Amedei - Chuao Cioccolato Fondente Extra 70% (bar) - May 10, 2020

Chocolate of the Day:

Amedei srl
Chuao Cioccolato Fondente Extra 70% (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.75 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 280 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $14.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

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

Today's Chuao Cioccolato Fondente Extra 70% (bar) was from Amedei srl (Pontedera (Pisa), Italy) and imported into the U.S. by DeMedici Imports (Elizabeth, NJ).

This bar had sweet chocolate (pudding), light chewing gum (similar to chicle*)/light green nut or seed, cereal/malt and naturally tart, sweet fruit notes with a well-balanced fruit acidity.

*It's possible that this "chicle-like" flavor note could have come from the packaging for this bar or from an external source picked up during the shipping or storage process. While not objectionable, it was somewhat unique.

Chicle is a latex, rubber-like sap from a Manilkara chicle tree used in the making of natural chewing gum.** Trees in the Manilkara genus also include the sapodilla tree (Manilkara zapote). Both trees are native to Mexico and Central America. Manilkara tropical evergreen trees have been cultivated in forests for centuries, and are used for their dark red wood, brownish plum-like fruit and for their sap. (Sadly some species are now endangered due to over-use and land clearing.)

**While the natural chicle that the Maya people would have harvested from trees and chewed thousands of years ago is still used in gum manufacturing, it has largely been replaced in today's chewing gum(s) by butadiene styrene rubber, a synthetic vinyl (e.g., poly vinyl acetate) or polyethylene gum base. Polymer chemistry at work.

Wm. Chocolate - Venezuela Porcelana 70% Dark bar - May 8, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Wm. Chocolate
Venezuela Porcelana 70% Dark bar
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 2 oz. (57 g.) in total bar
Calories: 309 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $7.95 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

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

Today's unique Venezuela Porcelana 70% Dark bar was from Wm. Chocolate (Madison, WI).

This chocolate had an intriguing complexity to it. Do stop and smell the chocolate, slowly. And leave a segment or two for re-tasting later, as different aroma and flavor notes will emerge with this bar.

At first, I thought I picked up an aroma with sweet, almost spicy and very faint green tea notes. Minutes later, there were darker chocolate notes. Next sniff (less than 30 seconds later) yielded a very light sweet tobacco floral smokey note.

This chocolate had a very memorable, sweet chocolate flavor with very light caramel, nut and diffuse menthol notes. The flavor arc then landed on true chocolate, very light fruit (melon); and the bar had a light chocolate lingering finish. (Note: several hours later, after some food, it had dried fruit notes.)

Chocolate maker, William Marx, described this bar as "mellow and elegant and shapeshifting"...with notes of "chocolate milk, coconut and cantaloupe." Marx also included information about the prized Porcelana cacao from northwestern Venezuela that was used to make this bar, as well as pairing suggestions.

Porcelana cacao beans have a light color and gentle, complex flavors. Marx notes that Porcelana "lacks genes for producing a pigment that gives most cacao a dark color and bitter flavor."

He further explains: "...Evolution favors the pigment: its bitterness encourages monkeys and other mammals to spit out the cacao seeds, thereby planting more cacao trees. We're still not entirely sure whether Porcelana cacao trees once had genetics for the dark pigment, then lost them, or simply never had them at all..."

Marx's suggested food/wine pairing to enjoy with this bar read as follows: "one of the few chocolates that can be paired well with white wines; IPAs; white spirits; mild, creamy cheese."

*Ingredients: cocoa beans, certified organic whole cane sugar (origin: Costa Rica), certified organic cocoa butter.

Venchi - Venezuela Latte 47% Merida bar - May 8, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Venchi
Single Origin Venezuela Latte 47% Cocoa Merida bar
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 2.46 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 420 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $8.95 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

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

Today's Single Origin Venezuela Latte 47% Cocoa (Merida) bar was from Venchi S.P.A. (Castelletto Italy).

