Chocolate of the Day
Fortunato Chocolate
Dark Chocolate Dates with Sea Salt
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 1.02 oz. (29 g.) / 8 oz. (226 g.) in total package
Calories: 120 calories in 1 serving (2 dates)
Cost: $9.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Fortunato Chocoalate, online order
Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and Fruits Theme Week.
Today's Dark Chocolate Dates with Sea Salt were from Fortunato Chocolate (Issaquah, WA).
The company is a family-owned business that specializes in rare Fortunato* Pure Nacional cacao from Peru.
Aroma notes for these dark chocolate dates included: nuanced, dark chocolate with very faint cacao fermentation, fruit, and spice.
A relatively thin layer of subtly flavorful 68% dark chocolate surrounded large, plump, almost fluffy, medjool date fruit. Extra points on the fruit inside the chocolate today. For a moment, I thought this exceptional fruit (date) might eclipse the high-end Fortunato dark chocolate. Fortunately the chocolate flavor experienced during the first bite returned in the finish.
I did not taste any sea salt. (The salt grains may have settled to the bottom of the package.) But I'm sure a few judicious sparkles of salt would have been a good fit, helping to balance the sweetness just a bit.
Ingredients: "68% Fortunato Dark Chocolate (organically grown cacao and cocoa butter 68%, cane sugar 32%), medjool dates, sea salt."
Allergen-related information: "May contain traces of hazelnut and almonds."
*These rare Fortunato Nacional cacao beans contain a relatively high percentage (40%) of "white" cacao beans (If you cut open the seeds (aka beans), they look white inside.)
Fortunato is the name of the farmer in Peru who is growing these trees. The company "discovered" these beans in 2008.
Nacional is a type of "heritage" cacao that is subtle but certainly not dull. The 68% Fortunato dark chocolate was relatively sweet. More important, it lacked the bitterness and stronger, acidic or earth flavors one might find in other cacaos.
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