Vintage Plantations 90% Dark bar; Valenza Chocolatier Sesamo Milk Bar - Mar. 14, 2017

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Vintage Plantations
90 percent Dark Chocolate bar
Good +
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 3.2 oz. (90 g.) in total bar
Calories: 159 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $ missing information
Purchased from: missing information

Valenza Chocolatier, Inc.
Sesamo Venezuelan Milk Chocolate Bar
Good +
Weight: 1.03 oz. (30 g.) / 3.1 oz. (90 g.) in total bar
Calories: 155 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $N/A sample from Valenza (included in a larger order)
Purchased from: (part of a larger order from Valenza Chocolatier, Inc. (Costa Mesa, CA)

Welcome to Chocolate and STUVWXYZ Theme Week. Today we focus on two companies that start with the letter "v": Vintage Plantations and Valenza Chocolatier, Inc.

Both companies have founders with European ties/heritage, who are creative and passionate about origins and quality and who have an appreciation of single origin chocolate.

Both have offered chocolates made from Venezuelan beans (or chocolate), a venerable origin, vraiment, veramente (truly in French and Italian). And both offer a variety of chocolate bars as well as very enticing confections/truffles.

These two companies also exemplify two different approaches to making chocolates: that of a bean-to-bar chocolate maker (Vintage) and a chocolatier (Valenza).

Today's two bars also represented two points along the cocoa content spectrum: Vintage Plantations' 90 percent almost pure Dark Chocolate crafted from scratch, and Valenza Chocolatier's flavorful Sesamo light milk chocolate with sesame seeds. One's a bean-to-bar maker, and the other is a chocolatier who uses premium sourced chocolate. Each is making unique chocolates with well-balanced layers of flavor.

Now, let's taste some chocolate...

Vintage Plantations
The 90 percent Dark Chocolate bar from Vintage Plantations (Costa Mesa, CA) had a sweet cocoa, fruity (fig, goji berries, banana) aroma with very faint green notes. And the first taste was one I'd also associate with a bar with more sweetness (lower cocoa solids and more sugar).

However, like virtually all of my favorite ultra-dark bars, this bar was full of complex flavor. The initial flavor gave way to slightly sharper fruit notes and the sweet flavor transformed into deeper, richer, well-balanced slightly bitter flavor.

I've had a Vintage Plantations 90 percent dark bar before back in 2010, made with a slightly different batch of beans. The previous bar was made with Ecuadorian cacao I believe. (There was no origin or plantation listed for this bar.) Vintage has worked with beans from different origins, including Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru.

As the description on the packaging explains, chocolate makers assess cacao each year, and the chocolate may vary from year to year and from harvest to harvest. This bar was gluten free, vegan and soy lecithin free.

Valenza Chocolatier - Sesamo bar
The Sesamo bar from Valenza Chocolatier, Inc. (Costa Mesa, CA) was made from a blend of two chocolates: a white chocolate (cocoa butter) and a single origin Venezuela milk chocolate "with a slash of 61% dark chocolate."

The resulting bar had a cocoa butter aroma and a creamy, velvety chocolate base that was lighter not only in cocoa solids but also in appearance. (It had a lovely light caramel color.) A generous helping of embedded, roasted sesame seeds provided crunchiness in every bite.

And a touch of Sicilian sea salt tied everything together. It balanced the sweetness as well as the slight seed aftertaste from the sesame seeds in this bar.

*Don't leave this bar (or any chocolate bar) in direct sun. This bar softened very quickly. I offer as proof my fingerprints that I accidentally left on this bar, as I was holding it to take a photo.

Vintage Plantations - Dark Chocolate with Toasted Almonds bar - Feb. 26, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Vintage Plantations Chocolates
Dark Chocolate with Toasted Almonds
Good - Good +
Weight: 1.07 oz. (30 g.) / 3.2 oz. (90 g.) in total bar
Calories: 159 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $6.95 for 1 bar
Purchased from: SweetE Organic, Mill Valley, CA

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

Today's Dark Chocolate with Toasted Almonds bar from Vintage Plantations Chocolates was enveloped in a work of art. Printed on the wrapper was an image of a beautiful cacao plantation (painting by Charlotta Janssen).

