Friday, December 4, 2020

Manoa Chocolate - Ko'olaupoko O'ahu Island Chocolate 70% Cacao (Winter Harvest) bar - Dec. 3, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Manoa Chocolate
Ko'olaupoko O'ahu Island Chocolate 70% Cacao (Winter Harvest) (bar)
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 1.05 oz. (30 g.) /2.1 oz. (60 g.) in total bar
Calories: 180 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $24.00 for set of 2 bars ($12.00 for 1 bar)
Purchased from: Manoa Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #11 of Chocolate and Hawaii Theme Week.

Today's Ko'olaupoko O'ahu Island Chocolate 70% Cacao (Spring Harvest) bar was manufactured in Hawaii by Grass Shack Industries LLC/Manoa Chocolate (Kailua, HI).

What a great opportunity to compare two 70% cacao bars, both made from Hawaiian-grown cacao growing at the same location (Ko'olaupopo*, O'ahu Island), but harvested at two different times of the year (spring and winter). 

Today I'm featuring the Winter Harvest version of this bar. (Yesterday, I featured the Spring Harvest version of this bar.) 

This bar's aroma was slightly less green-forward, and had a more sweet dark chocolate and faint spiced fruit notes (peach, red berry). The green (green banana, green floral) was very similar to yesterday's (Spring Harvest) version. The melt and texture seemed thicker and creamier (fudgier).

The flavor of this (Winter Harvest) Ko'olaupoko bar also had a slightly more "uniform" taste and additional true dark chocolate (fudgey) and fruitiness (red berry/fruit, peach jam) and less pronounced green notes (green banana, floral and a very fleeting green nut/seed note) than its Spring Harvest sibling from the same location.

Manoa provided a helpful, side-by-side tasting wheel chart for the taster/consumer to record their own observations for the two 70% O'ahu bars in this tasting kit. I'm surprised I haven't seen an insert/card like this more often with other craft chocolate bars.

Ingredients: Cacao, organic cane sugar, cocoa butter

*Ko'olaupoko refers to a relatively small, windward district in Honolulu County, on the "east" shore of O'ahu. This district has some lush green areas where cacao grows (that are also near where this chocolate is made in Kailua).


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