Chocolate of the Day:
Pascati Artisan Chocolate
(Pascati Foods India LLP)
Sea Salt Dark 60% Cocoa Organic Chocolate (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 2.65 oz. (75 g.) total bar
Calories: 380 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $8.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order
Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and India Theme Week.
Today's Sea Salt Dark Chocolate 60% Cocoa bar was from Pascati Artisan Chocolate / Pascati Foods India LLP (Maharashtra, India).
This Sea Salt Dark bar had a great balance between flavorful dark chocolate and sweet and salt levels. It was not too sweet or salty; it was just right. For the past four days I've enjoyed Pascati bars with fruit and other flavor inclusions. Today with just salt as a flavor inclusion* I felt I could taste more of the flavor nuances of the underlying chocolate--made using Forastero (variety) cacao beans that yielded a bold, dense dark (but also smooth) chocolate flavor experience (relatively low in bitterness) with faint, well balanced earth and slight fruit notes
The organic cacao (traded in compliance with Fairtrade Standards) was sourced from Kerala, a state on the southwestern Malabar coast in southern India; and the chocolate was made more than 750 miles further north in Palghar in the state of Maharashtra (north of Mumbai).
Cacao terroir
The maker noted that the cacao was grown as an intercrop among/between/under coconut and arecanut (betel nut) palm trees and near tropical fruit trees as well. Neighboring fruit trees that are part of the local soil (terroir) may not influence cacao fruit/seed/bean flavor, but just having more attention paid to soil pH and nutrient/mineral and water uptake in a well-tended plantation environment could be a plus.
Single origin cocoa butter
Roughly half, depending on the variety and origin, of a cacao bean, is fat in the form of cocoa or cacao butter. This naturally high fat content is what contributes the rich, creamy smoothness to finished chocolate. Pascati also presses their own cocoa butter from Kerala cacao beans. Not every chocolate maker takes this extra step, to use single origin cacao butter, or butter from the same origin and to press/"make" this component themselves.)
*Ingredients: Organic cocoa beans, organic sugar, organic cocoa butter, sea salt.
Pascati Artisan Chocolate
(Pascati Foods India LLP)
Sea Salt Dark 60% Cocoa Organic Chocolate (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 2.65 oz. (75 g.) total bar
Calories: 380 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $8.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order
Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and India Theme Week.
Today's Sea Salt Dark Chocolate 60% Cocoa bar was from Pascati Artisan Chocolate / Pascati Foods India LLP (Maharashtra, India).
This Sea Salt Dark bar had a great balance between flavorful dark chocolate and sweet and salt levels. It was not too sweet or salty; it was just right. For the past four days I've enjoyed Pascati bars with fruit and other flavor inclusions. Today with just salt as a flavor inclusion* I felt I could taste more of the flavor nuances of the underlying chocolate--made using Forastero (variety) cacao beans that yielded a bold, dense dark (but also smooth) chocolate flavor experience (relatively low in bitterness) with faint, well balanced earth and slight fruit notes
The organic cacao (traded in compliance with Fairtrade Standards) was sourced from Kerala, a state on the southwestern Malabar coast in southern India; and the chocolate was made more than 750 miles further north in Palghar in the state of Maharashtra (north of Mumbai).
Cacao terroir
The maker noted that the cacao was grown as an intercrop among/between/under coconut and arecanut (betel nut) palm trees and near tropical fruit trees as well. Neighboring fruit trees that are part of the local soil (terroir) may not influence cacao fruit/seed/bean flavor, but just having more attention paid to soil pH and nutrient/mineral and water uptake in a well-tended plantation environment could be a plus.
Single origin cocoa butter
Roughly half, depending on the variety and origin, of a cacao bean, is fat in the form of cocoa or cacao butter. This naturally high fat content is what contributes the rich, creamy smoothness to finished chocolate. Pascati also presses their own cocoa butter from Kerala cacao beans. Not every chocolate maker takes this extra step, to use single origin cacao butter, or butter from the same origin and to press/"make" this component themselves.)
*Ingredients: Organic cocoa beans, organic sugar, organic cocoa butter, sea salt.
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