TCHO - Origins Dark Chocolate 62% West Africa bar - May 18, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

TCHO
TCHO Origins Dark Chocolate 62% Cacao bar
Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 145 calories in 1/3 bar
Cost: $1.49 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #15 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Week.

Today's Dark Chocolate 62% Cacao West Africa bar was from TCHO (Berkeley, CA). It had a classic, sweet dark chocolate* aroma with light spice notes.

The bar tasted quite sweet and smooth (and relatively low in fruit notes and/or acidity), but offered a uniform, predictable chocolate tasting experience.

Most of the world's high-volume, commercially produced chocolate in the U.S. and Europe is made from cacao from West Africa. Most people's chocolate tasting experience and expectations have been formed around this chocolate.

For many years, most large-scale operations have chosen to maintain a predictable flavor profile in their chocolates from year to year, across different regions and sources. Beans are carefully blended and roast profiles and other operations help to control variations in batches and different harvests.

So a West Africa bar like today's bar from a relatively large maker* may not have the nuances of flavor that a small batch bar would have, that would vary from season to season. Nonetheless, it's interesting to learn more about West African chocolate, as transparency about origins increases, and more chocolates become available for side-by-side tasting.

*TCHO was a relatively early entrant into the new American chocolate maker movement (2005) and was instrumental in helping to educate the public about the different flavors that were possible to develop in chocolate. TCHO bars have focused on cacao (single and blended origins) that highlighted nutty, fruity, chocolatey and other "flavors" of cacao—sometimes mentioning the country of origin, and sometimes not.

Blanxart - Organic Dark Chocolate 42% Congo bar - May 17, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Blanxart
Organic Dark Chocolate 42% Grand cru single origin Congo (bar)
(Chocolat Noir Bio 42% Grand cru)
Good+
Weight: 1.1 oz. (31.25 g.) / 4.4 oz. (125 g.) in total bar
Calories: 182 calories (estimate) in 1/4 bar
Cost: $8.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Village Market, SF Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #14 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Weeks.

We're sampling cacao (in chocolate bar form) from the Republic of Congo today—and larger Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, aka Eastern Congo) yesterday—as we move through Africa from east to west.

Cacao grows up to 20 degrees north or south of the Equator). Africa contains several countries that are located within this large possible growing area (including Madagascar, Tanzania, Uganda, the Republic of Congo, Eastern Congo (DRC), Ghana, and Ivory Coast).

Both yesterday's Original Beans 55% cacao bar and today's Blanxart 42% cacao bar were organic, milk chocolate bars made with fair trade/fairly traded cacao from the Congo region. Both Congos border the Congo River Basin area.

The origin for the cacao in today's bar was from the Mountains of the Moon. Blanxart explains: "Between the East African savannahs and the vast rainforests of the Congo Basin lie the ice-covered Lunae Montes" (Mountains of the Moon)." Here approximately 100 farmers grow the organic Mountains of the Moon cacao used to make today's bar.

Today's 42% milk chocolate bar, made in Spain with certified organic cacao, was quite a bit sweeter* than yesterday's 55% "dark" milk chocolate bar. It had hints of fruit and sweet caramel and vanilla.

*The Blanxart Organic 42% Congo bar wrapper listed the following ingredients: sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, cocoa, vanilla

Original Beans - Femmes de Virunga 55% bar - May 16, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Original Beans
Femmes de Virunga 55% bar
Good ++
Weight: .82 oz. (23.3 g.) / 2.46 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 123 calories (guesstimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $missing information
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #13 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Weeks. We've been taking a virtual trip, from east to west, across this large continent. Yesterday we were in Uganda, and today, we are in the Congo.

Today we move to Eastern Congo (D.R.), with this Femmes del Virunga 55% organic milk chocolate bar from Original Beans (Amsterdam).*

This organic milk chocolate bar was—in contrast to yesterday's ultra-dark 80% Uganda bar—fruity, light, sweet, and almost "fluffy." It was a very tasty, creamy milk chocolate bar.

The mission of the makers at Original Beans was not only to produce a fine, organic milk chocolate bar, but also to support women cacao farmers and to preserve "Africa's oldest nature park, Eastern Congo (D.R.)."

*Original Beans is based in Amsterdam, and this bar was made in Switzerland.

Cachet - Uganda 80% bar - May 15, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Cachet
Uganda 80% Dark Chocolate bar
Good ++
Weight: .875 oz. (25 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories (per label) in 1/4 bar
Cost: $4.29 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Draeger's Market, Los Altos, CA

Welcome to Day #12 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Weeks. Today we make a virtual visit to Uganda, via chocolate.

This Uganda 80% Dark Chocolate bar from Cachet (Tienen, Belgium) had a dark aroma with hints of roasted nuts, earth, deep dark chocolate, and flourless chocolate cake with no added sugar.

