Lydgate Farms Kauai Chocolate - Wailua Single Estate 70% Dark (bar) - Nov. 24, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Lydgate Farms Kauai Chocolate
Wailua Single Estate 70% Dark (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: 2.2 oz. (62 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 330 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $15.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Chocolate and Hawaii Theme Week.

Cacao farms have become more common in recent decades in Hawaii. Today's Wailua Single Estate 70% (bar) was from Lydgate Farms Kauai Chocolate (Kapa'a, HI), and 8-acre cacao farm (that also produces vanilla, palm blossom honey and fruits).

This farm produces single origin chocolate bars made using cacao grown, harvested, fermented, dried and made into chocolate on the island of Kauai, in Hawaii. (This is rare. Virtually all cacao used to make chocolate in the U.S. is grown outside the U.S.)

Today's 70% Wailua dark chocolate had a complex tasting arc--not unlike tasting a fine wine. It had an identifiable beginning, middle and finish. 

The bar had an appealing dark chocolate aroma and flavor. It had a bright fruity start, with balanced citrus (sweet, pink grapefruit), true chocolate, berry and stone fruit (tart-sweet red berry (wild strawberry) and dried mango and plum)--and fainter green banana and almond butter--notes. 

The melt and texture was relatively smooth with a faint hint of mild, balanced berry astringency/dryness and rounded wood (oak?) toward the finish. 

Lydgate Farms tasting notes for this bar read as follows: "Fleeting, light, bright fruity tones with a tinge of apricot on the start. The middle expands to a fuller, buttery orange cream, and moves to an off-dry nut butter on the finish. Taste young to enjoy the fruit tones. Aging more than 3 months will cause the chocolate to become nuttier as it off-gases acidity."

Lydgate Farms suggested beverage pairing notes: "Pair With: Buttery Chardonnay, California...Why? -- This would be a "like" pairing. The light, floral fruity tones of the chocolate would be overpowered by a red. The buttery mouthfeel of a Chardonnay would match the creamy mouthful of the smooth, mild, dark chocolate and highlight the fruit in the chocolate, which is what makes this bar unique." 

Ingredients: Lydgate Farms cacao beans, organic sugar, organic cocoa butter.