Arete - Madagascar Sambirano Valley 70% bar - Feb. 20, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Arete Fine Chocolate
Madagascar Sambirano Valley 70% Dark Chocolate bar
Very Good
Weight: 1.15 oz. (32.5 g.) / 2.3 oz. (65 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 172.5 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

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

Arete Fine Chocolate, located in the San Francisco Bay Area (Milpitas, CA), is a relatively recent entrant to the chocolate making world. They "went public" in late 2014, and began taking orders in January 2015.

Founders, David and Leslie Senk, spent time honing their craft before opening. And it shows in their line of single origin bars made with just cocoa beans and (organic) cane sugar. I have yet to taste one that wasn't well executed.

Today's Madagascar Sambirano Valley 70% Dark Chocolate bar had a pleasing aroma and broke with a hard, well-tempered snap. It had a nice melt, and uniformly sweet, well-balanced acidic, light citrus fruit flavor—with hints of dried plum, golden raisin and mild pistachio/nutty notes. The bar had a pleasant, lingering finish.

My advice: take the time to really savor this bar. When I re-tasted this deceptively subtle and flavorful bar, over the course of several minutes, new flavors revealed themselves—all of them good. On the last bite, I got a hit of delicious chocolate brownie batter.

Sadly, like many small batch, bean-to-bar chocolates, Arete Fine Chocolate bars may only be available for limited periods of time. (By the time I wrote this, the Madagascar Sambirano bar was sold out on the Arete website, at least for now.)

Thank you to Sunita at The Chocolate Garage (Palo Alto, CA), and other chocolate specialty retailers who bring us great, curated chocolate like this.

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

Amano Artisan Chocolate - Madagascar Sambirano 70% bar - Feb. 19, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Amano Artisan Chocolate
Madagascar Sambirano Valley 70% Cocoa bar
Very Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $8.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Amano table at Fall Chocolate Salon, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Madagascar Theme Week.

Today's Madagascar Sambirano Valley Dark Chocolate bar was made by Amano Artisan Chocolate (Orem, UT).

"It is for good reason that this (Madagascar bar) is the very first chocolate we released. It tastes incredible and has won numerous awards..." stated notes from Amano founder and chocolate maker, Art Pollard." He's right. Today's bar (labeled: Lot No.: 3/5002) was like picking and eating your first berries as a child. Delicious.

This highly edible 70% dark bar was made with cacao from the Sambirano River Valley area of Madagascar; and it had the most wonderful raspberry fruit aroma and flavor that I've experienced in a very long while. This is the kind of bar that people will taste and then ask what fruit was added. No fruit added. Just four ingredients were listed: "Cocoa Beans, Pure Cane Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Whole Vanilla Beans."

To make a flavorful bar like this, one needs to start with great cacao beans, and then be very skilled at preserving and enhancing the flavor profile. Ask any chocolate maker, it's easy to mess up even great beans if you're not very precise and very careful.

My own tasting notes: homemade raspberry jam, honey, chocolate brownies, with a kiss of sweet orange.

Amano tasting notes read as follows: "This chocolate has a gentle chocolate flavor with notes of raspberries, cherry, raisin and citrus."

This would be a good bar for someone who doesn't like dark chocolate bars that are overly strong or harsh, and enjoys great flavors.

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

Hageland - Madagascar 32% Milk Chocolate bar - Feb. 18, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Hageland
Limited Selection
Madagascar 32% Milk Chocolate bar
Good - Good +
Weight: .858 oz. (25.08 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 152 calories in 2 squares of bar
Cost: $1.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

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

Today's Hageland (Belgium) single origin, milk chocolate bar was made with a blend of Criollo, Trinitario and Forastero cacao beans* from Madagascar—the fourth largest island in the world, located off the southeastern coast of Africa.

On the Hageland package was a silhouette of a baobab (Adansonia) tree**—found in Madagascar (Africa and Northern Australia).

