SOMA - CSB Chama bar - Oct. 8, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

SOMA Chocolatemaker
CSB Chama bar
Very Good
Weight: 1.15 oz. (32.5 g.) / 2.29 oz. (65 g.) in total bar
Calories: 173 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $14.00 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and Venezuela Theme Week.
The Criollo Santa Barbara (CSB) Chama* bar from SOMA Chocolatemaker (Toronto, Canada) was a special 70 percent, single origin, dark chocolate bar.

What made it special? Well, for starters, the bar may provide evidence that plants can sing.

The cacao used to craft this bar was "a result of a recent project to hybridize Porcelana and Ocumare cacao located at Estacion Experimental Chama in the cacao growing area south of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela." How's that for a mouthful?

The Lake Maracaibo region in NW Venezuela is known for its fine flavored cacao. The area takes on a mythical quality in origin stories for prized Criollo cacao. It intrigued me to read that a part of the lake is known for almost continual lightning flashes in the sky.

Tasting notes for this bar indicated the resulting three-ingredient bar (made from cacao nibs, organic cane sugar and cacao butter) had several Porcelana characteristics. Porcelana is a prized type of Criollo cacao.

The makers' description: "...a round, delicate chocolate, low astringency with a lingering finish."

The bar had a subtle, not unpleasant slightly earthy, green aroma, and broke with a well-tempered snap. The melt and texture were very smooth.

I'm very fond of complex tasting arcs; and this bar had an incredibly musical one. I found myself stopping what I was doing to "listen" as I tasted. Subtle flavors kept unfolding to reveal new facets: a light coffee with cream, subtle but rich berry and fig fruit, earth, chocolate, almost nutty, then a gentle tidal surge back toward fruit.

The CSB Chama bar had a light, clean but lingering finish that continued its gentle song for a good few minutes after the last bite.

After I wrote this review I read others, and I was surprised how many times that musical references showed up. Sometimes good foods awaken other senses. Or, maybe sometimes plants have a way of singing to us if we're willing to stop and listen. Look closely at the shapes in this bar, and you'll see a bird wearing shoes, in and amongst cacao pods and flowers. Maybe the bird knows the answer.

It's worth mentioning that this bar won best in show in the Americas and silver in the world final of the International Chocolate Awards in 2015.

*Chama is also a term for a young girl in Venezuela. 

Philip Marks - Milk Chocolate 38% Maracaibo Criolait bar - Oct. 7, 2016

Chocolate of the Day:

Philip Marks Chocolates
Milk Chocolate - 38% Maracaibo Criolait bar
Good +
Weight: 1.15 oz. (33 g.) / 2.3 oz. (66 g.) in total bar
Calories: 190 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $6.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

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

Are there milk chocolate bars that please the palettes of dark chocolate lovers? More specifically, can you still taste the flavor nuances of single origin cacao when there are high percentages of sugar and milk in a chocolate bar?

Yesterday, I tried a 49 percent cacao Venezuela milk chocolate bar from Belgium. And today, I sampled a 38 percent Maracaibo Criolait Milk Chocolate bar* from Philip Marks Chocolates (Burlingame, CA).

Today's milk chocolate bar had a sweet, caramel chocolate aroma, and a creamy, smooth melt and texture. Surprisingly, for a 38 percent cacao bar, the chocolate did maintain a slight fruit flavor.
The bar had a sweet finish that lingered a few seconds.

Philip Marks sources their chocolate from an unnamed high-end Swiss chocolate maker*, and uses "...Grand Cru couverture (chocolate) which is produced from pure single origin cacao."

I'm assuming that "Maracaibo Criolait" means that the beans were from Venezuela, and that the chocolate might have been from Felchlin (Switzerland). (The Lake Maracaibo region in Venezuela is known for its prized Criollo cacao.)

*Ingredients: "Cacao kernal, sugar, cocoa butter, skilled milk, whole milk, cream, emulsifier, madagascar vanilla"

Frederic Blondeel - Venezuela 49% Milk Chocolate bar - Oct. 6, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Frederic Blondeel
Milk Chocolate (Chocolat au Lait)
Venezuela 49 percent bar
Good +
Weight: .636 oz. (18 g.) / 1.59 oz. (45 g.) in total bar
Calories: 96 calories (estimate) in 2/5 bar
Cost: $8.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Draeger's Market, San Mateo, CA

Bienvenidos a and Bienvenue a ("Welcome to" in Spanish and French) Day #6 of Chocolate and Venezuela Theme Week.

Spanish, French and English are all appropriate this week as we taste-travel from Venezuela in South America (a birthplace of prized Criollo Cacao) to Belgium in Europe (known for its smooth, thoroughly and impeccably conched chocolate), and to the U.S., where we're big consumers of, and increasingly appreciators of, fine chocolate.

Today's Milk Chocolate (Chocolate au Lait) Venezuela 49 percent cacao bar was manufactured by Frederic Blondeel (Belgium), and imported to the U.S. by Chocolate Stars USA (Fairfield, NJ).

The bar, neatly scored into 5 segments, had a faint aroma with a very faint, slightly plastic note. The melt and the creamy mouthfeel were fantastic. The bar had an even milk chocolate flavor and a relatively clean finish. It's always difficult to know whether the addition of milk will make chocolate less flavorful or not. But, for those who prize smoothness, it may not matter.

Tomorrow, we'll sample another milk chocolate bar made with Venezuelan cacao, from Philip Marks Chocolates (made in Burlingame, CA).

