Mast Brothers - Black Truffle bar - Feb. 17, 2013

Chocolate of the Day:

Mast Brothers Chocolate
Black Truffle bar
Very Good
Weight: .5 oz. (14.1 g.) / 2.5 oz. (70.75 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 75 calories (estimate) in 1/2 oz. piece
Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Miette Bakery, Hayes Valley location, San Francisco, CA

Today was the first day in a Chocolate and Truffle Theme Week. I may not be able to find seven chocolates with black or white truffles, but I will certainly enjoy trying.

I couldn't think of a better way to kick off this week than with a Black Truffle 74% cacao bar from Mast Brothers Chocolate (Brooklyn, NY).

The story behind Rick and Michael, the two American craft chocolate makers behind, and co-owners of, Mast Brothers Chocolate, embodies themes like the adventure of sailing, and the sober elegance of good design. One might be tempted to look at promotional materials and dismiss them as nostalgic hipsters. However, one would be wrong. Their voyage to make great chocolate has been a successful one, due to their focus on high quality ingredients and great process.

Likewise, you'd be wise not to dismiss the story of the humble black jewel, known as the black truffle, a fungus on the roots of oak trees, a delicacy that lends a unique and delightful savory/umami flavor to foods.

Along with a touch of Maine sea salt, the bright red fruit notes in this dark chocolate (from Madagascar perhaps?) harmonized well with the rich earthy perfume of truffle (Italy) -- that hit me when I unwrapped the pretty paper and gold foil on this bar. Heavenly. But do eat it soon, as the lovely truffle aroma and flavor may attenuate over time. Then you're left with "just" a great, plain chocolate bar.

Kona Origins - 75% Dark bar - Feb. 16, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Kona Origins
75% Cacao Dark Chocolate bar
Good +
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (56.6 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1 oz. serving
Cost: $6.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Kona Origins table at Keauhou Farmers Market, Kona, HI

Most chocolates that people buy are made by confectioners or chocolatiers, who make truffles, bars, confections or desserts using chocolate that was made by a chocolate maker. A small percent of chocolate people buy chocolates directly from a chocolate maker, someone who makes their product from scratch, from the cacao beans.

An even smaller percentage of people buy chocolate from cacao farmers who are also chocolate makers -- those making chocolate from tree to bar.

All this explanation is a round-about way of introducing today's 75% cacao dark chocolate bar made by Kona Origins (Hawaii).

Discovering Kona Origins

During a recent trip, I was fortunate to stay at Green Gecko Coffee Farm in Kona. Friends there took me to the Saturday Keauhou Farmers Market in Kona, where we met Vheissu and Carolyn Keffer, of Kona Origins. In addition to selling bananas and cacao fruit, the Keffers were also selling cacao nibs and dark chocolate bars.

I was impressed with their cacao nibs which tasted smooth, mildly fruity, and uniformly fermented. Later, we tasted their cacao fruit (the white pulp surrounding the cacao seeds), and it had a mild apple banana fruit flavor.

Last, but not least, we sampled the Kona Origins 75% Dark Chocolate bar that we'd also bought at the market. Rich in flavor and texture, the bar tasted more like an 80% bar. It had a dark, earthy flavor. We called and arranged a tour of the Kona Origins farm.

Tree to Bar Chocolate Making

We visited the Keffer's farm in South Kona; and as we walked down to the area where the cacao trees were growing, Vheissu pointed out the original "mother" cacao tree that had been planted on the property almost three decades ago.

When we arrived at a small grove of Forastero cacao trees in the sun, Vheissu cracked open a ripe, yellow-orange cacao fruit pod on a black lava rock that was jutting out of the field. And, from there, we (literally) walked through the process of fermenting, drying and processing cacao beans and nibs -- into chocolate on the property.

Vheissu was making chocolate in true Silicon Valley start-up fashion -- having engineered some of his own equipment in his garage, including a fermentation chamber, that helped him achieve good results. In addition, he talked about stirring (uniformity) and adding some heat to the ferment. All in all, if the cacao nibs were any indication, the result was a good, complete ferment.

Chocolate making can be especially challenging in a semi-tropical climate. Warm temperatures are required for growing and for the initial fermentation; however, cooler, drier climes are often better for the latter stages of processing and bar-making. This dark bar seemed reasonably well tempered and textured given these challenges.

Interview: Santiago Peralta, Pacari Chocolate

Interview with Santiago Peralta, Pacari Chocolate
Interview Date: January 21, 2013

During the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, CA, I had the privilege to interview Pacari Chocolate Founder, Santiago Peralta.

Pacari Chocolate is a tree-to-bar maker of Ecuadorian organic chocolates, that also offers a line of raw chocolate bars, cacao nibs, and other products.

