Chocolate of the Day
One One Cacao
Sorrel 51% White Chocolate bar
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: .35 oz. (10 g.) (estimate) in 1 sample bar
Calories: 55 calories (estimate) in 1 sample bar
Cost: N/A - Part of a six-bar tasting kit (A full-size bar was $12.00.)
Purchased from: Happy Chocolate Experiences, Palo Alto, CA
Welcome to Day #1 of Chocolate and Jamaica Theme Week.
Today's sample Sorrel 51% bar from One One Cacao (Kingston Parish, Jamaica) was made with Jamaican sorrel (hibiscus*)--the first of six sample bars from Jamaica chocolate maker and One One Cacao founder, Nick Davis. Tasting these bars was made possible by Sunita de Tourreil** at Happy Chocolate Experiences.
This small tasting square was full of rich, balanced aroma notes: sweet as well as botanically tart and slightly savory (green leafy) notes. The scent promised a range of flavors; and the color was intriguing. (It wasn't the typical ivory-hued white chocolate. It was a light cocoa color with a pink hue that shimmered in the sunlight.)
This chocolate had a true, rich cocoa buttery texture with a smooth, even melt.
The flavor was full and complex, in all the right ways. Bright tart hibiscus (aka Flor de Jamaica, sorrel) notes conveyed the full authentic floral flavor of this Jamaican flower--that brightened up the flavorful Jamaica cacao butter base. This was the best white chocolate I've had in years; and it wasn't too sweet (thank you!).
Maker's description: "Sorrel adds a wonderful fruity flavour and ruby like colour to this most Jamaican of flavours. It's not called Flor De Jamaica for nothing! We love white chocolate but can kinda be a bit meh for lots of purists, but locally pressed cacao from our trinitario trees have so much flavour, combined with this hibiscus make for a match made in chocolate haven."
Ingredients: Not listed on small sample bar
Allergen-related information: Not listed on small sample bar
For those who remember that I don't "count" white chocolate as a Chocolate of the Day, I did pair this lovely white (mauve-hued) chocolate with a small bowl of homemade Jamaican Jamocha almond fudge ice cream. It had the flavor of an affogato (a shot of espresso over vanilla gelato), only with a shot of Jamaican coffee over coffee ice cream plus 82% Sail Shipped Belize cacao dark chocolate and toasted almonds.
And for you botanical-philes, the color "mauve" is derived from the color of mallow flowers (several are purple-pink). Fittingly, in today's case, the edible members of the mallow (Malvaceae) family also include hibiscus and cacao.
**Sunita previously founded Chocolate Dividends, and was proprietor of (and a wonderful chocolate concierge at) The Chocolate Garage in Palo Alto, CA. Happy Chocolate Experiences provides windows into happy cacao--places, makers and destinations--and of course wonderful chocolate.
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