Crimson Dane Chocolate - 75% Cacao Maya Mountain Belize bar - May 24, 2020

Chocolate of the Day:

Crimson Dane Chocolate
75% Cacao Maya Mountain Belize bar
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.6 oz. (45 g.) / 3.2 oz. (90 g.) in total bar
Calories: 240 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $ N/A - gift for a friend (Thank you Rick!)
Purchased from: N/A - gift from a friend (who bought at a farmers market in Palo Alto, CA)

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate and Maya Empire Theme Week.

Today's 75% Cacao Maya Mountain Belize bar was "handmade, poured and packaged" by Crimson Dane Chocolate (San Jose, CA), using cacao from Maya Mountain (Cacao/Co-op in the Toledo District of southern Belize).*

Crimson Dane, founded three years ago, has focused on creating single estate,* bean-to-bar, craft chocolate from multiple origins, including Belize.

This well-crafted single origin Belize chocolate had a pleasing, balanced, complex aroma with light green, herbal, sweet spice, light molasses, dried fruit, fleeting floral, very faint malt and chocolate cake notes. The light roast option (for the cacao beans) selected by the makers preserved delicate/volatile flavor elements that might have been lost with a longer roast time.

This relatively thick bar broke with a hard, very well-tempered snap. 

A smooth, somewhat creamy melt vied with a slight fruit/nut astringency (drying, fuzzy feel on the palette) for mouthfeel dominance. The tasting notes echoed the aroma notes like a returning yodel, symmetrically, and with a slight astringency and a clean finish. Note: the light astringency had almost disappeared upon re-tasting an hour, and two hours, later. (Flavors often evolve over the course of the day for various reasons, which is why I try to re-taste.)

*Crimson Dane Chocolate currently, as of this writing, offers single origin bars, with cacao grown in Honduras, Peru, Guatemala, Belize and Madagascar.