Chocolate of the Day
Chocolate Naive
Cacao Pulp in Heirloom Dark Chocolate (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 2.12 oz. (60 g.) in total bar
Calories: 183 calories (per label) in 1 bar
Cost: $ (missing information)
Purchased from: missing information
Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and NOPQ Theme Week, featuring chocolate items with origins and flavor inclusions that start with the letters N, O, P and/or Q.
Today's Cacao Pulp in Heirloom Dark Chocolate (bar) was from Chocolate Naive and Produced by Mulate AEB (Zietelos, Lithuania). Chocolatier Domantas Uzpalis produces a line of thoughtfully created and skillfully executed chocolates, from bean-to-bar, in Eastern Lithuania.
This Cacao Pulp* bar had a polite, but complex, sweet cacao aroma with light fruit notes (strawberry milkshake, mango, cacao fruit pulp), and very faint, warm spice (gingerbread) and light green seed/nut (Theobroma bicolor/Jaguar cacao seeds) notes. About an hour after opening the sealed packaging (and tasting the first few bites), subtle caramel notes were also present.
The chocolate had a creamy, almost whipped rich chocolate mousse feel to it.
The flavor notes were consistent with the aroma notes listed above, with more direct, mildly acidic tropical fruit (cacao pulp/fruit, mango, was well as light pineapple, lychee, sweet red berry, ripe tangerine) flavors. This bar was crafted from prized "white" cacao beans known for their sophisticated, subtle fine flavor, and was very low in bitterness.
Chocolate Naive maker's tasting notes included: "champagne, citrus, lychee and mango," and the following description: "Slightly sweet with a little bit of fresh and bright champagne-like sourness, tingling the teeth and the back of the throat."
Ingredients: heirloom 70% chocolate (white cacao, organic cane sugar, organic cacao butter), dried cacao pulp.
*Cacao pulp, also known as cacao fruit, baba, mucilage and cacao placenta, surrounds a core of almond-sized seeds (the cocoa beans used to make chocolate) at the center of the cacao pod/fruit. Whiteish in color, the pulp is sweet, slightly tart and fruity; and, depending on the cacao variety, the origin/terroir, and other factors, it might have citrus and floral notes. You may taste watermelon candy, mango, and/or a host of other tropical fruits.
It is very tasty. Sadly, it's hard to find in the U.S. You may find it frozen. In Hawaii, look for the multi-colored cacao fruit/pods at roadside fruit stands and farmers markets.
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