Askinosie Chocolate
Mubabu Tanzania Peppermint Dark Chocolate (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 470 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $9.50 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Askinosie.com, online order
Welcome to Day #11 of Chocolate and Tanzania Theme Week.
Today's Mubabu Tanzania Peppermint Dark Chocolate (bar) was made by Askinosie Chocolate (Springfield, MO).
Askinosie has long practiced direct trade with cocoa farmers. Many of their single origin bars bear the image of farmers on the packaging. Today's bar, made using Trinitario cacao from Mubabu, Tanzania, included a picture of Askinosie's "lead Tanzania farmer partner, Mama Mpoki--with her husband and children.
This bar was full of rich, bold aroma and flavors: a blend of bold, but smooth, dark chocolate, cool peppermint, herb and warm spice (cardamom) notes. All of these flavors had the potential to overpower each other. However, the chocolate was a skillful, high-quality blend of "opposites:" warm spice and cool, refreshing mint; sweet and dark; as well as judicious amounts of sugar and sea salt.
All the ingredients felt like they were well incorporated (likely ground to a relatively fine particle size), creating a texture that was smooth and creamy, almost fudgey on a cool morning. (The added cocoa butter that contributed to the lovely texture was also single origin Tanzania.*)
Askinosie Chocolate maker's tasting notes: "Brisk, cool peppermint and deep silky cocoa, warming cardamom finish"
*Ingredients: Mababu (Tanzania) cacao beans (Trinitario), organic cane sugar, cocoa butter (made in our factory with Mababu beans--visit askinosie.com for details*), organic turbinado sugar, organic cardamom, peppermint, sea salt.
*Note: Added cocoa butter in chocolate is not always from the same origin as the cocoa solids/beans used to make a chocolate bar. Some of the best makers--or at least the hardest working and those who set high goals for themselves--press their own cocoa butter from a specific origin/batch of cocoa beans. While cocoa butters are not as flavorful as cocoa solids, they do carry/impart some flavor(s) from their respective origins.
Allergy-related information: "Processed in a facility that also processes milk, peanuts, tree nuts, and wheat."
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