I've featured several of these bars this past week and a half, as part of Chocolate and Ecuador Theme Week. More information on these specific bars can be found in my Chocolate of the Day Posts, from Feb. 6 - 15, 2013.

What's Unique about Pacari Chocolate?

Santiago and others at Pacari work directly with between 2,500 and 3,000 farmers in Ecuador, to produce single region bars from cacao growing areas in western provinces such as Los Rios, Esmeraldas, and Manabi.

Pacari also is involved with the growing of golden berries (trozos de uvilla), native wild Andean blueberries, and other fresh ingredients for their chocolates. Inclusions from other Andean nations, such as salt from a sacred valley in Cuzco, Peru, and Merken (spice) from Chile, can also be found in Pacari dark chocolate bars.

The company works to improve the quality of life for farmers that they work with in Ecuador where possible, with efforts such as Project Flashlamp -- that replaces battery-driven flashlights with solar-powered ones. And the direct relationships Pacari has formed with farmers likely result in better visibility into soil, growing conditions, and what works and doesn't work.

Not only is the company one of the top certified organic chocolate makers, but also the company is one of the few operations that has been certified biodynamic (by Demeter). The company also produces Kosher certified products.

Biodynamic farming goes beyond organic farming in some respects, in that it takes into account relationships between soil, living organisms as well as the crops that are growing, and seeks to balance out these relationships to obtain the best results for the short and long term.

Pacari in the U.S.
I became acquainted with Pacari Chocolate through The Chocolate Garage in Palo Alto. And the following day after this interview, I attended a chocolate maker get-together at the Garage where Santiago and others talked about their chocolates and the processes involved with creating great bars and bringing them to market. (Pictures of Sunita de Tourreil, Chocolate Garage founder, and Santiago, shown bottom right.) Pacari can also be found in various independent markets in the U.S. and maintains an office/rep. in Florida to assist in marketing and distribution.

Francois Pralus - Fortissima 80% bar - Feb. 15, 2013

Chocolate of the Day:

Francois Pralus
Fortissima - 80% cacao bar
Good + - Very Good
Weight: .875 oz. (25 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 131 calories (estimate) in 1/4 bar
Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, in Palo Alto, CA

Fortissima (in Italian and French) means strong. It's also a term applied to music. I found that to be a fitting analogy for this Fortissima 80% cacao bar from Francois Pralus (Roanne, France).

Tasting Experience - Music

A tasting experience for a chocolate can be 20 or 30 seconds long -- and might be compared to a short piece of music. The prelude in this case (following the hard snap (a sign of a well tempered bar) when I broke off a piece of bar to taste) was a very mild smell, compared to the strong, unified "chord" of three flavor(s) that dominated throughout this experience. Somewhere in the middle of this chord there was also a pleasant roasted flavor note, then the strong chord resumed. The finish melted away to nothing.

The Melt

And speaking of melting, most Pralus bars have a deliciously smooth mouth feel or texture, similar to that of some other Swiss, German, French, Belgian and other European makers, in part due to cocoa butter, soy lecithin -- and, perhaps most important, longer conch times where particle sizes are ground down to smaller sizes, resulting in a more silky smooth texture. The trade-off with longer conching time can be loss of flavor (off flavors as well as interesting ones).

Criollo, Forastero, Trinitario

This Fortissima 80% bar was made using the beans from three types of cacao pods: Criollo, Forastero, and Trinitario. This classification is, in fact, an oversimplification (a subject of a future post), but if all three were musical notes on a piano, and you played all three notes at the same time -- you'd get a very strong flavor chord, especially if you used a stronger percent of cocoa solids. Not unlike this 80% cacao bar. So, Fortissima it is.

As a handy reference (to origin) on this Pralus "Les Tropiques du Chocolat" bar, there was a map with a dot roughly where Ecuador is located in South America, with the following coordinates: 2 degrees 18' S 76 degrees 38' 0.

Chocolate Math, Cartoon Physics, and a New Daily Format

Today was Day #10 of Chocolate and Ecuador Theme Week. Frequent visitors to this site will note that Chocolate Math does not always correlate with reality. Just as there are principles of Cartoon Physics where humor can alter perceptions of time and space, so it is with Chocolate Math here on Chocolate Banquet. A week may stretch from seven days to ten or eleven days in length. And, when you are enjoying chocolate, this is not such a terrible thing.

Note: Today, I'm changing Post titles to reflect the name of the Chocolate of the Day, rather than preface every post title with "ChocolateBet:" followed by the date. The daily chocolate "bet" continues; however, after more than six years I think I've already conveyed this point.

