Friday, November 20, 2020

Cacao Crudo - Dark Organic Cacao Paste, Unroasted Criollo Cacao, 100% (bar) - Nov. 20, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Cacao Crudo S.r.l.
Dark Organic Chocolate Fondente 100% Peru (bar)
(Cioccolato Fondente Bio Criollo Non Tostato 100% Peru)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: .88 oz. (25 g.) / 1.76 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 180 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $ missing information 
Purchased from: Rainbow Grocery, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #13 of Chocolate and Peru Theme Week. 

Today's "Organic Cacao Paste" 100% Peru bar was crafted by Cacao Crudo S.r.l. (Roma (Rome), Italy), using cacao beans grown in Peru.

The chocolate was made using high-quality, un-roasted Criollo cacao (beans). Cacao beans are generally roasted. Roasting can develop certain flavors, but can also lead to a loss of other--often more delicate or volatile--flavors (e.g. green and floral notes). 

Today's 100% Criollo cacao with bright, clean green and faint floral sweetness is a great example of what "stays in" when cacao is not roasted. This bar (and others in the Cacao Crudo line-up) exemplify what raw chocolate can be. 

This unsweetened chocolate had an aroma that evoked fresh, alive, vibrant green (plants, green coconut) with faint floral and herbal notes. It had a creamy melt and smooth texture with the occasional crunchy cacao nib particle.

The flavors included bright green cacao nibs, green coconut with light herbal/spice notes; a medium acidity (faint sour-sweet) in the second half; and a relatively low bitterness for a 100% cacao chocolate--making it potentially a potentially interesting choice for a good swathe of ultra-dark chocolate lovers who might be health conscious as well. (I plan to add pieces of this bar, if there are any leftover, to my homemade nut, seed and fruit trail mix.)

I would recommend doing a side-by-side tasting with Cacao Crudo's 90% cacao bar and today's 100% bar (or as part of a tasting flight of 100% bars). Truthfully, I prefer the company's 90% version a hair more. 

That little bit of added coconut sugar (concentrated coconut flower sap) opened up another flavor facet. Either way, so nice to be sampling chocolates with flavors un-bowed by too much roasting or sugar was fantastic. (Big thank you for that.)

Ingredients: Organic, unroasted cacao beans ("Criollo beans paste")

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