Svenska Kakaobolaget - The Swedish Cacao Company - Dom. Rep. 70% (bar) - Oct. 22, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Svenska Kakaobolaget
(The Swedish Cacao Company)
Dom. Rep. Oko Caribe, 2017 Harvest 70% (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.76 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 274 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate, Dominican Republic and Haiti Theme Weeks.

Today's Dom. Rep. Oko Caribe, 2017 Harvest 70% (bar), produced in Sweden in a late 1800s brick school house in a small town (Osterlen), by Svenska Kakaobolaget (The Swedish Cacao Company). 

Today's bar had fermented cacao (very faint acetic/lactic acid), bright green and dark chocolate frosting aroma and flavor notes, and a slight astringency in the finish. 

Ingredients: Cacao, cane sugar

Tabal Chocolate - Dominican 100% (bar) - Oct. 22, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Tabal Chocolate
Dominican 100% (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate, Dominican Republic and Haiti Theme Weeks.

Today's Dominican 100% (bar) was made by Tabal Chocolate (Wauwatosa, WI). Tabal was founded by Dan Bieser in 2012, with a focus on crafting organically grown cacao into responsibly sourced, vegan chocolate without soy or gluten. 

The aroma for this 100% bar had deep, dark chocolate forest notes with a fleeting hint of green (green fruit, green banana). 

The melt was rich and relatively smooth, almost creamy. (Tabal chocolate is stone-ground for three days in small batches.)

It was refreshing to enjoy the essence of chocolate flavor (just one ingredient*), without any sugar today. 

The finish had a relatively mild bitterness and astringency and slight waxy bean flavor note.

*Ingredients: Organic cacao

Armstrong Chocolate Company - Dominican Republic 70% (bar) - Oct. 21, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Armstrong Chocolate Company
Dominican Republic 70% (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.05 oz. (28 g.) / 2.1 oz. (56 g.) in total bar
Calories: 155 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA 

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate, Dominican Republic and Haiti Theme Week.

Today's Dominican Republic 70% (bar) was from Armstrong Chocolate Company (Chico, CA). 

Armstrong founder and chief chocolate maker, Matthew Armstrong, made this bar with cacao beans from Oko Caribe* (a fermentery founded by two cacao professionals, Gualberto Torrejon and Adriano Rodriguez in 2006, in the Dominican Republic). 

The bar had a dark chocolate with light spice and concentrated fruit aroma, smooth melt and texture, true chocolate flavor with bright fruit (cherry, raspberry), one very fleeting light earth note, and a subtle, balanced bittersweet finish.

Ingredients: organic cacao, organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter

Crow & Moss - Dominican Republic Zorzal 70% Chocolate (bar) - Oct. 20, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Crow and Moss 
Dominican Republic Zorzal 70% Chocolate (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.235 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories (per label) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $8.75 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate, Dominican Republic and Haiti Theme Week.

Today's Dominican Republic Zorzal 70% Chocolate (bar) was made from bean to bar by Crow and Moss (Petoskey, MI).

The rich chocolate aroma had an inviting complex aroma with notes of fruit (ripe red fruit, cherries, raisin, dried plum), toffee brittle, a hint of maple spice and fleeting, very faint fresh green (grass). 

The well-tempered chocolate broke with a hearty snap and flavors were similar to those mentioned above in the aroma, only with more chocolate (cocoa, brownie), and a very faint, balanced, fermented milk/cream note.

The maker's tasting notes read as follows: "cherry, caramel, spice"

Ingredients: Dominican Reserve Zorzal cacao beans, organic cane sugar

Nuance Chocolate - Dominican Republic 70% Pure Dark (bar) - Oct. 19, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Nuance Chocolate
Dominican Republic 70% Pure Dark (bar)
Good ++
Weight: .97 oz. (27.5 g.) / 1.94 oz. (55 g.) in total bar
Calories: 146 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $8.50 for 1 bar (plus shipping)
Purchased from: Nuance Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #1 of Chocolate and Dominican Republic Theme Week.

