Moka Origins - Organic Toffee Almond Dark Chocolate 72% Cacao (bar) - May 15, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Moka Origins
Toffee Almond Dark Chocolate 72% Cacao (bar)
Good +++
Weight: 2.4 oz. (68 g.) in total bar
Calories: 360 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $8.95 (+ shipping) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Moka Origins, online order

Welcome to Day #1 of Chocolate, Caramel and Toffee Theme Week.

Today's Toffee Almond Dark Chocolate 72% Cacao (bar) was made by Moka Origins (Honesdale, PA).

Moka Origins was founded in 2015 with a focus on small batch chocolate and coffee. The founders, Ishan Tigunait and Jeff Abella, gained farm and community development experience in Cameroon. This initial project expanded to ethically sourced coffee and cacao partnerships in Uganda and elsewhere in cacao-producing countries, and chocolate making and coffee offerings in Pennsylvania.

Their organic Toffee Almond bar tasted fresh, and was a satisfying blend of smooth, almost creamy 72% cacao dark chocolate (Uganda cacao) with dark dense flavor and traces of balanced acidity and earth notes; authentic flecks of toffee--made with real unsalted butter and kosher salt; and pieces of roasted organic almonds.*

People don't believe me when I tell them I've been eating a different chocolate every day (usually grouped into theme weeks) for almost 14 years, and I don't really care for sugar. Once a year I generally run a theme week featuring chocolates that contain caramel and/or toffee. And most of them are too sweet for my taste; but I continue to search for favorites in this category.

Today's Moka Origins bar was perfect for those who don't want to feel overwhelmed by sugar. The toffee flecks in the dark chocolate offered sparkles of warm caramelized sugar, without hitting a wall of sweetness. The judicious flecks (combined with the specific chocolate) allowed one to actually taste the flavor nuances in the chocolate underneath, generally impossible with most chocolates with caramel fillings or toffee inclusions.

*Ingredients: Organic cocoa beans, organic cane sugar, organic toffee (organic cane sugar, organic unsalted butter, Kosher salt), organic cocoa butter, organic roasted almonds.

Francois Pralus - Chuao - 10 degrees 29' N. 67 degrees 31' O. (bar) - May 14, 2020

Chocolate of the Day:

Francois Pralus
Chuao (bar)
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 1.476 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 292.5 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $13.00 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Missing information

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

Today's "Chuao" chocolate (bar) was made in France by Patisserie Chocolaterie Pralus s.a.s. (aka Francois Pralus). 

"Chuao" is a spare yet evocative one-word name for a bar. Chuao, located in northern Venezuela, is a remote village known for great cacao (and fishing). The word Chuao was accompanied by a precise set of geographic coordinates--10 degrees 29' N. 67 degrees 31' O. (West), that accentuated the importance of place. With cacao, wine and other exalted food and beverages, origin, place and terroir are reverently discussed. The rich volcanic soils, the climate and rainfall. These and other factors might contribute to great flavor, or may be characteristics that make a product more valuable.

The story printed on the packaging for this Chuao bar read (in part) as follows:

"West of Caracas,Venezuela, there is a mythical village. Accessible only by boat,* the village of Chuao is bordered North by dense tropical forests, in the South by the Caribbean Sea. For generations the cocoa grown in this region has been celebrated for its exceptional qualities. A unique terroir, an ancestral know-how, a traditional drying method makes this Criollo cocoa the most wanted worldwide..."

The Chocolate Behind the Story

OK, that's a great story; and I would like to visit this storied place one day.* But how was the chocolate?

This chocolate had an appealing, rich dark chocolate aroma with balanced molasses, tart mild dried fruit and faint fleeting green and almost smoked (maybe very faint roasted espresso) notes. The texture and melt were relatively smooth. There was a minuscule amount of astringency.

The balanced flavor profile was similar to the aroma notes. There was no harsh bitterness, in fact, there was very little bitterness at all. I enjoyed the sweet-tart, balanced dried fruit flavors (peaches, cherries). And there was enough dark chocolate complexity for an interesting flavor ride. A 70 percent version of this bar might have seemed too sweet. The choice of 75 percent cacao worked well. 

A subtle clean finish lingered politely. This chocolate was consistently (sorry to be repetitive) subtle yet flavorful and well-balanced all the way through. It was consistent in its complexity...a seeming contradiction, and a delicious truth.

Does thickness matter?

The thickness of certain chocolate bars can influence one's tasting experience and rating. A thicker bar can make it more difficult to access certain flavors, especially in a cold room/environment. I tried shaving off some shards and sampling those; and in fact the fruit flavors did seem a bit more readily accessible and identifiable. (A smaller, thinner piece also melts faster.) And with more subtle, complex bars I find my palette leaning in, wanting to more attention to subtleties. Try a thinner piece if you want to really "listen" to fine flavored cacao.

Ingredients: 75% cocoa, sugar, pure cocoa butter, GMO-free soya lecithin

*I would love to visit Chuao. It is accessible via boat but then you have to hike for another 5 km to get there, or take a wild ride in on a jeep/car/truck. There is also apparently a two and a half hour bus ride available from Caracas, Venezuela; but there are travel restrictions in place now (as of this writing in May 2020) due to Covid-19.

