Sugar Love Chocolates - Colombian 70% Dark Chocolate (bar) - May 1, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Sugar Love Chocolates
Colombian 70% Dark Chocolate (bar)
Good +
Weight: 1.4 oz. (40 g.) in total bar
Calories: 210 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $3.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Sugar Love Chocolates, Reno, NV

Welcome to Day #1 of Chocolate and Colombia Theme Week.

Today's Colombian 70% Dark Chocolate (bar) was from Sugar Love Chocolates (Reno, NV). I was able to visit this cozy chocolate shop that carried an assortment of truffles/filled chocolates and bars. It was located in the basement level of a smartly renovated U.S. Post Office building (from the 1930s) along with a handful of other artisan shops in downtown Reno.

There was something very light and pleasant about this 70% dark chocolate, a hint of chocolate cream pie or chocolate cake. Even the texture had a whipped and fluffy dark chocolate mousse taste and texture. (That texture might have been in part due to the soy lecithin.)

Ingredients: cocoa bean (cocoa liquor and cocoa butter), cane sugar, soy lecithin

Original Beans - Arhuaco Businchari 82% Colombia bar - Apri. 30, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Original Beans
Arhuaco Businchari 82% Colombia bar
Good - Good +
Weight: 2.46 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 401.8 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $7.95 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

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

Today's Arhuaco Businchari 82% Colombia bar from Original Beans (Amsterdam) was made in Switzerland, using "select tribal cacao."

Original Beans supports "replenishing biodiverse forests instead of destroying them." The notion of a regenerative society able to live sustainably is appealing. Their "One Bar: One Tree" program supports planting trees. (A code included on the package of each bar, when input, takes you to a website/page, where you can track where a tree is being planted that corresponds to your purchase.)

For those who don't like overly sweet dark chocolate, this is your lucky day. This attractively packaged bar had a faint earthy charcoal* and dark chocolate aroma, the taste of a 90+ percent cacao bar, and a uniform, balanced bitterness. The texture was smooth and the chocolate had a lingering but clean finish. No light fruity floral notes in this bar. And that may be fine. Sometimes extra dark flavor like this is satisfying and almost refreshing.

As with some bottles of bold or tannic red wine, sometimes opening and letting a product sit, or re-tasting over time, reveals more subtle flavors. Re-tasting this bar after an hour revealed a trace of green/floral note and it tasted less bitter (relatively sweeter) and more well rounded.

*Or this batch could have been exposed to a little bit of burning wood or charcoal smoke. It's impossible to tell. Either way, this bar was a good counterpoint to overly sweet chocolate, and if the purchase of this bar helps support the Arhuaco (aka Arawak) native people/farmers who are trying to protect the Sierra Nevada (national park) in Colombia, all the better.

Maker's notes: "Heights of sweet spice, liquorice and sesame rise gently in this ultra rare chocolate made according to ancient Arhuaco tribal traditions that are designed to maintain the world's natural hamony."

Ingredients: cacao mass, organic raw cane sugar 

Chapon Chocolatier - Colombie (Colombia) mini bar - April 29, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chapon Chocolatier
Colombie ( Colombia) bar
Good + - Good ++
Weight: .176 oz. (5 g.) / 6.35 oz. (180 g.) in total box of 36 mini bars
Calories: 27.7 calories in 1 mini bar
Cost: $45.00 for 1 box of 36 mini bars
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's Colombie (Colombia) 70% dark chocolate mini bar was from Chapon Chocolatier (Paris, France).

The artful packaging for this Chapon single origin bar assortment box was suitable for framing with beautiful miniature imagery on the outer wrappers and copper foil inner wrappers).

This collection box brought back childhood memories of going through a jewelry box full of mesmerizing baubles and gems. Each tiny bar was individually wrapped masterpiece carefully stacked its place (sorted by country of origin) in the collection. (Maybe this is the thrill that stamp collectors feel when they're looking at their prize specimens?)

The Colombie 70% bar had a buttery, creamy melt and mouthfeel, and light fruit, floral and nut flavor notes. It was smooth in taste while still retaining some identifiable flavor elements.

Crow and Moss - Colombia Aruaca 70% bar - Apr. 28, 2020

Chocolate of the Day:

Crow and Moss
Colombia Aruaca 70% Chocolate
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 300 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $8.75 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

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

Today's Colombia Arauca bar was from Crow and Moss and hand-crafted in Northern Michigan (Petoskey, MI).

This bar was complex, well balanced and flavorful; and it lit up multiple areas of the chocolate tasting wheel. The dark chocolate aroma had very faint smoked/umami and green notes. The texuture had a nutty smoothness. The flavor was tart sweet, with strawberry and Meyer lemon yogurt  and rich. with a faint floral note. It was sweet without being too sweet (thank you!). There was a very faint astringency, and a pleasant finish that coasted to a stop with a chocolate brownie note.

I really enjoyed this bar. It was a well-execuated, well-rounded, fun flavor ride that spoke well of the ferment and the makers' abilities to balance and bring out the best in the cacao.

Maker's tasting notes read as follows: honey, cashew and honeysuckle.