This gluten free milk chocolate bar was made with chocolate liquor from Venezuela.* This smooth, flavorful milk chocolate had an aroma and taste with muted savory and light loamy mushroom-walnut notes with faint hint of vanilla and dried fruit.

Venchi ranked this chocolate as full-bodied, relatively intense (three out of five score) and aromatic (three out of four score) and as possessing flavor notes of milk cream, dried fruit/red fruits and nuts. While the first ingredient listed was sugar, the higher cacao percent and a relatively robust cacao saved this bar from being an overly sweet, flavorless milk chocolate confection.

The cacao came from Merida, located roughly (59 km) southeast of Lake Maracaibo in western Venezuela.

*Ingredients: sugar, chocolate liquor from Venezuela - 24% (total cocoa solids = 47%), cocoa butter, whole milk powder (milk solids = 19.5%), emulsifier: soy lecithin, ground vanilla pods. 

Hachez - Cocoa de Maracaibo (Venezuela) 55% Milk Chocolate (bar) - May 7, 2020

Chocolate of the Day:

Hachez
Cocoa de Maracaibo 55% Milk Chocolate (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.76 oz. (50 g.) / 3.52 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 311 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $3.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

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

Today's Cocoa de Maracaibo 55% Superior Whole Milk Chocolate from Hachez* (Bremen, Germany) had an aroma with spice (cinnamon), milk chocolate, faint floral (vanilla) and muted fruit notes.

The bar had a thick, creamy melt (cocoa butter was the number one ingredient**)--tricking the palette into thinking about nut butter and triggering the thought that perhaps there was a nutty flavor note there. (Not really.)

This chocolate had a pleasant, uniform, high-percentage (55.5% cocoa solids) dark milk chocolate flavor. It was not too sweet (thank you). If one concentrated, one could pick up a faint fruit note; however it was largely numbed by the cocoa butter, milk and possibly emulsifier(s).

The finish was subtle but lingered a bit with soft notes of milk chocolate, fleeting faint earth and light vanilla.

*Hachez, named after Joseph Emile Hachez who founded the company in 1890, is the second largest German manufacturer of chocolate products (after Lindt).

**Ingredients: "cocoa butter, cocoa beans, sugar, whole milk powder (20%), cocoa powder, emulsifier, rapeseed lecithins, bourbon vanilla extract, bourbon vanilla pods."

Chapon Chocolatier - Venezuela 70% Porcelana mini bar - May 6, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chapon Chocolatier
Venezuela 70% Porcelana mini bar
Good ++
Weight: .176 oz. (5 g.) / 6.35 oz. (180 g.) in total box of 36 mini bars
Calories: 27 calories (estimate) in 1 mini bar
Cost: $45.00 for 1 box of 36 mini bars
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Last week was Chocolate and Colombia Theme Week, and this week the focus shifted to neighboring country, Venezuela. Both South American countries have a cacao history that stretches back thousands of years.

In the 13+ years since Chocolate Banquet began, the fortunes of these two South American countries have evolved. Colombia is more fully recovered (from years of internal strife), and Venezuela has been suffering economically in recent years.

Fortunately, several international chocolate companies still offer single origin Venezuela bars (made with Venezuela-grown cacao), including today's Venezuela 70% Porcelana mini bar from Chapon Chocolatier (Paris/Chelles, France).

Today's mini bar was part of a larger Chapon single origin collection (that included two other Venezuela bars (featured yesterday) and one from Colombia (featured last week). Today's small 70% Porcelana bar was sweet and had a tart fruitiness and a faint earth note.

Porcelana is a rare and precious cacao. Cacao seeds/beans are lighter in color and flavor, and trees are grown/found in an area near/south of Lake Maracaibo (Sur del Lago) in Western Venezuela. The largest lake in South America, this estuary is more akin to a salty bay given its connection to the Caribbean Sea. Its famous lightning storms and oil drilling exploits create an exotic, dark mystique around this region. Always glad to see rare plants and trees surviving what seem to be tough conditions.