The bar had a sweet, caramel fudge aroma, and a smooth, rich, slightly gummy melt. It did have a caramel taste and texture as well.

Tasting notes: honey and caramel -- "rounded off by subtle acid cocoa notes, vanilla and butter."

"Ingredients: sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, cocoa mass, vanilla (nat. flavor). Milk chocolate: cocoa solids min. 32% -- milk solids min. 26%"

This bar was imported into the U.S. by: SCO Koladen, LLC (Hayward, CA).

Other interesting information on the packaging: "Made with 100% renewable energy, ca. 20% from our own solar panels." Go solar.

*It's possible that the same cacao fruit (pod) may contain more than one of these three varieties. In fact, there has been enough intermingling that it's often difficult to find 100% pure genetic strains that are related to geographic origins.

** Baobab fruit in powdered form is a pleasant sweet-tart inclusion in chocolate as well.

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

Valrhona - Ampamakia, Madagascar bar - Feb. 17, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Valrhona
Millesime* 2013
Ampamakia, Madagascar bar
(Chocolat Noir de Domaine/Estate Grown Dark Chocolate)
Good++ - Very Good
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) / 2.46 oz. (69.6 g.) in total bar
Calories: 209 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $7.60 for 1 bar (sale price)
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

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

Many of the bars featured this week were made with cacao from a single region in northwest Madagascar (Ambanja District, Sambirano River Valley)—often from one of a few farms, including today's bar.

Today's Ampamakia, Madagascar 64% (cocoa solids) bar from Valrhona (Tain l'Hermitage, France) was made with beans from the Ampamakia farm in the Sambirano River Valley.

The Valrhona packaging for this Ampamakia bar describes the region of origin this way:

"On the island of Madagascar, at the heart of the fertile Sambirano river valley, lies one of the island's celebrated plantations, the Ampamakia farm. Amidst these lush surroundings where delicate fragrances mingle with the colors of the vanilla and ylang-ylang** fields, Trinitario and Criollo cocoa beans have been cultivated for more than 100 years. Their acid yellow fruit freshness and roasted notes will transport your senses."

This bar had a rich, pleasant aroma; a gradual melt; and a well-rounded, uniform taste with mild, acidic fruit flavor.

The bar's five ingredients: cocoa beans from Madagascar, sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifier (soya lecithin), vanilla.

*Millesime refers to a vintage year, or harvest year for a given crop—often used to describe a vintage wine grape year—and, in this case, it refers to cacao.

**Ylang-ylang (Cananga odorata) refers to sweet-smelling yellow flowers that grow on the Cananga tree in tropical climates. The essential oil from the flowers is used in perfumes, fragrances and aromatherapy.

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

Dandelion Chocolate - 70% Ambanja Madagascar bar - Feb. 16, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Dandelion Chocolate
Madagascar bar
Good ++ - Very Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (56 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $8.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Dandelion Chocolate, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's 70% Ambanja, Madagascar bar was made by Dandelion Chocolate (San Francisco, CA).

If you're in San Francisco and you like chocolate, look into a trip to Dandelion Chocolate—a small-batch chocolate maker located in the Mission District.

The two co-founders, Todd Masonis and Cam Ring, came from the tech industry, a helpful background for bean-to-bar makers given the need for precision with machinery and the many steps involved in making chocolate.

The company has maintained a sense of transparency about cacao origin, and a focus on educating the public about cacao (through tours, classes, lectures). Their two-ingredient (cacao beans and cane sugar), single origin bars each come with a backstory.

For example, today's Ambanja, Madagascar 70% bar contained information about the bar's journey. Organic beans from this bar (Batch No. 2), came from the Akesson farm (in NW Madagascar), and were "sourced by Cam." This 2014 harvest was the fourth harvest that Dandelion had used beans from this farm.

This bar had an aroma with hints of green wood/coconut and brown sugar. I found the flavor was close to the tasting notes printed on the bar's packaging: "...a combination of citrus and tangy red fruits—like raspberry and Meyer lemonade."