Wm. Chocolate - India Anamalai 65% (bar) - Apr. 27, 2020

Chocolate of the Day:

Wm. Chocolate
India Anamalai 65% Dark (bar)
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) in total bar
Calories: 152 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $4.95 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com (online order)

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

Today's India Anamalai 65% Dark (bar) was from Wm. Chocolate made from bean-to-bar in Madison, Wisconsin, by chocolate maker William Marx.

This (2017 Harvest) single-estate cacao was grown at the Anamalai* Farm, "next to coconut and nutmeg" in Tamil Nadu, in southern India.

The 65% chocolate was sweetened with whole cane sugar. It felt like this form may have given the chocolate more authentic sweet flavor but with less actual sugar; but this could have been my imagination.

The relatively high percent of sugar (the more sugar, the lower % of cacao by definition) can add brightness or can make fruit notes sparkle. (Or it can just make chocolate too sweet. It all depends on the cacao and the maker.) In this case this three-ingredient** 65% bar did not taste too sweet (thank you!), and it did highlight the fruit flavors.

This chocolate had concentrated fruit (jam, raisin, prune) notes and a hint of spice and true chocolate with well balanced fruit acidity/tartness and a very slight nuttiness. This was pretty consistent with the maker's notes below:

Maker's notes: "nutty and jammy"... "with notes of grape jelly, peanut and spiced tea"

*Anamalai is associated with the "Elephant Mountains" area of western Tamil Nadu and shares a border between the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Cardamom, pepper and coffee are also grown in this area.

**Ingredients: cocoa beans, whole (unrefined) organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter

Mirzam Chocolate Makers - India 65% Dark Chocolate (bar) - Apr. 26, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Mirzam Chocolate Makers
(Kakaw Manufacturing Co. LLC)
India - 65% Dark Chocolate (bar)
Good +
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) / 2.46 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 193 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: missing information

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

Today's India 65% Dark Chocolate (bar) was made by Mirzam Chocolate Makers (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) from single origin cacao (beans) grown in Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India. Mirzam refers to a constellation that likely was followed by ancient mariners and spice traders who were navigating extensive Arab trade routes that would have included southern India, where cacao is now grown.

India and the geography of cacao
Cacao grows in locations from 0 degrees to approximately 20 degrees north or south (latitude) of the Equator. Most cacao from India is grown in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and/or Kerala--states in southern India, on plantations/farms located between about 8 and 17 degrees north of the Equator. Mumbai (located at 19 degrees North Latitude) would be considered at the outside edge of this zone. Delhi (at 28+ degrees N. Latitude), would be too far north to grow cacao outdoors.

Mirzam maker's notes read: spices, sweet lemon, honey.

My tasting notes were similar: sweet (honey) fruit (light citrus, candied Meyer lemon with honey and apple cider with cinnamon), roasted coffee, very faint hint of biscuit/cookie.

Ingredients: Cocoa Beans, Sugar, Cocoa Butter

Pascati Artisan Chocolate - Sea Salt Dark 60% Cocoa Organic Chocolate (bar) - Apr. 25, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Pascati Artisan Chocolate
(Pascati Foods India LLP)
Sea Salt Dark 60% Cocoa Organic Chocolate (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 2.65 oz. (75 g.) total bar
Calories: 380 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $8.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

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

Today's Sea Salt Dark Chocolate 60% Cocoa bar was from Pascati Artisan Chocolate / Pascati Foods India LLP (Maharashtra, India).

This Sea Salt Dark bar had a great balance between flavorful dark chocolate and sweet and salt levels. It was not too sweet or salty; it was just right. For the past four days I've enjoyed Pascati bars with fruit and other flavor inclusions. Today with just salt as a flavor inclusion* I felt I could taste more of the flavor nuances of the underlying chocolate--made using Forastero (variety) cacao beans that yielded a bold, dense dark (but also smooth) chocolate flavor experience (relatively low in bitterness) with faint, well balanced earth and slight fruit notes

The organic cacao (traded in compliance with Fairtrade Standards) was sourced from Kerala, a state on the southwestern Malabar coast in southern India; and the chocolate was made more than 750 miles further north in Palghar in the state of Maharashtra (north of Mumbai).

Cacao terroir
The maker noted that the cacao was grown as an intercrop among/between/under coconut and arecanut (betel nut) palm trees and near tropical fruit trees as well. Neighboring fruit trees that are part of the local soil (terroir) may not influence cacao fruit/seed/bean flavor, but just having more attention paid to soil pH and nutrient/mineral and water uptake in a well-tended plantation environment could be a plus.

Single origin cocoa butter 
Roughly half, depending on the variety and origin, of a cacao bean, is fat in the form of cocoa or cacao butter. This naturally high fat content is what contributes the rich, creamy smoothness to finished chocolate. Pascati also presses their own cocoa butter from Kerala cacao beans. Not every chocolate maker takes this extra step, to use single origin cacao butter, or butter from the same origin and to press/"make" this component themselves.)

*Ingredients: Organic cocoa beans, organic sugar, organic cocoa butter, sea salt.