Artisana - Venezuelan Criollo Dark 65% bar - Oct. 5, 2016

Chocolate of the Day:

Artisana Organics
Venezuelan Chocolate Cacao Criollo
Dark 65% (bar)
Good +++ - Very Good
Weight: .9 oz. (25 g.) / 1.8 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 140 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $1.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

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

This morning I tasted the third of three different dark chocolate bars from Artisana Organics—made in Switzerland from Criollo Cacao grown in Venezuela. These Artisana bars were distributed by Premier Organics (Oakland, CA).

The supply chain seems complex, but this three-continent
assembly process is not that unusual in today's world, chocolate or otherwise. The company buys organic cacao from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms in Venezuela and organic cocoa mass is blended with other organic ingredients (cane sugar, cacao butter and vanilla) in Europe, then sent to the U.S.

Today's bar was a Dark 65 percent cacao bar. Earlier this week, I tasted Artisana Organics Dark 75 percent and Dark 85 percent bars.

All three Venezuelan chocolate bars had pleasant (and slightly different) aromas. And all three were refreshingly light on sugar compared to other "dark" bars, and long on pleasing, fruit flavor. Unlike most bar brands, Artisana's two lower percentage bars were actually more impressive (likely because lower percent bars usually are drowning in so much sugar that flavors are overwhelmed).

All three bars had a smooth and even melt and texture, and these thinner bars ensured quick and even access to flavors in the chocolate.

Today's 65 percent bar had subtle, rounded, complex, almost floral, berry jam flavor notes. I believe "forest berry" was the term used in the tasting notes.

Artisana - Venezuelan Cacao Criollo 75% bar - Oct. 4, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Artisana Organics
Venezuelan Chocolate Cacao Criollo
Dark 75 percent bar
Good +++ - Very Good
Weight: .9 oz. (25 g.) / 1.8 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 145 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $1.99 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

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

Today's Dark 75 percent Venezuelan Chocolate Cacao Criollo bar was from Artisana Organics. It was made in Switzerland and distributed in the U.S. by Premier Organics (Oakland, CA).

According to Artisana Organics founders "our family has grown luscious Cacao Criollo at our organic farm there" (in Venezuela)...since1700. Not many people can make that claim. Given the recent ups and downs in Venezuela, I'm happy it's still possible to buy chocolate made with Criollo Cacao from Venezuela. (This organic bar was also made from Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa.)

The 75 percent cacao, vegan, organic chocolate was my favorite Artisana Organics bar so far. It had a pleasant cocoa aroma and a slightly smoky, followed by blackberry fruit, flavor. The texture was smooth and relatively creamy; and the bar was refreshingly under-sweetened. (Thank you for that.)

Artisana - Venezuelan Cacao Criollo 85% bar - Oct. 3, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Artisana Organics
Venezuelan Chocolate Cacao Criollo
Dark 85 percent bar
Good ++
Weight: 1.35 oz. (37.5 g.) / 1.8 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 225 calories in 3/4 bar
Cost: $1.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Bienvenidos a (Welcome to) Day #3 of Chocolate and Venezuela Theme Week.

Today's bar is the first in a series of three Venezuelan Chocolate Cacao Criollo bars from Artisana Organics (distributed by Premier Organics, Oakland, CA). This first bar is the darkest of the three, and by that I mean it contained the highest percentage of cacao, weighing in at 85 percent.

Artisana, founded by Santiago Cuenca-Romero and Saul Amarista, has cacao-growing roots in Venezuela extending back to the 1700s. The company follows fair trade practices and use organic farming methods (and Rainforest Alliance Certified Cacao), and sends sun-dried beans in Venezuela to chocolatiers in Switzerland. The company offers a line of chocolate bars, nut and seed butters, and other products.

This 85 percent Venezuela dark bar, attractively packaged in a gold foil wrapper, had a sweet hot cocoa aroma with a hint of vanilla, a smooth melt and even taste and texture, and had a slightly bitter finish that faded to a clean aftertaste. I enjoyed the lower sugar level in this bar.

Valrhona - El Pedregal Venezuela bar - Oct. 2, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Valrhona
El Pedregal Venezuela Noir 64% bar
Good +++
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) / 2.46 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 201 calories (per label) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $11.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Cacao at the Heathman, Portland, OR

Welcome to Day #9 of French Chocolate Week, and Day #2 of Venezuela Theme Week.

Single origin chocolate can refer to cacao that was grown in a specific region. Or the term single origin can be even more specific, referring to on a single estate, farm or plantation. Today's Chocolat de Domaine (Single Estate Chocolate) bar from Valrhona (Tain l'Hermitage, France) was the latter.

The El Pedregal Venezuela Noir 64% bar resulted from Valrhona's decade-long effort to restore and grow Porcelana, a relatively rare Criollo cacao, at El Pedregal estate in Venezuela.

Porcelana* Criollo flavor notes are known for being subtle and wonderful, well balanced, less acidic and bitter. This same flavor profile makes it more easily overshadowed by sugar and/or inclusions than, say, chocolate made from bolder strains of Forestero cacao.

The bar had a very pleasing, subtle aroma, and an even melt and smooth consistency.

Sadly, at "only" 64% cacao, there was too much sugar for me to detect the advertised flavor notes of honey and ripe fruit (think peach rather than red or black berries). I liked the idea of adding (less processed) brown sugar which imparts its own warm, mellow flavor, and would not want to second guess the chocolate makers on this choice. However, I couldn't help but wonder what a 70% cacao bar might have tasted like. (Ingredients: cocoa beans, brown sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin and vanilla)

The El Pedregal bar had a clean and subtle finish with no off notes.

*Porcelana comes from the cacao seed's (or bean's) appearance. When the raw bean is cut open the inside has a white or ivory color, lighter than other cacao beans.