Raphio Chocolate - 72% Nicaragua bar - June 18, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Raphio Chocolate, LLC
72% Nicaragua (bar)
Good+
Weight: 1.1 oz. (31.5 g.) / 2.2 oz. (63 g.) in total bar
Calories: 170 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #11 of Chocolate and Nicaragua Theme Week.

Today's 72% Nicaragua bar was made by Raphio Chocolate, LLC (Fresno, CA), using cacao beans from Matagalpa, Nicaragua. The inside flap of the bar included a map and information about the origin of this cacao.

Founders, Elisia Otavi and Yohanes Makmur, have roots in chocolate and Indonesia*—and recall visiting family and cacao farms there. Otavi was inspired by her two sons (Raphael and Rio) to name their chocolate company "Raphio," and to make healthy dark chocolate bars with natural ingredients.

This Nicaragua bar had a nice aroma with fruit and faint roasted malt notes. It had a creamy melt, fruit, earth/dirt and fleeting roasted nut and cinnamon flavor notes, and some astringency in the finish.

It was not too sweet (thank you!) and the sweetness that was there seemed to be more natural and less sugar-forward than in many 70 percent bars.

Maker's notes read: "Flavor notes you may taste: Pecans, dates, molasses."

This bar was gluten free, vegan and made with Non-GMO ingredients and no soy. Ingredients: Organic cacao, Organic cane sugar, Organic cacao butter.

*Indonesia is a fairly large producer of cocoa (approximately 240 thousand tons in 2017/2018 season). However few single origin bars made from Indonesian cacao can be found in the U.S., to date. Perhaps we might taste a single origin Indonesia bar from Raphio in the future? 

Raphio Chocolate - 92% Chocolate Ecuador bar - Nov. 10, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Raphio Chocolate 

92% Chocolate Ecuador bar

Good + - Good ++

Weight: 1.1 oz. (31.5 g.) / 2.2 oz. (63 g.) in total bar

Calories: 184 calories (per label) in 1/2 bar

Cost: $9.95 for 1 bar

Purchased from: ZombieRunner, Palo Alto, CA

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

Today's 92% Ecuador bar from Raphio Chocolate (Fresno, CA) had a rich chocolate aroma and a faint, very light molasses and spice note. This well-tempered bar broke with a hard snap and had a smooth creamy melt.

The chocolate had a smooth, even ultra dark chocolate flavor with a slight nuttiness and a hint of muted red fruit and and mocha. 

How did today's 92% Ecuador bar stack up against yesterday's 102% Ecuador bar by the same maker? Both were quite smooth and well balanced for ultra dark bars with interesting flavor complexity and no off notes. These bars may have been crafted from the same shipment of cacao beans. (Both had the same maker's tasting notes printed on the packaging: "macadamia nuts, malt, berry.")

Yesterday's 102% two-ingredient (organic cacao beans, organic cacao butter) bar offered more bitter flavor and sharper red fruit/berry notes than is 92% sibling (which also contained a small quantity of organic cane sugar). And today's 92% bar lacked the tiny bursts of authentic cacao flavor from the light sprinkle of roasted cacao nibs that adorned the back side of yesterday's 102% bar. (In fact, the nibs are what allowed the maker to exceed the 100% mark.)

Raphio offers a range of Ecuador bars, each with a different percentage of cocoa solids. I'm always grateful to makers who offer guideposts for learning like this—the best way to appreciate and learn about which chocolate you might like best is via interesting side-by-side tasting experiences.

Raphio Chocolate - 102% Ecuador bar - Nov. 9, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Raphio Chocolate

102% Ecuador bar

Good+

Weight: 1.1 oz. (31.5 g.) / 2.2 oz. (63 g.) in total bar

Calories: 194 calories (per label) in 1/2 bar

Cost: $8.00 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

How dark can chocolate get? 100% cacao? Apparently not.

Today's 102%* Ecuador bar was from Raphio Chocolate (Fresno, CA). Raphio's chief chocolate maker, Elisia Otavi, was inspired by her family to make healthy chocolate ("not candy"), from scratch using only "organic and natural ingredients." The company's name, Raphio, is a distillation of Raphael and Rio, the names of her two sons. 

The 102% number may sound intense; however, this ultra dark bar was relatively smooth in aroma, texture and flavor, with malt, dark chocolate, nut and berry fruit aroma and flavor notes. It was a friendlier, more approachable 100% cacao chocolate than most other 100%ers.

"Macadamia nuts, malt, berry" were the flavor notes that the maker listed on the bar's packaging. This is one of those instances where what I was tasting matched up 100% with the maker's tasting notes.

*Is it possible to have a 102% cacao chocolate? Perhaps the sprinkle of cacao nibs on the back of this bar comprised that additional 2%.