Sunday, September 12, 2021

Domori - 80% Fondente Dark Chocolate Criollo (bar) - Sept. 12, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Domori
80% Fondente Dark Chocolate Criollo (bar)
Good +++
Weight: 1.76 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 288.5 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $8.00 (+ summer shipping) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

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

Today's 80% Fondente Dark Chocolate Criollo (bar) was made by Domori (None, Italy). 

Criollo cacao is known for its mild, round flavor, with little or no bitterness or astringency (tannins). The Criollo cacao used to make this bar was grown in Venezuela. 

Christopher Colombus first visited Venezuela in 1498 on his third voyage to the New World. But, it was an Italian navigator the following year who gave the country its present-day name. In 1499, Italian navigator, Amerigo Vespucci (part of the Alonso de Ojeda-led Spanish expedition), is said to have dubbed the land Veneziola (little Venice) after seeing houses on stilts by the shores of Lake Maracaibo (near the Caribbean coast) that reminded Vespucci of Venice, Italy.

More than 500 years later, Italian bean-to-bar maker Domori shares a wonderful heritage variety of Venezuelan cacao with us in the form of beautiful, two-ingredient,* dark chocolate.

The aroma notes (in order of appearance) included: true chocolate (brownie), bold green (fruit, stalks, floral), fruit (dried plum (prune), dried apricot), light warm spice cake, vanilla, molasses, light cherry, Thompson grapes, and very faint plant latex.

The flavor had a lovely, complex chocolate cake flavor with warm stone fruit compote, very faint spice, chocolate pudding and chocolate milk, and an ice cream sundae (cherry and fig chocolate ice cream with nuts) notes that lingered softly into the finish.

This well-balanced and well-executed 80% Criollo bar lacked the bitter, tannic (acidic), sour and/or heavy roasted notes that can cause some people to shy away from bolder, high-cacao percentage chocolates. Though more subtle, this 80% bar had plenty of flavor, while offering the smoothness and natural sweetness of a 65% to 70% cacao bar.

Tasting notes: "...offers notes of dried figs, dates and raisins...the result is a unique bar, with excellent sweetness and roundness."

*Ingredients: Criollo cocoa mass and cane sugar. 

Allergen-related information: "May contain traces of soy, milk, and nuts." No gluten ingredients.


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