Domori - Cacao Criollo 75% Puertomar - May 13, 2020

Chocolate of the Day:

Domori
Cacao Criollo 75% Puertomar (square)
Good +++ - Very Good
Weight: .166 oz. (4.7 g.) in 1 square
Calories: 25 calories (estimate) in 1 square
Cost: $ missing information
Purchased from: (part of a Chocosphere.com, online order)

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

Today's Cacao Criollo 75% Puertomar chocolate was made by Domori* (None, Turin, Italy), using Criollo cacao grown on a Domori plantation in Venezuela. Fortunately for us, Domori founder Gianluca Franzoni visited Venezuela in 1993 and worked with the Francheschi family (a prominent name in chocolate in Venezuela) to develop and preserve heritage Criollo cacao known for its complex, subtle and wonderful flavors.**

This tiny square of chocolate was packed with complex, subtle and exquisitely balanced flavor. The promise of Criollo cacao fulfilled. It had a sweet rich chocolate aroma and notes of coffee, light toffee-molasses, balanced slightly sweet-tart dried fruit. An appealing touch of bitterness and a light lingering blossom of a finish rounded out this tasting experience. I wanted this tasting experience to go on and on.

*Domori was founded in 1997 by Gianluca Franzoni, and was one of the first companies to focus on fine-flavored and Criollo cacao. In 2006, Domori became part of the Illy SpA Group (Trieste, Italy) that also produces high-end coffee, tea and champagne offerings.

** Criollo cacao represents a small percentage of chocolate sold today. This variety has a reputation for complex, but not overwhelming or bitter, heritage aroma and flavors (fruit, caramel, nuts, cream). However, because the fine-flavored Criollo trees also can be more fragile and prone to disease, approximately 90% of of the world's chocolate is made of the more robust, high-yield Forastero cacao variety (grown widely in West Africa, Brazil and elsewhere), that tends to have a darker, denser, bolder, less complex flavor.

Amedei - Cru Dark Chocolate 70% Single Origin Venezuela (bar) - May 12, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Amedei srl
Cioccolato Fondente Extra 70% Mono Origine - Venezuela (bar)
Good +
Weight: 1.75 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 300 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $7.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com (online order)

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and Venezuela Theme Week.

Today's Cioccolato Fondente Extra (Dark Chocolate) 70% Mono Origine (Single Origin) Venezuela bar was from Amedei srl (Pontedera, Pisa, Italy).

This Single Origin Venezuela bar had a very similar taste profile as the Amedei Chuao Venezuela and Porcelana Venezuela bars (featured earlier this week). The bar had a fleeting faint floral fruit aroma note and a fairly prominent sweet chocolate cereal/malt aroma and flavor note. It was low in bitterness and astringency and had a subtle sweetness to it throughout.

"Amedei's "Cru"* chocolates are a journey tracing the tracks of cocoa's oldest varieties, grown on individual plantations and crafted according to the customs of their lands of origin. This captures their wildest essences for a taste experience forging new frontiers. The mark of this spicy, richly aromatic chocolate's land of origin is clear, drawing you in and dazzling the senses with an intense flavour of walnut, almonds and cashews."

*Cru is a French term applied to wine, referring to a vineyard where fruit/grapes with superior flavor are grown, and often linked to terroir. Its use here can be extrapolated to mean cacao plantations that grow or produce high-quality cacao. And where at least soil, topography and climate help to support (and not detract from) the natural strengths of a fruit or seed variety used to make a fermented end product. Of course there are many factors involved in creating a great chocolate or wine. But, it is poetic, and not untrue, to focus on the origin story.

Ingredients: cocoa mass, cane sugar, cocoa butter.

Amedei - Porcelana Cioccolato Fondente Extra 70% (bar) - May 11, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Amedei srl

Porcelana Cioccolato Fondente Extra 70% (bar)

Good + 

Weight: 1.75 oz. (50 g.) in total bar

Calories: 280 calories in 1 bar

Cost: $17.50 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

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

Today's Porcelana Cioccolato Fondente Extra 70% (bar) was from Amedei srl (Pontedera (Pisa), Italy).

This chocolate, made with Porcelana cacao, tasted a lot like (yesterday's) Amedei Chuao 70% bar from the same Italian maker. It also had a sweet, relatively delicate, chocolate flavor and a slight, unusual cereal and cereal box/chewing gum (chicle) note.

Yesterday I speculated that some of this flavor could have been from the packaging itself (or an external storage or shipping factor). I believe both bars were packaged, shipped and stored in a similar way, so it's possible.

I wish I'd saved a piece of yesterday's Chuao bar to do a side-by-side tasting with today's Porcelana sibling to see what the subtle differences might have been between the two.

Today's chocolate had a slight soft, tart fruit astringency, with a fleeting throat tickle. There were very mild sweet spiced canned fruit, light vanilla/floral and true delicate chocolate cookie notes. There was nothing objectionable in either bar. But, neither was there much that was particularly exciting.

Expectations run high for artisan chocolate bars that mention Chuao or Porcelana, that come with a high price tag ($17.50 USD for this bar). Amedei has cultivated relationships with plantations in Venezuela that are growing "genetically pure" criollo cacao, known for subtle and delicate flavors.

No offense to larger chocolate makers is intended. Support for farmers and growers of great cacao stock in Venezuela and elsewhere is very important. But if one is chasing legendary flavor, there are a few small batch Chuao and Porcelana bars out there that will blow the doors off this week's Amedei bars, for a fraction of the price.

For example, I'd recommend Wm. Chocolate's Porcelana bar, reviewed earlier this week, that had an incredibly sophisticated, almost magical tasting curve. (I am a sucker for a great flavor ride.)

For those who remember Rogue Chocolatier, small batch bean-to-bar maker Colin Gasko helped set the bar for me, and likely many others, years ago. I can still remember that Porcelana bar.

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.