Chocolate of the Day
Metiisto Artisan Chocolate
Coconut 58% Mylk (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.32 oz. (37.5 g.) / 2.65 oz. (75 g.) in total bar
Calories: 227.5 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 (+ shipping) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order
Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate and Coconut Theme Week.
Today's Coconut 58% Mylk bar was made from scratch by Metiisto Artisan Chocolate in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.
This bar was a great example of how far "dark milk" chocolate as well as alternative "milk" chocolates have come.
Early coconut milk bars* were often geared toward vegans and those who wanted to avoid dairy milk, but who still wanted the creamy sweetness of a milk chocolate bar. They were usually gratefully received by those wanting these options. In the past decade, craft chocolate bars have up-leveled the quality of coconut milk bars.
Today's 58% Coconut Mylk bar was beautifully complex, and comparable to some of the best dark milk chocolate bars available today.
The aroma of this bar had dark chocolate milk (the good kind you remember as a child) and coconut notes. And this well-tempered bar had a creamy, luscious melt and texture.
An array of flavor notes were enjoyed while tasting this mylk bar. There was a sweet, tartness, light and bright dried fruit (raisin, light cherry), very faint, light spice (spice cake, molasses stirred into milk, a faint fleeting cardamom note), coconut milkshake, and a flicker of balanced earthy coconut. The chocolate had a clean, light, elegant cocoa and coconut finish.
Like many**Australian chocolate makers, Metiisto is using cacao grown by farmers in (the relatively nearby) Pacific island nations. This Metiisto Coconut bar was made with Tenaru*** cacao from the Solomon Islands.
Ingredients: Cocoa beans, coconut blossom sugar, cocoa butter, shredded coconut
*Charm School Chocolate (Hunt Valley, MD, in the U.S.) created an early bean-to-bar, fine chocolate coconut milk bar that showed people what was possible. Charm School chief chocolate maker and founder, Joshua Rosen, trained as a chef and engineer (perfect training for small-batch chocolate making) has since created several more coconut milk chocolate bars with flavor inclusions.
**Yes, happily, there are many bean-to-bar, craft/small-batch chocolate makers in Australia now, including Atypic Chocolate, Daintree Estates, Hunted and Gathered, Jasper + Myrtle, Metiisto Chocolate, the Smooth Chocolator, Spencer Cocoa, and Zokoko.
*** The Tenaru region lies on Guadalcanal Island, the largest of the Solomon Islands--an island nation (country) located in the Southwest Pacific Ocean. Guadalcanal exports a variety of agricultural goods, including coconuts and cacao, crops made possible by a mix of latitude, climate, rich, volcanic soils, and the hard work of farmers.
No comments:
Post a Comment