Chocolate of the Day
One One Cacao
St. Thomas 71% dark chocolate (bar)
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: .35 oz. (10 g.) (estimate) in 1 sample bar
Calories: 54 calories (estimate) in 1 sample bar
Cost: N/A - Part of a six-bar tasting kit (A full-size bar was $11.00.)
Purchased from: Happy Chocolate Experiences, Palo Alto, CA
Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Jamaica Theme Week.
Today's sample Clarendon 71% bar from One One Cacao* (Kingston Parish, Jamaica) was one of six sample bars in a tasting (kit) sent to participants in advance before an online discussion/interview and tasting experience.
Tasting these Jamaican chocolates was made possible by Sunita de Tourreil** at Happy Chocolate Experiences. Sunita interviewed founder and chocolate maker Nick Davis and Marta from One One Cacao, which provided some great context for the diversity of flavors found in one island nation.
Aroma notes for today's 71% dark tasting square included fresh, slightly sweet coffee ice cream or custard, very faint fruit (black sapote?), barely there fragrant black tea, and almost invisible warm spice and vegetable notes.
The flavor was full of subtle complex flavors including true chocolate (light brownie batter), dried stone fruits (faint plum/prune), warm plum spice cake pieces in custard topped with a drizzle of caramel and pecan pieces, and complex tea latte with brown sugar notes.
This was a high-end dessert buffet in one small bar. Do savor slowly to pick up all the sweet aroma and flavor nuances.
Maker's description: "This is an Award Winner picking up an Academy of Chocolate Award in 2020. Nutty with complex notes of biscuit and toffee, like a Graham Cracker combined with a Custard Creme. International award winning cacao from Johnson's Mountain, St. Thomas. The cacao in this bar is award winning...I'm not saying it for jokes, it's literally some of the best and most expensive and rare cacao on earth."
Ingredients: (Not listed on small sample bar packet)
Allergen-related information: (Not listed on small sample bar packet)
* The company name was inspired by an old Jamaican proverb: "One one cocoa, full basket" that conveys the notion that little by little, cocoa pods and beans fill baskets, baskets are filled, and goals can be met.
**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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