Chocolate of the Day
Chocolates Baiani
Dark Chocolate Bahia Vale Potumuju Brazil (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.02 oz. (29 g.) / 2.04 oz. (58 g.) in total bar
Calories: 170 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order
Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Brazil Theme Week.
Today's Baiani Dark Chocolate 100% Bahia Vale Potumuju Brazil (bar) was produced by Kakawah Agro. Imp. Exp. e Comercio LTDA (Arataca, BA, Brazil).
The cacao used to make today's bar was grown/produced in Vale Potumuju, Bahia--a state in eastern Brazil--using an agroforestry system where cacao trees grow under/among native hardwood trees, and with other fruit trees.*
Aroma notes for this "tree to bar" chocolate included: subtle roasted cacao, mocha, very faint soft green. The texture was smooth, almost creamy.
Flavor notes included: a balanced earthiness and subtle roasted cacao. The taste was relatively tame at first (for a 100% cacao bar) with slight rise in bitter-acidity toward the finish. About 30 seconds after I thought the finish had ended, there were lingering, mellow green (matcha green tea) and faint floral notes. A pleasant ending.
This ultra-dark, unsweetened, single origin, 100% Brazil chocolate had nicely-balanced complexity.
Ingredients: Single origin cacao beans. ("No sugar added")
Allergen-related information: "May contain traces of tree nuts and milk."
*Cacao has grown wild in parts of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest for millennia. Europeans began cultivating cacao in Bahia in the 1700s. Baiani carries on a well established cacao growing tradition in Bahia (of the Pinheiro and Aquino families) that stretches back to the 1800s.
At one time Bahia was the largest cacao producer state in Brazil. And Brazil used to be a top cacao exporting country. Unfortunately, in the late 1900s, a disease ("witches broom" resulting primarily from a fungal pathogen/infection that affects cacao and other crops) resulted in massive reductions in cacao yields in Brazil.
In the last few decades Brazil has been building back their cacao production. And, arguably, a "cabruca" agroforestry system such as what Baiani Chocolates is using (where attention is paid to diversity and soil health) is not only an ecologically sound choice but likely offers more protection from diseases.
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