twenty-four blackbirds - Fine Drinking Chocolate - Sept. 16, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolate, LLC
Fine Drinking Chocolate (Origin: Bolivia)
Good +
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 4 oz. (113 g.) in total package of 4 bars/pieces
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) for 1 bar
Cost: $8.95
Purchased from: Santa Barbara Botanical Garden (gift shop), Santa Barbara, CA

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate and Bolivia Theme Week.

Today's package of Fine Drinking Chocolate chocolate, carefully wrapped in brown craft paper and string, was from twenty-four blackbirds (Santa Barbara, CA). The package contained four 1 oz. (28.3 g.) bars of partially tempered chocolate, made with organic Bolivian cacao beans and organic cane sugar.

This chocolate came with a simple instruction card. One or more bars could be mixed with a small amount of boiling water and stirred to make a rich, thick small cup of drinking chocolate.

Or, bars could be melted to make a rich, chocolately syrup.  Although the chocolate will harden up fairly quickly once cooled. (Once melted, I've found stirring in a teaspoon of unsweetened, organic extra virgin coconut oil keeps the syrup a softer, smoother texture if you have left-overs.)

The resulting hot chocolate had a faint chocolate caramel note in the aroma, and was much richer in chocolate flavor that hot cocoa you might find in most of the U.S. The texture was quite thick (consistent with stoneground and/or rustic drinking chocolate from Mexico and Central America), and not too sweet.

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

twenty-four blackbirds - Palos Blancos 75 percent (Bolivia) bars - Sept. 14, 2015

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

twenty-four blackbirds
Palos Blancos 75 percent (Bolivia) bar
Good - Good +
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 1.4 oz. (40 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1 oz. of bar
Cost: $6.75 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Sweet Shop, Los Altos, CA

Today was Day #3 of Chocolate and Bolivia Theme Week.

twenty-four blackbirds is based in Santa Barbara, CA. This small operation turns carefully made, bean-to-bar chocolate bars and drinking chocolate.

These single origin bars were graced with tile-style letters and symbols -- the image of a single blackbird feather was pressed into a smaller version of the same bar. Both bars were carefully wrapped in brown craft paper.

Today's two Palos Blancos 75 percent bars were made from Bolivian cacao beans, and had a fairly smooth, well balanced flavor.  The bar had a faint aroma that evoked rainforest (green vegetation, rich soil), and the flavor had some of the bold acidity that other single origin Bolivia bars have had this week, with a very slight sour/bitter note.

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

Twenty-four Blackbirds - 75% Oko Caribe bar - August 4, 2015

Chocolate of the Day:

Twenty-four Blackbirds Chocolate, LLC
75% Oko Caribe bar
Good ++
Weight: .5 oz. (14 g.) in 1 small bar
Calories: 75 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $2.50 (estimate)
Purchased from: lost info.

Today was Day #14 of Chocolate and Santa Barbara Theme Week. A double-header of a chocolate week is more likely to happen when there are too many good chocolates to try in a given thematic area or region.

Santa Barbara has a relatively high Chocolate IQ*. Even after the past two weeks of sampling, there are still plenty more chocolates from this beautiful coastal city to try in the future.

Twenty-four Blackbirds Chocolate (Santa Barbara, CA) produces micro-batch chocolates crafted from bean to bar in Santa Barbara, carefully wrapped in brown paper.

The company is not open to the general public, but their hand-crafted single origin chocolate dark chocolate bars can be found in a number of shops, and their bars, drinking chocolate and cacao nibs can also be purchased online.

Today's slim two-ingredient bar, "engraved" with a single graceful feather on one side, was made from cacao beans from the Dominican Republic and organic sugar. It had stronger/bolder flavor than yesterday's Ecuador bar -- with some clean citrus fruit notes up front, followed by balanced but bitter earth and roasted coffee notes.

*High Chocolate IQ - adjective; refers to a city or region with a high number of high-quality chocolate shops, and chocolate offerings, and/or an area with high number of chocolate makers and degree of chocolate-making activity, expertise and appreciation. 

Twenty-Four Blackbirds - 75% Cedeno bar - Aug. 3, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Twenty-Four Blackbirds
75% Cedeno (small bar)
Good ++ - Very Good
Weight: .5 oz. (14 g.) in one small bar
Calories: 75 calories (estimate) for 1 bar
Cost: $2.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Plum Goods, Santa Barbara, CA

Welcome to Day #13 of Chocolate and Santa Barbara Theme Week.

I couldn't leave Santa Barbara without featuring bean-to-bar chocolate from Twenty-Four Blackbirds (Santa Barbara, CA).

The company's single origin chocolates were swathed in brown paper wrappers with black type and graphics; and the overall aesthetic provided a good example of effective design. Great design is simple, clear and not overly complicated. (The bar's long thin, rectangular shape was imprinted with a single feather pattern -- that tied back to the blackbird name/theme.) Unfortunately, my photos don't do justice to the packaging.

Today's 75% Cedeno bar was small in size -- only .5 oz. (14 grams), but big on flavor. This hand-made artisan dark chocolate bar was made with two ingredients: cacao beans from Ecuador and organic sugar. And, it was bold, flavorful, fruity, and well balanced chocolate.

I don't know if these were Trinitario beans or CCN-51* beans. CCN-51 cacao trees were first bred in Ecuador to create, shorter, more resilient trees and cacao pods (that contain seeds to make chocolate, also known as beans). CCN-51 beans now make up a substantial portion of the cacao that is exported from Ecuador to chocolate makers in other countries, but there have been concerns, at least initially, about flavor. (Breeding for resilience can sometimes result in the loss of more delicate flavors or aromas in plants and flowers.)

If this bar was made with CCN-51 cacao beans, bars like this might help alleviate concerns.

Regardless, great chocolate requires good beans to start with and skillful care in every step of the chocolate-making process to end up with great tasting chocolate. And both requirements seemed to have been met here.

24 Blackbirds - Madagascar 75% bar - Dec. 7, 2014

Chocolate of the Day: 

twenty-four blackbirds chocolates, LLC
Madagascar 75% bar
Good ++
Weight: .7 oz. (20 g.) / 1.41 oz. (40 g.) in total bar
Calories: 105 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $6.75 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Sweet Shop, Los Altos, CA

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Week.

After 8 years of trying different chocolates, it's always fun to try new bars. Today's bar comes from a bean-to-bar maker located on the South Central Coast of California.

The Madagascar 75% cacao bar from twenty-four blackbirds chocolate (Santa Barbara, CA) had a complex and interesting flavor arc. I'm convinced I might pick up slightly different nuances if I re-tasted this bar again. However, this first time, I picked up a slight bitterness, sour-tart fruit (berries, citrus) flavor, with a very faint hint of licorice.

The maker(s) at twenty-four blackbirds crafted this bar with organic Malagasy cacao beans from Akesson's plantation in the Ambanja region of Madagascar, and organic cane sugar. The bar broke with a hard snap and had a smooth texture.

Today I took a hike in Napa county where I'd seen one of the biggest flocks of (mixed) blackbirds I ever remember seeing a few years ago. I saw a dozen or so blackbirds on a telephone wire -- reminiscent of the simple, elegantly designed paper packaging for twenty-four blackbirds chocolate bars.