Thursday, March 3, 2022

Pump Street Chocolate - 60% Grenada Milk and Nutmeg (bar) - Mar. 3, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Pump Street Chocolate
60% Limited Edition Grenada Milk and Nutmeg (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 195 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #11 of Chocolate and Spices Theme Weeks.

Today's 60% Limited Edition Grenada Milk and Nutmeg (bar) was from Pump Street Chocolate (Suffolk, UK). The founders built an award-winning bakery and expanded their (naturally-leavened) bread making skills into chocolate making. They make chocolate from cacao beans they import from single estates and cooperatives.

Aroma notes for this dark milk chocolate bar first evoked memories of savory dishes with spices (nutmeg), such as certain curries, creamed spinach, brown sauces. This note morphed to include spiced, creamy hot chocolate.  

The whole milk powder influenced the aroma, texture and flavor of today's limited edition bar. The texture was creamy and milky; and the overall flavor was less sweet than expected (thank you). The taste also evoked a savory cream bechamel sauce (even though there was no added salt or salty flavor--due to shared spice (nutmeg) ingredients in both foods). 

Pleasant, true chocolate/cacao notes (very faint or diffuse nut and fruit) were relatively muffled (cushioned by milk (milk hugged) and cocoa butter). The cacao was from Crayfish Bay Organic Estate (Saint Mark), Grenada ("2019 Crop").

The authentic (Grenada) nutmeg was complex, subtle and wonderful. It was in the background (peeking out from behind the curtains), but it still managed to steal the show. (Nutmeg, the product of an evergreen tree, like cinnamon, came to the Americas from south/SE Asia (e.g. Indonesia (Spice Islands)--and Sri Lanka/India, Myanmar in the case of cinnamon), often via spice traders/merchants interested in growing these valuable crops elsewhere. Nutmeg grows well in Grenada (a large exporter of nutmeg), and in other humid, tropical nations/islands with sandy soil.

Maker's tasting notes: "A high cocoa (60%) milk chocolate, offering subtle undertones of the fruit flavours characteristic of the Crayfish Bay (cacao) beans and gently scented with the warmth of Grenadian nutmeg."

Ingredients: Organic cocoa beans, cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, milk powder and nutmeg.

Allergen-related information: (Contained milk.) "We also handle dairy, gluten, nuts and seeds on the premises."

Ingredients: Organic cocoa beans, cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, milk powder and nutmeg

Crow and Moss - Vanilla Smoke Chocolate 69% (bar) - Mar. 2, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Crow and Moss
Vanilla Smoke Chocolate 69% (bar)
Good +++
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.25 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #10 of Chocolate and Spices Theme Weeks.

Today's Vanilla Smoke Chocolate 69% small batch (bar) was from Crow and Moss (Petoskey, MI).

This dark chocolate bar had a prominent vanilla aroma, and true to it's name, it had a balanced, subtle smokey fragrance and faint green floral notes.*

This well-tempered, bean-to-bar chocolate had smooth texture, an thick buttery melt, and a complex flavor bouquet that included dark chocolate, green, floral (white flowers), spice and faint, very slightly astringent tropical fruit and green notes (persimmon and green mango meet jasmine and orchid). 

Re-tasting this bar yielded even more subtley complex green notes (green tea, green-lemon herb (sorrel) and very faint and fleeting vegetable (Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) + baked potato). 

The faint (or perhaps implied) fruit note was difficult to nail down. Can a flavor come to life and refuse to be captured and fully analyzed? I was happy to chase this white (vanilla) rabbit through the hickory forest. 

I applaud the skills that went into melding the hickory-smoked cacao and vanilla bean together. Both these flavors stood proud and tall on their own; and the lovely nuances of each were highlighted and celebrated. There was also a barely detectable quantity of salt in this bar, that seemed just right.

Together, this pied piper of a partnership seemed to take flight. A sense of motion--an elegant flavor flux--created a highly satisfying ride, and kept me coming back for just one more piece. Nicely balanced, not too sweet. Highly complementary chocolate and vanilla flavors sparked a winter fire, while invisible grains of salt nodded in grounded approval, and floral notes looked at cherry trees blooming and whispered that spring is here.*

Maker's tasting notes: "We've taken whole vanilla beans and paired them with a hint of hickory smoked cacao and salt to create a fruity, floral twist with a nostalgic campfire finish."

Ingredients: "Cacao blend, organic cane sugar, vanilla beans, salt, hickory smoke."

Allergen-related information: "Processed in a facility that also handles nuts and dairy"

*I like floral, balanced umami and subtlely smokey and savory flavors in single origin chocolate. It's hard to find these flavors, and even harder to discover all these skillfully blended in one bar. Hats off that Cross and Moss makers for even attempting this bar when there are some critics who view umami, smokey (and, surprisingly, even floral) notes as possible "flaws" in cacao processing. Apologies: Happiness over this bar did lead to some wordy poetic celebration.
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