The chocolate had a fairly even, creamy melt, and tasted much the same as it smelled. It had a deep dark even chocolate flavor with balanced earth notes.

The texture was relatively creamy dark chocolate with a very slight, fleeting second of graininess. The chocolate had a slight bitter ale finish, and a slight astringency that showed up at the end but then tailed off rapidly.

What was "missing" was red berry fruit and acidity—and the sugar. It was quite smooth and very satisfying, a bar you could eat and enjoy one small bite at a time, with very little sugar to egg you on.

"Forestero beans from Uganda are known for their classic cocoa flavor and low acidity." Agreed. No wonder this bar was hard to find. It was a reasonably priced ultra-dark bar with good flavor.

LetterPress Chocolate - Kokoa Kamili 70% Tanzania Dark bar - May 14, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

LetterPress Chocolate LLC
Kokoa Kamili 70% Tanzania Dark Chocolate bar
Good ++
Weight: .766 oz. (21.6 g.) / 2.3 oz. (65 g.) in total bar
Calories: 114 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #11 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Weeks.

We're extending our "stay" in Tanzania by one more day, to cover today's 70% Tanzania Dark Chocolate bar from LetterPress Chocolate (Los Angeles, CA).

The cacao for this two-ingredient bar (cacao beans, unrefined cane sugar) came from Kokoa Kamili* in southern Tanzania. Unlike other bars made with cacao from this same organization, that were featured this past week, this 70% dark bar had less (red) fruit and a darker coffee, almost earthy, balanced flavor.

The maker's tasting notes read: "green banana, peppery mocha." It's always interesting to see what roasting and flavor profiles makers create with their batch of cacao from a given origin.

*Located near the Udzungwa Mountain National Park, in the Kilombero Valley area of the Morogoro region of southern Tanzania, Kokoa Kamili works with many cacao farmers to supply chocolate makers with the highest quality cacao possible. Like most cacao farming areas across the globe, the journey to get there is along unpaved roads. 

Cachet - 72% Dark Organic Chocolate Tanzania bar - May 13, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Cachet
72 percent Dark Organic Chocolate (Chocolat Bio)
Good ++
Weight: .875 oz. (25 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 146 calories (per label) in 1/4 bar
Cost: $3.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Stars USA, online order

Welcome to Day #10 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Week.

Today's featured 72 percent Dark Chocolate Organic bar from Cachet (Belgium) was made with cacao grown in Tanzania.

"Made from fairly traded cocoa beans from Kyela, Tanzania," this bar had very satisfying, smooth cherry and fruit as well as true dark chocolate aroma and flavor.

Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolates - 75% Tanzania bar - May 12, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolates
75% Kokoa Kamili (Tanzania) bar
Good +++ - Very Good
Weight: .5 oz. (14.1 g.) in total small bar
Calories: 75 calories (estimate) in 1 small bar
Cost: $2.75 for 1 small bar
Purchased from: Sweet Shop, Los Altos, CA

Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Weeks. This week we're focusing on bars made from Tanzania cacao, before we continue our journey from east to west across the continent.

Today's 75% Kokoa Kamili (Tanzania) bar was made by Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolates (Santa Barbara, CA).

This Tanzania bar had a similar aroma to other artisan bars featured this past week that were created with cacao from Kakao Kamili (located in southern Tanzania): dried fruit, berries, steamed Boston brown bread,* true chocolate (dark cocoa). The flavor followed this same lovely general profile, with no off notes.

Mike Orlando, company founder and chief chocolate maker at Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolates, began his career as a marine biologist. A scientist who liked nature and building things, he started experimenting with roasting coffee (and tinkering with machines to do so) many years ago. He ultimately become an early chocolate bean-to-bar maker in the new American chocolate maker movement (that also has been expanding worldwide).

Knowing how to create, tweak and fix your own machines in the multi-step chocolate-making process may as well be a job requirement. Precision is important for quality when making chocolate. One learns a lot when making chocolate from cacao beans that hail from different countries/sources and the adjustments needed for each one.

Makers take well deserved pride in their home-built and improvised mechanisms incorporated into their process. From what I've seen in the past 11 years, these makers are living examples of creative ingenuity at its best.

And speaking of creative, let's not forget the packaging. Today's small, narrow, rectangular bar contained the "imprint", although hard to see in the image at right) of a single feather—perhaps from one of the legendary blackbirds** of old times.

*Boston brown bread is a steamed, almost cake-like dark bread with molasses, raisins and cornmeal. 

**Four and twenty blackbirds may or may not refer to a piece ("Sing a Song of Sixpence" by Mother Goose) written long ago. While hard to describe, essentially four and twenty blackbirds were baked into a pie but started to sing when the pie was cut open. ("Mother Goose" childrens' rhymes often had an incredible and/or dark side.) "When the pie was open, the birds began to sing, wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king..."