Maca with Lucuma and Vanilla Bean 60% cacao bar was from Choquiero Chocolate (Grass Valley, CA; Made in Santa Cruz, CA). *

The company is committed to creating bars using ethically sourced, organic, unroasted cacao (in this case Ecuadorian Wild Arriba Criollo cacao), sweetened with coconut sugar.

This bar had subtle smoked toffee/caramel and fruit (mango) notes. I associated some of this aroma and flavor with lucuma, a Peruvian/South American fruit, aka egg fruit, that also contributes a thick, creamy texture.** Unfortunately, like cacao fruit, it doesn't travel well, so most of us in the U.S. have only experienced lucuma in powdered or, more rarely frozen, form.

Maca and coconut sugar added rich, subtle sweetness to this bar and vanilla added an upbeat, slightly floral sweetness of its own.

Beware, this creamy, silky little number with lovely chocolate and spiced cookie flavor highlights went down very easily, and quickly. Poof! And it was gone.

*Congratulations to Choquiero Chocolate on the opening of their new store in Nevada City, CA, near Grass Valley.

**Some have described lucuma fruit as a green-skinned, round, golden-orange relatively sweet avocado (with a pit in the middle) with the texture of a slightly starchy fruit + a cooked sweet potato.

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