These tasting notes were from the bar's batch-maker "BW" (Becky W.), whose initials also appeared on the back of the wrapper. And, lest I forget, each bar was carefully wrapped in foil, and then clothed in an attractive ivory and gold printed paper outer wrapper.

Thanks to Dandelion founders and early employees who worked to launch their company, after experimenting for a few years (trying to grow cacao in an apartment) and then making chocolate in an initial space in Dogpatch. The co-founders renovated an old garage space in the Mission, and this can't have been inexpensive.

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

Chocolaterie Robert - Organic 70% Madagascar bar - Feb. 15, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chocolaterie Robert
Chocolat Madagascar Organic 70% Cocoa bar
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $N/A - part of a larger subscription box
Purchased from: Cocoa Runners (online order)

Today was Day #2 of Chocolate and Madagascar Theme Week.

This Chocolat Madagascar Organic 70% Cocoa bar was made by Chocolaterie Robert ("Malagasy cocoa farmers and chocolatier" based in Antananarivo, Madagascar).

Cocoa beans are often shipped to Europe or North America for processing into chocolate. However, this company makes their chocolate in the same country as the beans of origin.

This particular 70% organic bar contained two ingredients: Madagascar cocoa beans and Madagascar organic cane sugar.

The bar was flavorful—with characteristic fruity Madagascar (citrus, red fruit) acidity, and a touch of balanced bitterness and earthiness.

Nutrition Facts - Theobromine
Another unique thing about this bar was the "Nutrition Facts" information posted on the back of the packaging. In addition to info about carbohydrate, protein and fat percentages—and certain mineral content (Magnesium and Phosphorus)—the amount of theobromine was listed.

Theobromine is a stimulant (similar to caffeine) found in cacao (Theobroma cacao) and chocolate. Today's (entire) bar contained 680 mg. of Theobromine (800 mg per 100 g.). For those sensitive to Theobromine, information about levels would be useful. Hats off to Chocolaterie Robert for including this.

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

Pump Street Bakery - Madagascar 72% bar - Feb. 14, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Pump Street Bakery Chocolate
Madagascar 72% Ambanja 2014 bar
Very Good - Very Good +
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) / 2.45 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 184 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $13.95 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Zombie Runner, Palo Alto, CA

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

We're landing on this large island nation just in time to celebrate a big chocolate holiday—Valentines Day.

Madagascar is located off the Eastern coast of Africa. Most of the cacao grown here comes from the Northwest part of the island, near the Sambirano Valley, part of (or near) the district and city of Ambanja.

Today's Madagascar 72% Ambanja 2014 bar was crafted, from bean-to-bar*, by makers at Pump Street Bakery (Orford, Suffolk, UK). They make baked goods, bread and chocolate.

More specifically, this bar represents Batch No. 5201—from the Pump Street chocolate makers. I mention this, because if you taste a bar you really like, a batch number helps you find the same bar again (if it's still available). Or, making notes on various batches can help you to request a bar with similar flavor characteristics.

I'd like to re-order this three-ingredient bar (cocoa beans, cane sugar, and cocoa butter). It was a great bar for Valentines Day, with or without hearts and flowers.

• My tasting notes: "Broke with a hard snap. Aroma and flavor: Green coconut and papaya, spice, shading into grapefruit (nicely balanced acidity) and deep but warm spice (cinnamon) finish. Interesting and enjoyable flavor arc. Not one "off" note in the bar."

• Pump Street notes: "A dark chocolate packed with flavour (sic) brought out of the fruity Madagascan beans. This chocolate has high notes of citrus mellowing intro tropical fruits and ending with balanced acidity."

*"Each bar is made from beans imported directly from farms or cooperatives in the country of origin. We then clean, roast in our bread ovens, grind and conch at our bakery in Orford, Suffolk."

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