Luisa Abram - Dark Chocolate with Cupuacu (bar) - June 3, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Luisa Abram 
Chocolate Intenso Com Cupuacu (barra)
(Dark Chocolate with Cucuacu (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.4 oz. (40 g.) / 2.8 oz. (80 g.) in total bar
Calories: 220 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $12.00 (+ shipping) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order 

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

Today's Chocolate Intenso Com Cupuacu (bar) was from Luisa Abram (Sao Paulo, Brazil). The company specializes in bean to bar chocolate made with wild cacao from the Amazon. 

The aroma notes emanating from this bar included: candied cupuacu* (similar to a blend of guava, passion fruit, papaya) and bold dark chocolate.

This relatively robust but smooth dark chocolate was smooth, with the tiny squares of candied cupuacu adding chewy, dried fruit texture and pops of interesting fruit flavor that at times harmonized with the chocolate and at times provided a dynamic contrast, that I came to like more over the re-tasting experience.

Flavor notes: The fairly intense, earthy dark chocolate had medium acidity with a touch of fruit. The cupuacu pieces contributed pops of complex sweet and sour candied fruit flavor -- that also had fleeting boozy, fermented, woodsy evergreen/pine and apricot and pineapple notes.

Ingredients: Cacao mass, cupuacu candy, organic cane sugar and cocoa butter.

Allergen-related information: Does not include gluten ingredients. Made in a facility that processes/May contain traces of milk, Brazil nuts and tree nuts.

*Cupuacu is a fruit (Theobroma grandiflorum) that shares some traits with cacao (Theobroma cacao). Both originated in South America and grow in Brazil and have pods that contain large seeds that are surrounded by pulpy light colored fruit. 

Cupuacu fruit is used in a variety of desserts.  The candied fruit is made from a white pulpy fruit inside of a pod...and is a member of the cacao family??

Gallette Chocolates - 85% Cacao Brasil - Mata Atlantica (Rainforest) (bar) - June 2, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Gallette Chocolates
85% Cacao Brasil - Mata Atlantica (Rainforest) (bar)
Good ++ = Good +++
Weight: 1.51 oz. (43 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 240 calories in 1 serving (9 squares) of bar
Cost: $ missing information
Purchased from: missing information 

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Brazil (Brasil) Theme Week. 

Today's 85% Cacao Dark Chocolate Mata Atlantica Rainforest Brasil (bar) was from Gallette Chocolates LTDA - EPP (Sao Paulo, Brazil).

Aroma notes included: dark, roasted cacao, faint leather, salt and earth; roasted nut butter.

The bar had a thick, creamy fudge texture and melt.

The chocolate flavor: rich, dark, roasted cacao with medium acidity, a fleeting hint of green, and not too sweet. (Thank you, I'm always looking for less sweet, ultra-dark bars to love.)

Ingredients: Cocoa, sugar and cocoa butter.

Allergen-related information: May contain traces of milk, soy, almond, Brazil nuts, cashew, macadamia nuts, coconut, walnuts, wheat and peanuts.
 

Gallette Chocolates - 65% Cacao Dark Chocolate Catongo Cacao Bahia Brazil - June 1, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Gallette Chocolates
65% Cacao Dark Chocolate Catongo Cacao Bahia Brazil (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.51 oz. (43 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 220 calories in 1 serving (9 squares) of bar
Cost: $8.35 for 1 bar (+ shipping)
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order 

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

Today's 65% Cacao Dark Chocolate Catongo Cacao Bahia Brazil (bar) was from Gallette Chocolates LTDA - EPP (Sao Paulo, Brazil).

This chocolate had a subtle, sequentially complex chocolate aroma with faint earth, quickly moving to refreshing oolong tea, cocoa, tart-sweet, green herb (lemon balm, sour grass), and finally light wood notes.

The melt and texture were smooth and uniform.

Flavor notes for this relatively sweet 65% bar included chocolate cake, brownie, faint fruity oolong tea, and fleeting, very light earth.

The Catongo cacao (a light-colored mutation of Forastero cacao) used to create this bar was from the State of Bahia--the largest cocoa-producing state in Brazil.

Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar and cocoa butter. 

Allergen-related information: May contain traces of milk, soy, almond, Brazil nuts, cashew, macadamia nuts, coconut, walnuts, wheat and peanuts.
 

Mission Chocolate - Pao de Mel - Gingerbread Milk Chocolate (bar) - May 31, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Mission Chocolate
Pao de Mel - Gingerbread Milk Chocolate (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 2.12 oz. (60 g.) in total bar
Calories: 330 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA 

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

Today's Pao de Mel - Gingerbread Milk Chocolate (bar) was made by Arcelia Gallardo of Mission Chocolate (Sao Paolo, Brazil). 

Aroma notes included warm milk chocolate, fleeting red clay, freshly baked bread/cake, and spices (five spice blend with star anise).

This milk chocolate bar had a creamy melt and texture.

The flavor was a blend of smooth, rich, sweet milk chocolate suffused with warm spices (five spice blend; cinnamon, ginger, star anise and possibly allspice).

Ingredients: Organic sugar, cocoa butter, milk powder, cacao, spices, honey.

Allergen-related information: Does not contain gluten. Contains lactose/cow's milk. May contain traces of nuts, peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, cashew nuts, oats.

Luisa Abram - Tocatins River Wild Cocoa Brazilian Amazon 81% (bar) - May 30, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Luisa Abram

Chocolate de Cacau Selvagem da Amazonia Brasileira - Rio Tocantins (barra)

(Chocolate made with wild cocoa from the Brazilian Amazon, Tocantins River (bar)

Good ++

Weight: 1.4 oz. (40 g.) / 2.8 oz. (80 g.) in total bar

Calories: 250 calories in 1/2 package (1 of 2 small individually wrapped bars)

Cost: $10.00 for 1 of 2 bars in package

Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

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

Today's Brazilian Amazon Tocantins River 81% dark bar was made by Luisa Abram (Sao Paolo, Brazil). The company specializes in bean-to-bar chocolate with wild cacao from the Amazon.

Aroma: dark chocolate with green, citrus (lemon) herbal notes (lemon balm, sour grass*)

fleeting, faint fruit notes (dried green banana, dried persimmon) 

The aroma notes above implied some astringency; however, the texture and flavor were only mildly so, and in a pleasing and interesting way.

The cacao seemed to have a natural sweetness (or absence of bold bitterness); and the opportunity to go with the higher-percentage 81% cacao version of this chocolate was much appreciated. The maker's choices honored and harnessed the natural sweetness without extra sugar. (Thank you!)

This package contained, two individually-wrapped smaller bars, making it very easy to share with others, or to keep a fresh (unopened) portion for later. I liked that.

Ingredients: cacao mass, organic cane sugar, cocoa butter 

Allergen-related information: Made in a facility that handles milk and brazil nuts.

*Sour grass is a wild, edible plant with a lemony and/or Vitamin C tartness to it. Also known as lemon "sorrel" or lemon clover and yellow upright oxalis, part of the tart flavor comes from oxalic acid. 

For those with kidney/kidney stone issues, you may have been told to limit consumption of plant foods that contain high levels of oxalic acid, such as rhubarb, spinach, beet greens and other greens, certain nuts (almonds)--and, sadly dear friends, cocoa powder and dark chocolate.

So it's possible I was tasting cacao that was naturally higher in oxalic acid today (thus the sour grass aroma). But, this is speculation on my part. The amount of oxalate content varies widely in cocoa.

Methods of farming, fermention, drying, processing and other factors can all influence oxalate content in cocoa, as this study published in ResearchGate in 2016, shows.

Francois Pralus - Bresil Forastero 75% (bar) - May 29, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Francois Pralus
Bresil (Brazil) Forastero 75% (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.76 oz. (50 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 292.5 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $8.60 (estimate) (+ shipping) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com (online order)

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

Today's Bresil (Brazil) Forastero* 75% (bar) was made by Francois Pralus (Roanne, France).

