Chocolate of the Day
Valrhona
Guanaja Valrhona Chocolate (piece)
Good +++
Weight: 1.41 oz. (40 g.) / 2.82 oz. (80 g.) in total piece
Calories: 219 calories (estimate) in 1/2 piece
Cost: $5.60 for 1 wrapped piece (sold by the pound)
Purchased from: The Market at Edgewood, Palo Alto, CA
Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and France Theme Week. This week would not be complete without at least one Valrhona chocolate offering; and Day #1 of Chocolate and Fruits Theme Week.
Today's Guanaja Valrhona chocolate made by Valrhona SAS (Tain L'Heritage, France) was an individually wrapped piece, sold by the pound at a high-end market.
Guanaja is a Valrhona 70% dark blend that was first announced in the 1980s.* This very well-balanced, sophisticated blend contained (according to online sources) cacao beans from six different origins including: Trinidad, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Madagascar.
I really appreciated this chocolate. It was chocolate-y with a balanced, gentle fruit and very balanced subtle roasted and bittersweet notes. It was "just right" on many levels. Perfect for a baking or dessert; and it was great all by itself.
Note: See also the next post for a second (never featured before) chocolate (a strawberry champagne chocolate) today--because I tasted what was likely the same 6-nation Guanaja blend back in 2009.
Company's product description: "Bittersweet and Elegant"
Ingredients: (No ingredients were listed on this one piece.) (Online information suggested ingredients have included: cacao(s), sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla, and soy lecithin.)
Allergen-related information: (No allergen-related information printed on this label.)
*Valrhona was founded in the 1920s. When the company introduced Guanaja dark chocolate decades later, it was considered almost revolutionary -- a "bitter" but balanced/darker chocolate. The name Guanaja is a "nod to Christopher Columbus when he washed up on" the island of Guanaja (Honduras) in the Caribbean more than 500 years ago, on the voyage when they were (the first Europeans to be) exposed to cacao.
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