Palato Chocolate - 80% Cacao Dark Chocolate (Honduras) (bar) - Mar. 18, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

Palato Hand Crafted Chocolate
80% Cacao Dark Chocolate, Honduras (bar) 
Good + - Good ++
Weight: .9 oz. (25 g.) / 1.8 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Honduras Theme Week.

Today's Palato Hand Crafted Chocolate 80% Cacao Dark Chocolate, Honduras (bar) was manufactured and distributed by Palato S. de R.L. (Tegucigalpa, M.DC., Honduras).

Aroma notes for this two-ingredient chocolate included: subtle but flavorful dark chocolate; diffuse fruit (dried pear, white wine grape, golden raisin, almost undetectable sweet pineapple and mango); and very faint savory earth and fermentation notes (when the sealed, inner package was first opened).

This 80% chocolate broke with a snap, initially had a smooth melt and texture, and then there was an uptick in fruit astringency. This granular dryness was enough to tickle the throat, although it diminished in the finish.

The relatively fruity ultra-dark chocolate had a very slight, fleeting fermentation funk (wine, cheese)--that dissipated (along with some of the fruit notes) after leaving the freshly opened chocolate on a plate to breathe for a few hours. In its wake a tamer, very faint dark chocolate coconut cookie note joined the fruit notes that remained.

The flavors described above were balanced, and fairly mild for an 80% dark chocolate. Low in bitterness, this bar was generous in its subtle, complex fruit notes, but not too sweet. 

This two-ingredient bar would be interesting to try for dark chocolate fans, and one to include on a dessert (fruit and cheese) plate.

Ingredients: Cacao nibs and sugar

Allergen-related information: Produced in a facility that processes tree nuts.