The aroma notes for this dark chocolate included: cocoa, fruit (dried apple, dried persimmon), butter, faint, warm spice (cinnamon, 5-spice blend with a hint of tangerine peel), and faint herb/green (sweet lemon balm, light green grass).

The Brazil 75% chocolate had a creamy melt and texture (a luscious quality almost all Pralus chocolates seem to share). This trait may be due to longer conching/grinding times** (resulting in smaller particle size and full incorporation of cocoa solids and fats), and added cocoa butter.

The chocolate flavor was quite pleasant and subtle complexity, and relatively civilized for being made using just a Forastero cacao variety. (A longer conching time can also tame certain notes.**) 

The flavor notes included: chocolate (mocha brownie), with faint fruit (bright red apple and sweet, sun ripened blackberries) and a pleasant finish. 

The cacao was from a plantation located in Itacare along the Rio de Contas (De Contas River), in northeastern Brazil (Bahia). The river water flows from "Chapada Diamantina" (a national park, with a name that means "Diamond Plateau"). 

This water contains alluvial diamonds and "bathes the Forastero cacao trees and creates precious cacao pods." Cacao Badaro has over a century of history. Diego Badaro is a fifth generation cacao farmer who helped introduce organic/biodynamic, environment-friendly agricultural practices to the region.

Maker's tasting notes read as follows: "Single plantation chocolate. Powerful nose, well-balanced, coffee, cocoa and woody (boises) aromas."

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

Allergen-related information: May contain traces of nuts or milk.

*Forastero (cacao variety) is associated with bold, hearty flavor(s), and is more disease-resistant, than say, the more delicate Criollo cacao variety. The robust Forastero leads in terms of cacao production worldwide.

** I have not visited Pralus chocolate makers. My comments here (about conching/grinding times) are speculations about processes, based on knowledge I've accumulated from past tours, tastings, interviews with makers and other research.

Domori - Brasile - Organic Dark Chocolate 70% (bar) - May 28, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Domori

Brasile - Cioccolato Bio 70% (barra)

(Brazil - Organic Dark Chocolate 70% (bar))

Good ++ - Good +++

Weight: 1.76 oz. (50 g.) in 1 bar

Calories: 270.5 calories in 1 bar

Cost: $6.90 (+ shipping) for 1 bar

Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

Bem  vinda (welcome) to Day #10 of VWXYZ Theme Week, featuring chocolates with origins and flavor inclusions that start with the letter(s) V, W, X, Y and Z; and Day #1 of Chocolate and Brazil Theme Week. 

Today's grown-up fruity and faintly nutty Brazil Organic Dark Chocolate 70% (bar) was made by Domori srl (None, Italy).

This well-tempered and well-executed dark chocolate had an aroma and flavor with rich concentrated, fermented fruit (prunes, figs, raisins, faint dried banana) with very faint traces of fermented fruit/sugar spirits (rum, port); cocktail herbs (sweet bayleaf, vanilla, juniper); cream; and true dark chocolate/cocoa flavored with a hint of naturally earthy Brazil nuts and almonds. 

The texture was relatively creamy and smooth; and the flavors, while relatively bold, but were nicely balanced, and harmonized to create a sophisticated complexity.

Thank you to Gianluca Franzoni and team at Domori for providing a delicious means of virtual travel. I could almost imagine myself in a temperate rainforest in Brazil.

X is for Xingu

The letter"X" is linked to a significant cacao origin story in Brazil. Domori was involved in the creation of this chocolate from "tree-to-bar," selecting cacao from 17 family-run farms along the Xingu River, (a SE tributary of the Amazon River)--that stretches over 1,000 miles in northern Brazil--traversing the States of Mato Grosso and Para. 

The word Xingu refers to the river as well as to approximately fifteen tribes of native/indigenous (Amerind) people living near the river. The native peoples of the Amazon basin have enjoyed wild fish, manioc and maize, palm fruits, cashews and cacao and many other foods for centuries, long before Columbus/Europeans made their way to the Americas in search of gold and other treasures.

Ingredients: Cacao min. 70 percent. Organic cocoa mass, organic cane sugar.

Allergen-related information: Gluten free. May contain traces of nuts, milk and soy.