Marana Craft Chocolate - Passion Fruit and Coconut Chocotejas - Nov. 9, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

Marana Craft Chocolate
Chocotejas - Passion Fruit and Coconut Chocolate 
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: .99 oz. (28 g.) / 17.82 oz. (504 g.) in total box of 18 pieces
Calories: 130 calories in 1 piece
Cost: $52.00 for 1 box of 18 pieces
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

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

Today's Passion Fruit and Coconut Chocolate was part of an 18-piece chocolate confection box from Marana Craft Chocolate (Lima, Peru).

Aroma notes for today's traditional Peruvian-style chocolate confection (chocotejas) included: subtle chocolate (rich, dark chocolate with very faint earth and fig); bright, aromatic tropical fruit (passion fruit); and faint, authentic coconut.

This small bar sized confection was covered with a smooth, dark chocolate shell and the generous center  full of authentic coconut shreds and fruit (passion fruit caramel) offered flavor and chewy texture from start to finish.

Flavor notes were amplified versions of the aroma notes and included rich, bold 70% dark chocolate (that seemed more like 75-80% cacao); bright, tart-sweet, fresh passion fruit (infused into a light milk caramel) and authentic coconut--the subtlest of the three flavors in this chocolate.

I also "heard"* a festive Latin American street music ensemble while I was enjoying this chocolate. (A few celebratory brass instruments, a woman dancing in a bright passion fruit colored dress, percussion (dark chocolate) and a flute/wind or light stringed instrument (coconut palms perhaps)).

I loved the range of layered, authentic flavors in this chocolate.

Ingredients: Passion fruit milk caramel [milk caramel (whole milk, sugar, agar, disodium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate), passion fruit pulp (passion fruit, ascorbic acid - E300)], 70% dark chocolate (cacao mass, sugar and cocoa butter) and coconut.

Allergen-related information: Contains: milk, coconut.

*Sometimes one of our senses will activate another sense in our body. For most people this may be due to activated memories--that include a certain combination of sight, smell and/or touch. In more vivid examples a person might experience something called synesthesia.

A person with synesthesia (an estimated 1% of the population) experiences one sense with, or through, another sense. They may see certain images when they see certain sounds. They may hear music and see shapes or colors. Not surprisingly, there are artists who perceive senses together like this, and this extra ability might even be an asset. 

About 10% of small batch, single origin craft chocolates I eat are "transporting" in some way for me. They conjure up combined sense memories: the feeling of being in a specific type of forest or jungle or climate); the smell and taste of fresh cacao fruit pulp or other fruit or plant; images (the sights of trees, fruits, people, wildlife) and sounds (usually stillness and or wildlife in a forest); and rarely (like today) music and movement/dancing. Combined sensations sometimes feel implied or imagined. 

I might have a mild case of chocolate synesthesia. Or some less processed chocolates may just have magical transporting properties. Maybe after a few thousand more chocolates I'll find out.