Vintage Plantations has been making chocolate since the 1990s. There is no specific origin specified for this bar, but the company has been working with "heirloom single estate cocoa beans" for many years.

This dark bar (no percentage listed) had a sweet, slightly nutty and roasted malt aroma, and a balanced bittersweet dark chocolate flavor.

There were four ingredients in this chocolate: ground organic cocoa beans, undeodorized* organic cocoa butter, organic evaporated cane sugar, and organic almonds; and the bar was gluten free and vegan.

*Cocoa beans are naturally high in fat (or cocoa butter) content. And extra cocoa butter is often added to bars to give it a richer flavor, or creamier texture and melt. Some chocolate makers use cocoa butter that has had some of the aroma and taste removed—in other words, it's been "deodorized." Other makers include the natural flavoring (undeodorized cocoa butter). Added cocoa butter may or may not come from the same batch of cocoa beans, or the same area of origin as the cocoa solids.

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.

ChocolateBet: August 7, 2012

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Vintage Plantations Chocolates

1.) Whole Milk bar
Good - Good +
Weight: .875 oz. (25 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 150 calories in 1/4 bar (based on label)
Cost: $N/A - sample
Purchased from: N/A - sample from supplier

2.) Sea Salt and Caramel bar
Good - Good+
Weight: .875 oz. (25 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 117 calories in 1/4 bar (based on label)
Cost: $N/A - sample
Purchased from: N/A - sample from supplier

Today I sampled two milk chocolate bars from Vintage Plantations Chocolates (Newark, NJ), made from "Antigua Nacional" cacao beans from Ecuador.

The packaging for these two Vintage Plantations bars contained a good deal of information about the company's approach to chocolate making. For example, whole milk chocolate was used instead of other milk by-products or oils; no vanilla or aromas were used; and the company helped to pioneer -- and adheres to -- Rainforest Alliance guidelines regarding social and environmental practices. We're also told that Vintage Plantations owner, Pierrick Chouard, selected beans that were fermented at the Rancho Grande farm. (I'm assuming this ranch was in Ecuador as well.)

The Whole Milk bar was smooth, with a focus that was as much on the milk as on the cacao. I detected no discernible cacao flavor notes, except for one very vague floral note in one bite; however, there were no objectionable notes either.

This whole milk bar (I'm guessing between 36% and 40% cacao) had a slight delay in mouth melt. This delay be OK on a hot day outside, if I want to avoid an instant puddle of molten chocolate fondue; however, the fact that the chocolate was a bit firmer/gummier meant I didn't wait and hold it in my mouth until it dissolved. Why is this important? Typically the dissolution point is when my taste buds are sending available flavor information to my brain -- a very satisfying point in, and part of, the tasting experience. (This bar did contain some soy lecithin, an emulsifier used to prevent water and fats from separating, which may have influenced texture.)

The Sea Salt and Caramel milk bar was, happily, gluten free. It contained a few small taste sparkles of salt, and bits of sweet caramel, with very faint notes of cinnamon. (The sea salt and caramel bar was made with raw sugar and contained no soy lecithin.) This second Vintage Plantations bar also had a bit of a mouth melt delay, but not nearly as much as the company's Whole Milk bar.

Today was Day #1 of Chocolate and Caramel and Toffee Theme Week.

----- Postscript from Pierrick C. at Vintage Plantations -----

Aug. 9, 2012

Pierrick Chouard, Vintage Plantations, responds: 

After this post, Pierrick pointed out that larger chocolate companies may do the following when they make commercial milk chocolate (bars):

- 1.) Replace the cocoa liquor with cocoa powder
- 2.) Use aroma of chocolate to cover the fact that cocoa powder does not have much flavor
- 3.) Use milk fat -- it gives an instant mouth feel of melting in your mouth because it is: butter. One of the interesting properties of butter is that it also prevents blooming; 2 to 4% butter fat in the chocolate will prevent blooming.

(Vintage Plantations) are strictly cocoa liquor, whole milk: a lot thicker, with more casein than milk serum, and sugar and vanilla. We conch for a minimum of 72 hours. We get the velvety effect on the third day of conching. We can afford to do this because we completely re-thought the process and bought machines accordingly.

...I hope it will shed lights on why we call our chocolate "vintage". ..before the advent of biochemistry and molecule engineering tricking your palate.

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