Sunday, December 4, 2022

Fresco Chocolate - Lamas Andean Amazon, Peru 74% (bar) - Dec. 4, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Fresco Chocolate
Lamas Andean Amazon, Peru 74% (bar)
Good ++
Weight: .9 oz. (25 g.) /1.8 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 136.5 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Peru Theme Week.

Today's Lamas Andean Amazon, Peru 74% (bar) (Recipe 282, Batch 21-451) was from Fresco Chocolate (Lynden, WA). Fresco was founded in 2010 by computer scientist, Rob Anderson.

Anderson crafts Fresco's bean-to-bar chocolate (bars) so that different versions of the same origin bars can be tasted side by side, to better appreciate differences between roast, conche and other choices--e.g. between a light, medium or dark roast (of cacao beans) or a short, medium or long conche--during the chocolate making process. Today's single origin Peru bar was made with a dark roast, and a medium conche.* 

Aroma notes included: dark chocolate (dark ganache), earth, and diffuse sweet fruit (ripe, dark berry).

Texture: Smooth with a very slight astringency in the finish.

Flavor notes included: dark chocolate (bold dark ganache with a very faint roasted note), diffuse sweet fruit (dark, ripe berry), earth, and very faint, fleeting warm spice (barely detectable ginger). 

This 74% dark chocolate had a lingering dark chocolate finish, with a very slight astringency.

Tomorrow I'll be tasting a Fresco Chocolate 100% cacao dark Peru bar--also made with (dark roast, medium conche) Lamas Andean Amazon (Peru) cacao. 

Ingredients: Organic cocoa beans, organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter

Allergen-related information: "Free from dairy, gluten, nuts, soy"

*Conching is a process done with equipment that mixes and agitates cacao, reducing particle size and blending cacao solids with cacao butter. Choices for this process (duration, speed, machine type, etc.) help create an optimal result for smooth mouthfeel while still retaining desired flavor(s). (Some more volatile flavor elements may attenuate during the cacao grinding and conching process if it continues for a long time.)

Fresco maker's note on medium conching level chosen for this bar read: "Heat, motion, aeration and time produce chocolate's final flavor; this is conching. Adjusting these variables can produce dramatically different flavors..." The medium conche level provides a "balance between aggressive and subdued, mellow."

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