Chocolate of the Day
Chocolarder
100% Pure Dark Amazon Rainforest choc.
Good ++
Weight: 1.25 oz. (35 g.) / 2.5 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 194 calories (estimated) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order
Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Peru Theme Week.
Today's 100% Pure Dark Amazon Rainforest Peru (bar) was made by Chocolarder Craft Chocolate Makers (Falmouth, Cornwall, UK).
Attractive aroma notes for this single ingredient (cocoa beans) bar included: dark chocolate, soft fruit (very subtle stone fruit (peach), berry and banana), and very light floral and nut.
This 100% Peru chocolate had a thick, creamy, stiff nut butter-like texture, a very faint astringency (dryness), and a relatively bold (at least unsweetened) dark chocolate flavor with soft sour (citrus/pink grapefruit) and fleeting nut notes.
100% cacao chocolates scare many people, even dark chocolate fans. They can be bitter, sour--and challenging for our brains to process. There is a temporary sense of surprise--the "Where's the expected hit of sugar/sweetness?" moment.
The best 100%ers have a wonderfully complex aroma (this Chocolarder bar did); and the uncloaked-by-sugar bitterness and/or sourness doesn't eclipse subtle/complex flavor and finish notes. (They didn't.) Part of its success was the lovely Peru cacao beans the chocolate maker acquired, and the rest was great execution.*
Maker's tasting notes: "A slow build to intense roasted Brazil nut with accents of grapefruit and plantain"
Ingredients: Cocoa beans
Allergen-related information: "Made in a factory that also handles tree nuts"
*Truly great cacao can make a truly great chocolate. However, in the many steps that follow after harvesting the cacao, there are many opportunities for things to go wrong (a mistake in fermentation or drying, over-roasted or unevenly roasted cacao, too much or too little of many things...). And, there is no set recipe over time; the steps and settings are slightly different with different varieties or batches of cacao beans.
