Chocolate of the Day
Amano Artisan Chocolate
Japanese Sea Salt & Cocoa Nibs Milk Chocolate (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 207 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order
Welcome to Day #10 of Chocolate and Venezuela Theme Week, and Day #1 of Chocolate and Salt Theme Week.
Today's Japanese Sea Salt and Cocoa Nibs Milk Chocolate (bar) was handcrafted by Amano Chocolate Company (Orem, UT).
Amano chief chocolate maker, Art Pollard, consulted with salt expert and author, Mark Bitterman, at Bitterman Salt Co. (Portland, OR) when creating today's chocolate. The resulting choice was a nuanced and tasty Japanese Sea Salt.
Aroma notes included: dark milk chocolate (chocolate malt), and faint salt, savory (umami).
This bar had thick, creamy chocolate-y texture interspersed with tiny bits of crunchy cocoa nibs. (The milk chocolate was made with cacao from Ocumare, Venezuela; and the cocoa nibs were from Ecuador.)
Flavor notes included a somewhat addictive rich, creamy "malted" dark milk chocolate. Imagine an old fashion malt with 2 scoops of dark chocolate and half a scoop of vanilla, blended together, with a small shake of sea salt.
The sea salt contributed an authentic, very faint umami note (and even fainter nori--that complemented and helped balance the sweetness). The finish was pleasant dark milk chocolate and very faint caramel and vanilla bean, with a fleeting whisper of earth (buckwheat pancake). (Very faint fruit and "clean" nut/mineral notes showed up in a re-tasting.)
I enjoyed the balanced, very subtle complexity in this fine sea salt and chocolate blend.
Ingredients: Cocoa beans, pure cane sugar, whole milk, cocoa butter, whole vanilla beans, Japanese sea salt.
Allergen-related information: "May contain traces of peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat and milk products."
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