Chocolate of the Day
Srsly Chocolate
Sal de Rey 70% Dark (bar)
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) / 2 oz. (56 g.) in total bar
Calories: 155 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.00 + shipping for 1 bar
Purchased from: Srsly Chocolate, online order
Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Sea Salt Theme Week.
Today's Sal de Rey 70% Dark (bar) was from Srsly Chocolate Inc. (Austin, TX).
Aroma notes for this dark chocolate included: chocolate, dried fruit (raisin, date, plum), sweet green herbal spice and faint licorice, and very faint molasses.
(After last week's largely tamed yet dark and impenetrable Forastero-style cacao flavors from Ghana, one good whiff of this chocolate lit up my Trinitario hybrid variety cacao radar. (Fruit! There are fruit trees and other botanicals in this sunlit jungle.)
Relatively thick, this bar broke with a well-tempered, audible snap. The texture was fairly smooth (almost creamy) with a brief bit of fleeting (fruit) astringency.
Made with Dominican Republic cacao (that was stone ground in Texas) and a constellation of small, glistening Texas salt crystals* this chocolate sparkled with well-executed, balanced, big flavors.
The fruit and other aroma notes (hinted at above) also revealed themselves in the taste (fruit salad with sweet orange, watermelon, mango, passion fruit, banana, dried fruits); and the dark chocolate flavor bloomed into something wonderful. (Have you ever tried a fresh tropical fruit and watermelon salad with a pinch of sea salt? Maybe a little chili and salt?)
Back to the seductive, sweet, salty, and satisfying chocolate that had the rich flavor of a fine drinking chocolate...Yes, this bar would be at home on a fruit and/or cheese plate, or grated over a dessert. (Sea salt dark chocolate mousse or brownies anyone?) But, to fully appreciate the nuanced, fruity cocoa complexity in this 70% dark chocolate with sea salt, enjoy it all by itself first.
Ingredients: Organic cacao, organic cane sugar, hand harvested Texas salt
Allergen-related information: "Made in a factory that processes milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts and wheat"
*Maker's notes: "This bar celebrates Texas salt. We hand harvested salt from the bank of an ancient salt lake in the Rio Grande Valley...The unique minerality of this Texas salt accentuates the bright fruit notes of the chocolate." (Yes, it does.)
