Venchi - Venezuela Latte 47% Merida bar - May 8, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Venchi
Single Origin Venezuela Latte 47% Cocoa Merida bar
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 2.46 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 420 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $8.95 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

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

Today's Single Origin Venezuela Latte 47% Cocoa (Merida) bar was from Venchi S.P.A. (Castelletto Italy).

This gluten free milk chocolate bar was made with chocolate liquor from Venezuela.* This smooth, flavorful milk chocolate had an aroma and taste with muted savory and light loamy mushroom-walnut notes with faint hint of vanilla and dried fruit.

Venchi ranked this chocolate as full-bodied, relatively intense (three out of five score) and aromatic (three out of four score) and as possessing flavor notes of milk cream, dried fruit/red fruits and nuts. While the first ingredient listed was sugar, the higher cacao percent and a relatively robust cacao saved this bar from being an overly sweet, flavorless milk chocolate confection.

The cacao came from Merida, located roughly (59 km) southeast of Lake Maracaibo in western Venezuela.

*Ingredients: sugar, chocolate liquor from Venezuela - 24% (total cocoa solids = 47%), cocoa butter, whole milk powder (milk solids = 19.5%), emulsifier: soy lecithin, ground vanilla pods. 

Hachez - Cocoa de Maracaibo (Venezuela) 55% Milk Chocolate (bar) - May 7, 2020

Chocolate of the Day:

Hachez
Cocoa de Maracaibo 55% Milk Chocolate (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.76 oz. (50 g.) / 3.52 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 311 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $3.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate and Venezuela Theme Week.

Today's Cocoa de Maracaibo 55% Superior Whole Milk Chocolate from Hachez* (Bremen, Germany) had an aroma with spice (cinnamon), milk chocolate, faint floral (vanilla) and muted fruit notes.

The bar had a thick, creamy melt (cocoa butter was the number one ingredient**)--tricking the palette into thinking about nut butter and triggering the thought that perhaps there was a nutty flavor note there. (Not really.)

This chocolate had a pleasant, uniform, high-percentage (55.5% cocoa solids) dark milk chocolate flavor. It was not too sweet (thank you). If one concentrated, one could pick up a faint fruit note; however it was largely numbed by the cocoa butter, milk and possibly emulsifier(s).

The finish was subtle but lingered a bit with soft notes of milk chocolate, fleeting faint earth and light vanilla.

*Hachez, named after Joseph Emile Hachez who founded the company in 1890, is the second largest German manufacturer of chocolate products (after Lindt).

**Ingredients: "cocoa butter, cocoa beans, sugar, whole milk powder (20%), cocoa powder, emulsifier, rapeseed lecithins, bourbon vanilla extract, bourbon vanilla pods."