Baiani Chocolates - Dark Chocolate with Brazilian Coffee 70% (bar) - Nov. 14, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Baiani Chocolates
Dark Chocolate with Brazilian Coffee 70% (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.02 oz. (29 g.) / 2.04 oz. (58 g.) in total bar
Calories: 155 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and Brazil Theme Week.

Today's Baiani Dark Chocolate with Brazil Coffee 70% (bar) was produced by Kakawah Agro. Imp. Exp. e Comercio LTDA (Arataca, Bahia, Brazil). 

Made with single origin cacao and Gran Reserva organic specialty coffee (from Latitude 13 Degrees), this well-tempered bar broke with a smooth snap.

Aroma and flavor notes included: dark chocolate, diffuse sweet red berry, faint cherry, light warm spice and roasted coffee. The chocolate and coffee blended well together.

Ingredients: "Single origin cacao beans, organic cane sugar, cocoa butter and specialty coffee."

Allergen-related information: "May contain traces of tree nuts and milk."

Baiani - Dark Chocolate 100% Bahia Brazil (bar) - Nov. 12, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Chocolates Baiani 
Dark Chocolate Bahia Vale Potumuju Brazil (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.02 oz. (29 g.) / 2.04 oz. (58 g.) in total bar
Calories: 170 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order 

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Brazil Theme Week.

Today's Baiani Dark Chocolate 100% Bahia Vale Potumuju Brazil (bar) was produced by Kakawah Agro. Imp. Exp. e Comercio LTDA (Arataca, BA, Brazil).

The cacao used to make today's bar was grown/produced in Vale Potumuju, Bahia--a state in eastern Brazil--using an agroforestry system where cacao trees grow under/among native hardwood trees, and with other fruit trees.*

Aroma notes for this "tree to bar" chocolate included: subtle roasted cacao, mocha, very faint soft green. The texture was smooth, almost creamy.

Flavor notes included: a balanced earthiness and subtle roasted cacao. The taste was relatively tame at first (for a 100% cacao bar) with slight rise in bitter-acidity toward the finish. About 30 seconds after I thought the finish had ended, there were lingering, mellow green (matcha green tea) and faint floral notes. A pleasant ending.

This ultra-dark, unsweetened, single origin, 100% Brazil chocolate had nicely-balanced complexity. 

Ingredients: Single origin cacao beans. ("No sugar added")

Allergen-related information: "May contain traces of tree nuts and milk."

*Cacao has grown wild in parts of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest for millennia. Europeans began cultivating cacao in Bahia in the 1700s. Baiani carries on a well established cacao growing tradition in Bahia (of the Pinheiro and Aquino families) that stretches back to the 1800s.

At one time Bahia was the largest cacao producer state in Brazil. And Brazil used to be a top cacao exporting country. Unfortunately, in the late 1900s, a disease ("witches broom" resulting primarily from a fungal pathogen/infection that affects cacao and other crops) resulted in massive reductions in cacao yields in Brazil. 

In the last few decades Brazil has been building back their cacao production. And, arguably, a "cabruca" agroforestry system such as what Baiani Chocolates is using (where attention is paid to diversity and soil health) is not only an ecologically sound choice but likely offers more protection from diseases.

 

Baiani Chocolates - Dark Chocolate with Tapioca and Coconut 65% (bar) - Oct. 8, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Baiani Chocolates

Dark Chocolate with Tapioca and Coconut 65% (bar)

Good + - Good ++

Weight: 1.02 oz. (29 g.) / 2.04 oz. (58 g.) in total bar

Calories: 150 calories (per label) in 1/2 bar

Cost: $9.50 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Coconut Theme Week.

Today's Baiani Chocolates Dark Chocolate with Tapioca and Coconut 65% (bar) was produced by Kakawa Agro., Arataca, BA, Brazil.* 

Bahia-based Baiani Chocolates offers "tree to bar" chocolate bars, made using Brazilian cacao.* The company's history dates back to the Pinheiro and Aquino families "involved in cacao culture since the end of the 19th century."

Aroma notes for this family breakfast treat inspired bar included: dark chocolate (cocoa, drinking chocolate), earth and coconut. The smooth dark chocolate was peppered with tiny crispy tapioca bits.

Flavor notes included: earthy dark chocolate with faint coconut, and very faint, fleeting clean mineral toward the finish. (The tapioca did not have a detectable flavor, but added textural interest.) 

The relatively bold dark chocolate and judicious amounts of tapioca and coconut, kept this chocolate from being too sweet. (Thank you.) I tasted a few tiny morsels of authentic-tasting, unsweetened (or very lightly sweetened) coconut in the mix; however, the coconut was a subtle background flavor overall.

Ingredients: Single origin cacao beans, organic cane sugar, cocoa butter, tapioca and coconut.

Allergen-related information: "May contain traces of tree nuts and milk."