Today's Dominican Republic 70% Pure Dark (bar) was made by Nuance Chocolate (Fort Collins, CO).

This 70% cacao chocolate had a slightly earthy and true dark chocolate (chocolate cake) aroma and flavor with a subtle lingering dark chocolate finish.

The GMO-free cacao beans (harvested in 2015) used to make this bar were obtained from Rizek Cacao, a grower, processor, exporter (and more recently chocolate maker) operating in the Dominican Republic since 1905.

Ingredients: cacao, cane sugar, cocoa butter

 

Christopher Elbow Chocolates - Nicaragua 70% Dark (bar) - Oct. 18, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Christopher Elbow Chocolates
Nicaragua 70% Dark (bar)
Good +
Weight: 1.15 oz. (32.5 g.) / 2.3 oz. (65 g.) in total bar
Calories: 160 calories in 1/2 bar 
Cost: $9.95 (+ shipping) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Christopher Elbow Chocolates website, online order

Welcome to Day #10 of Chocolate Nicaragua Theme Week.

Today's Nicaragua 70% Dark (bar) was from Christopher Elbow Chocolates (Kansas City, Missouri). This bar was part of the companies single origin craft chocolate bar line. They also offer bars with "signature" flavor inclusions, and filled chocolate confections (bonbons, truffles).

Made with La Colonia, Nicaragua-grown cacao harvested in 2017, the resulting bar had subtle dark chocolate aroma, and uniformly smooth dark chocolate flavor with a bright, fruity (cherry, nectarine, sweet lemon) sweetness.

Ingredients: Organic cacao, organic cane sugar, cocoa butter

Cru Chocolate - Nicaragua 72% La Dalia Dark Chocolate (bar) - Oct. 17, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Cru Chocolate 
Nicaragua 72% La Dalia Dark Chocolate (bar) 
Good +++
Weight: 1.55 oz. (43 g.) in total bar
Calories: 233 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $7.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Farm Fresh To You (CSA box), add-on item

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

Today's Nicaragua 72% La Dalia Dark Chocolate (bar) was made by Cru Chocolate (Roseville, CA).

This bar had pleasing true chocolate (fudge brownie, dark hot cocoa*) notes, as well as bittersweet red berry fruit (ripe red currant) and fleeting hints of roasted coffee, nut butter and spice (cinnamon, allspice). Flavors lingered lightly in the finish. 

The makers tasting notes read as follows: "Made with cacao from the nation of poets and soulful emotions. This carefully handcrafted Nicaraguan bar expresses the cacao's earthy, bittersweet flavors, spotted with hints of spiced herbs and caramel."

Cacao beans were fermented by Cacao Bisiesto** in Nicaragua, and hand-sorted, roasted cracked, winnowed, stone-ground, conched and aged by Cru Chocolate in the U.S. The chocolate was well-tempered and the texture was almost creamy, smooth--despite the fact that there was no added no cocoa butter (cocoa bean fat that many craft chocolate makers add, especially to cacao beans grown at the Equator that tend to be "leaner," for a creamier mouth feel). Impressive.

Ingredients: cacao beans, organic unrefined cane sugar

*Cru Chocolate also makes drinking chocolate. Something in the aroma of today's Nicaragua bar evoked a hot cacao/drinking chocolate beverage--so much so that I caught myself blowing lightly on the first bite of chocolate before biting into it. While that's not happened in my 14 years of writing about chocolate, chocolates continue to be full of unexpected depth and magic.

** Cacao Bisiesto (Matagalpa, La Dalia) is a small, socially conscious cacao fermentary in the central highlands of Nicaragua. Co-founded by Jose Enrique Herrera (cacao agronomist) and Gifford (Giff) Laube, this outfit has worked with farmers to help improve the quality of fermented cacao. Their good work has benefited artisan/craft chocolate makers and consumers (even though these critical first steps in the chocolate making process taking place in the cacao growing countries, and are largely hidden from consumer view).