Chapon Chocolatier - Venezuela 100% and Chuao 70% mini bars - May 5, 2020

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Chapon Chocolatier
1.) Venezuela 100% Cacao small bar - Good +
2.) Venezuela 70% Chuao small bar - Good +++
Weight: .176 oz. (5 g.) x 2 / 6.35 oz. (180 g.) in total box of 36 mini bars
Calories:  calories in 2 mini bars
Cost: $45.00 for 1 box of 36 mini bars
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Bienvenidos (Welcome) to Day #1 of Chocolate and Venezuela Theme Week.

Today's Venezuela mini bars were part of a larger single origin collection of 12 different bars artfully assembled by Chapon Chocolatier (Paris, France). Of the twelve bars, three were from Venezuela, including the two being featured today.

Venezuela 100% Cacao
This small bar was redolent with bittersweet aroma, rich roasted coffee and cacao bean, and faint green and spice notes. It had a smooth melt and a rich dark flavor, with balanced bitter earth and a faint fig cookie note. The finish was mellow and pleasant.

The (Chapon) maker's tasting notes read as follows: "Earthy, spicy."

Venezuela 70% Chuao
Chuao rhymes with wah-ow, or wow, as it should. Chuao is a famous cacao-growing area in the state of Aragua, Venezuela (in a mountainous coastal area about 42 miles (and a 2.5 hour bus ride north of Caracas). Chuao farms/plantations produce some amazing chocolate.

The Chuao 70% chocolate had faint sweet green tea and spice, chocolate cake, red berry, cherry, fig and more delicate tropical fruit notes. And that was just the aroma!

It had subtle, complex fruit (red berry, cherry, fig and delicate tropical fruit and light tangerine) flavor notes.

The (Chapon) maker's tasting notes were classified as follows: Fruity, Stimulating, Nutty, Earthy.

Packaging notes
Chocolate Banquet readers may have observed my love affair with Chapon Chocolatier packaging and graphics. The French term "carracks" on this Chapon "coffret" (box) eluded me at first. The word may come from a term for a merchant cargo ship centuries ago that were subsequently outfitted for adventures and possibly treasure gathering in/from new worlds. OK, I'm on board now. Today's decorated chocolate box was filled with gem-like chocolate cartridges, perfectly labeled, stowed and secured, from various parts of the globe.

It made me wonder what a hand-painted wooden ship-like version of this collection would look like. Fantasy complete.

Michel Cluizel - Plantation El Jardin 69% Colombie bar - May 4, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Michel Cluizel
Plantation El Jardin Chocolat Noir 69% Colombie (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 2.46 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 400.6 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $7.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

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

Today's El Jardin Plantation 69% Dark Chocolate Colombie (Colombia) bar was from Michel Cluizel (Damville, Normany, France).

This bar was made from cacao grown in El Jardin Plantation in central Colombia and had a fairly creamy melt and texture with a balanced rich complexity of flavors that evolved from bite to bite.

The dark chocolate had a balanced, rich sweetness with faint roasted malt and fermented milk, fruit (cherry, red berry), light vanilla notes and occasional nutty, earth, black raspberry, tart peppery red berry, and umami (salt/leather) notes. And, as a last surprise, the finish in one bite had almost a mint cookie or very light menthol note to it. This chocolate was certainly not boring.

I'd advise eating (and re-tasting) this chocolate in small bites, very slowly, or you'll miss all these flavor notes. And to think this was only a four-ingredient bar.*

Almost all segments on a chocolate tasting wheel were represented. There were no "off," bitter or astringent flavors...just a lot going on in one bar.

Maker's notes: notes of red berries, honey, caramel

*Ingredients: cocoa, sugar, cocoa butter, Bourbon vanilla pod