*Produced in the State of Bahia in Eastern Brazil, at Vale Potumuju in Arataca, Brazil. "Our cacao is grown in an agroforestry system known as "Cabruca", protected by the canopy of native hardwood and fruit trees of the Atlantic Forest of southern Bahia state, one of the most biodiverse biomes on the planet."

The company is committed and passionate about their mission, describing their artisanal chocolate making process as extending... "From Cacao To Soul."

Baiani Chocolates - Trinitarios 70% with Orange Zest bar - Aug. 31, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Baiani Chocolates
Trinitarios Inclusao 70% with Orange Zest (bar)
Good +++
Weight: 1.02 oz. (29 g.) / 2.04 oz. (58 g.) in total bar
Calories: 142 calories in 1/2 bar (2 1/2 squares)
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Brazil Theme Week.

Today's Trinitarios Inclusao 70% Dark with Orange Zest bar from Baiani Chocolates (Bahia, Brazil) was the fourth of four bars featured this week from Baiani.

This inclusion (flavored) dark bar was suffused with a touch of rich, balanced natural orange flavor. The base chocolate had a smooth, relatively bold, dark flavor—not unlike the company's 70% Bold Roast bar (featured yesterday).

The craft chocolate makers at Baiani source their cacao from a family farm (fazenda Santa Rita) in Vale Potumuju, Bahia, Brazil. Bahia is the largest cacao producing state in Brazil, and is located on the Atlantic coast.

Baiani Chocolates - Bold Roast 70% Bahia, Brazil bar - Aug. 30, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Baiani Chocolates
70% Bold Roast Bahia Brazil bar
Good +++
Weight: 1.02 oz. (29 g.) / 2.04 oz. (58 g.) in total bar
Calories: 142 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar

Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate and Brazil Theme Week.

Today's 70% Bold Roast chocolate bar was made tree-to-bar by Baiani Chocolates (Vale Potumuju, Bahia, Brazil).

This bold roast bar was a variation on yesterday's Mild Roast 70% bar* from the same maker, but it was, as expected, bolder and darker (with a slight roasted coffee note).

And this award-winning bar was less fruity and sweet (even though they were both 70% bars (containing cacao from the same family farm and similar amounts of cane sugar). Today's bar also had a bolder finish as well. Side-by-side tastings are always very educational (and in this case delicious as well...Hmm. Maybe we need to re-sample those two again, just to make sure.)

*Tasting notes from yesterday's Baiani Mild Roast bar "a very nicely balanced, dark chocolate bar with fruit, cream and dark notes. It was smooth but also had depth and some complexity as well."

Baiani Chocolates - 70% chocolate bar - Aug. 29, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Baiani Chocolates
70% Mild Roast chocolate bar
Good +++ - Very Good
Weight: 1.02 oz. (29 g.) / 2.04 oz. (58 g.) in total bar
Calories: 142 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $ missing information for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate and Brazil Theme Week.

Today's 70% Mild Roast Terroir Lagoa bar from Baiani Chocolates (Vale Potumuju, Bahia, Brazil)
was a very nicely balanced, dark chocolate bar with fruit, cream and dark notes. It was smooth but also had depth and some complexity as well.

This Brazilian (tree-to-bar) company has roots in cacao, and their small team (listed on the inside of the packaging) is producing some great chocolate.

Baiani Chocolates - Trinitarios Dark Milk 57% chocolate bar - Aug. 28, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Baiani Chocolates
Trinitarios Dark Milk 57% (Milk 7%) bar
Good +++
Weight: 1.02 oz. (29 g.) / 2.04 oz. (58 g.) in total bar
Calories: 145 calories in 2 1/2 squares (1/2 bar)
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, CA

Welcome to Day #1 of Chocolate and Brazil Theme Week.

Today's Trinitarios Dark Milk 57% bar was made tree-to-bar by Brazilian craft chocolate makers at Baiani Chocolates (Brazil).

This flavorful dark milk chocolate Brasileiro bar had a smooth, fairly creamy melt, and true chocolate and milk notes. (The chocolate contained: 57% (cacao) and 7% milk.)

In the past decade, Brazil has been making a cacao comeback. In the 1980s and 1990s, a fungus decimated cacao trees in Brazil. The country had been one of the top cacao producers; and the state of Bahia (in NE Brazil, bordering the Atlantic Ocean) was at the center of production.

The owners of Baiani came from a line of cacao farmers and producers. Juliana Pinheiro Aquino remembers what happened. Cacao had become a very important fruit crop. "My father was depressed. He was very sad," she said.

Fortunately, in the last decade yields are up again in Bahia; and it is easier to find Brazilian chocolate.

Like many of the best chocolate makers, Juliana and Tuta Aquino continue to improve their craft.  (E.g., they consulted "cacao whisperer" Dan O'Doherty of Cacao Services to improve their growing and processing methods, including transforming their traditional drying area into a solar drying tunnel.)