Chocolate of the Day
Fu Wan Chocolate
Taiwan #10 Ping Tung 53% Dark Milk Chocolate (bar)
Good ++
Weight: .795 oz. (22.5 g.) / 1.59 oz. (45 g.) in total bar
Calories: 130 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $14.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order
Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Tea Theme Week.
Today's Taiwan #10 Ping Tung 53% Dark Milk Chocolate (bar) was created by Fu Wan Chocolate (Pingtung County, Taiwan, R.O.C.).
This single origin bar offered a uniquely special and very subtle bouquet of chocolate aroma notes, including: chocolate (subtle milk chocolate), faint fleeting malt, faint clean mineral (clay), faint diffuse fruit (apple, raisin, peach), faint warm floral spice (soft vanilla and very faint cinnamon), very faint nut/seed, and very faint green tea floral.
The texture of this 53% dark milk chocolate was uniformly smooth and relatively creamy.
The flavor notes closely mirrored the aroma notes (above). This dark milk chocolate was filled with a very subtle array of fruit flavors. The milk (powder) softened/muted any strong fruit acidity and possibly other more subtle flavors. The chocolate was very low in bitterness. And it had a very mild, but long finish. In that finish were hidden whispers of nut (very fleeting lightly roasted peanut), and fruit (peach and light osmanthus blossom tea).
I paired this chocolate with small cups of osmanthus* oolong tea and jasmine green tea.
Some 53% cacao dark milk chocolates and confections can be very sweet. This bar was not. (Thank you!) The choice of less sugar (less than is often present here in the U.S.) made it much easier to detect the subtle flavors that were present.
I recommend trying this bar, or including it as part of a chocolate tasting flight. (Try this one first before stronger tasting chocolates, so you can still taste the softly complex notes.)
Maker's tasting notes: Apple, raisin, toffee, nuts, vanilla
Ingredients: Cacao bean, sugar, milk powder, cacao butter, vanilla pod
Allergen-related information: (Contains milk)
*Osmanthus are aromatic flowering evergreen large shrubs/small trees native to China, Indochina and Japan.
There are some that grow in a park near my house in California. I walked by a row of tall bushes with small clusters of tiny, fragrant, ivory-colored flowers last November; and I immediately recognized the smell as the flavoring in an Chinese tea I'd enjoyed.
I've since been able to make my own flower-infused tea from local osmanthus blossoms, since it grows here as well as Taiwan, R.O.C.--where today's chocolate originated; and where osmanthus-infused tea is also popular.
My experience with osmanthus is that is has an apricot/peach scent and light citrus/stone fruit-floral, lightly herby flavor.
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