Preview: Elena Chocolate, Valentines Day Heart

Preview Profile: Elena Chocolate
February 14, 2013

I returned yesterday from a trip to Hawaii, the only U.S. state where cacao fruit can really be grown. I was in Kona, Hawaii, located on the west coast of the largest and southernmost island that comprises the state. And, at 18 degrees Latitude North, the Big Island is perhaps the best island for growing cacao, the raw material for the chocolate that we all love.

So, yes, I was on the hunt for cacao fruit, and island grown and made chocolates; but I also enjoyed discovering a few exotic fruits that might be good combined with chocolate. Vi(e) fruit truffles anyone?

I was fortunate to be able to visit the award-winning Green Gecko Coffee Farm in the Kona area. The owners of Green Gecko, Mike Katz and Lawton Allenby, had designed a veritable tropical paradise on a few acres, with coffee, a variety of fruit trees, flowers -- and even a few recently planted cacao trees. I also visited a few different Farmers Markets with them. These outdoor markets were a great way to sample local produce, fruits, macadamia nuts, and other items.

At the Saturday morning Keauhou Farmers Market, I met an evangelist for the Lulo fruit; and Vheissu and Carolyn Keffer, of Kona Origins, a company I will write about next.

However, to celebrate today, Valentines Day, I'd like to give a shout-out to Elena Garcia at Elena Chocolate.

Her Raspberry Liliko'i (passion fruit) heart-shaped chocolates were the perfect chocolate for Valentines Day this week. Elena expounded on her love for both different grades of chocolate and fresh flavor additions -- a combination of skills and interests not always found with chocolatiers -- who may just want to stick with buying one brand of base chocolate, that is easiest to work with.

Elena was more aware of pairing certain types of chocolates with various ingredients. Hats off to Elena, an infectiously creative spirit and artist. The Raspberry Lilikoi chocolate was delicious.

Happy Valentines Day to all!

Dick Taylor - 70% Ecuador bar - February 14, 2013

Chocolate of the Day:

Dick Taylor Chocolate
70% Ecuador bar
Good + - Very Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) / 2 oz. (56 g.) total bar
Calories: 148 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

After eating Pacari Chocolate bars from Ecuador this past week, it was fun to get a different, finished, take on cacao beans from the same country -- this time from Dick Taylor Chocolate (Arcata, CA), a Northern California chocolate maker.

This bar was made from organic cacao and organic cane sugar by these small batch craft chocolate makers in Humboldt County (not far from Humboldt Bay where boats are built). And the makers statement describes how they "delicately roast, crack, winnow, stone refine, and age our chocolate in our factory..." The complete bean-to-bar process took approximately one month.

In contrast to the Pacari bars, today's 70% Ecuador bar was richer, slightly more bitter and acidic, a bit earthier -- and with no up-front floral notes that I could detect. Although there was one pleasant fleeting hit of olive at the beginning of one bite. Later after lunch I re-sampled this bar; it was consistent with what I recalled tasting in the morning, but I picked up one tiny little floral chocolatey hint.

Dick Taylor Chocolate is an amalgam of the talents of Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor -- who also have a background in handcrafted boat building; thus the shipwright-related craft illustration on the packaging. The bar was also imprinted with a beautiful patterned illustration, that spoke to the owners sense of thoughtful design.

Today was Day #9 of Chocolate and Ecuador Theme Week.

Pacari Chocolate - Esmeraldas 60% bar - February 13, 2013

Chocolate of the Day:

Pacari Chocolate
Esmeraldas - 60% Cacao - dark chocolate bar
Good + - Very Good
Weight: .88 oz. (25 g.) / 1.76 oz. (50 g.) total bar
Calories: 131 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $6.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today's single region Esmaraldas 60% cacao bar from Pacari Chocolate (Ecuador) was rich, but very smooth, with a very slight floral note at the beginning.

I've featured several chocolates from Pacari this week. All have had a similar flavor profile -- not too harsh or acidic, smooth with a fairly rich chocolatey taste. I'm tempted to ascribe these flavors to Ecuadorian origins. However, I'll continue to look at other makers who are using beans from Ecuador, to see how these different makers ferment, roast, conch and temper (cacao from the same region) --resulting in a range of flavor differences.

Pacari is a fairly large "tree-to-bar" chocolate company in Ecuador, that works with as many as 2,500 farm families, over approximately 3,000 hectares of land. Having a slightly larger bean base to work with, may make it easier to blend and balance flavor profiles than a smaller batch maker in the U.S. or elsewhere out of country.

Today's single region bar was made with beans from Esmeraldas -- a province in northern Ecuador (see map), northwest of the capital city of Quito.

In addition to supplying organic (and some raw) chocolate bars, the company's packaging mentions fair practices/efforts to support farmers, and to preserve biodiversity of the Arriba Nacional (general type of cacao) forest.

Today was Day #8 of Chocolate and Ecuador Theme Week.