K+M Extra Virgin Chocolate - Dark Milk Chocolate Nicaragua (bar) - Oct. 14, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

K+M Extra Virgin Chocolate 

Dark Milk Chocolate Nicaragua (bar)

Good + - Good ++

Weight: 2.5 oz. (70 g.) in total bar

Calories: 400 (estimate) calories in 1 bar

Cost: $15.00 (estimate) for 1 bar

Purchased from: Equator Coffee, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's Dark Milk Chocolate Nicaragua (bar) was from K+M Thomas Keller and Armando Manni (located in Napa, CA).

The whole milk powder blended with Nicaraguan cacao in this dark milk (no cacao percentage listed) chocolate added creamy texture and smoothness to the aroma and flavor. A small amount of Manni extra virgin olive oil added extra silky, velvety texture. 

Frequently there is a trade-off between adding fats and milk powder to chocolate. Creamier, buttery textures offer luxurious mouth feel, but usually mute cacao aroma and flavor. However, there were satisfying faint, balanced hints of green and fruit (dark berries) in this chocolate, making it rather addicting.

The maker's tasting notes for this bar read as follows:

"An intense and complex chocolate, K+M Extravirgin Milk Chocolate Nicaragua delivers flavors of rich cream and black currants complemented by notes of malt and coffee..."

Ingredients: organic cocoa beans, RBST-free whole milk powder, organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, organic (Armando) Manni extra-virgin olive oil, organic soy lecithin.

Chapon - Nicaragua Chuno 70% (mini bar) - Oct. 13, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Chapon Chocolatier

Nicaragua Chuno 70% (mini bar)

Good + 

Weight: .176 oz. (5 g.) / 6.35 oz. (180 g.) in total box of 36 mini bars

Calories: 27 calories (estimate) in 1 mini bar

Cost: $45.00 for 1 box of 36 mini bars (12 different origins)

Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA 

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

Today's Nicaragua Chuno* 70% (mini bar) was from Chapon Chocolatier (Chelles and Paris, France).

This beautifully-packaged, single origin mini bar set contained tiny, individually-wrapped bars from around the globe. Today's Nicaragua sweet, creamy smooth dark chocolate had a uniform, balanced sweet, fruit acidity, and a very faint malt/cereal box note.

*Chuno is a hybrid variety of (heritage) cacao that grows in the selvas (jungles), in remote upland areas, of northern Nicaragua. Tasting notes from Chapon for their Chuno bar read as follows: wood, dried fruits, nuts, bitter almonds and/or light tobacco.

Wm. Chocolate - Nicaragua Tenor 85% Dark (bar) - Oct. 12, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Wm. Chocolate LLC
Nicaragua Tenor 85% Dark (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (57 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's Nicaragua Tenor 85% Dark (bar) was crafted from bean-to-bar by William Marx at Wm. Chocolate LLC (Madison, WI). Marx produces great chocolate bars--treasure chests that deserve to be savored slowly. Consume these in a hurry, and you'll likely miss some grand virtues. Today's bar was no exception.

A wonderful, complex chocolate aroma wafted out as soon as I opened the outer packaging. And the chocolate inside broke with a well-tempered, hard snap (a sign of precision craftsmanship not often discussed in consumer forums).

And the choice to go with 85% cacao helped guarantee that this extra dark chocolate wasn't too sweet (thank you!).

The flavor included a balanced, light bitterness; deep roasted, dark chocolate; light wood and very faint aged/smoke notes; and a very subtle, natural green, fruit brightness. (Think Trinitario headed toward Forastero.)

This bar was made from a blend of cacao beans (2018 Harvest, Lot 263264) from Matagalpa (Nicaragua) that received a "special fermentation." And the chocolate was made without "soy, dairy, grain, nuts, refined sugar or animal products."

Ingredients: cacao beans, organic whole unrefined cane sugar, organic cacao butter.

Castronovo Chocolate - 70% Heirloom Cacao - Nicalizo, Nicaragua (bar) - Oct. 11, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Castronovo Chocolate

70% Heirloom Cacao - Nicalizo, Nicaragua (bar)

Good + - Good ++

Weight: 1.1 oz. (31 g.) / 2.2 oz. (62 g.) in total bar

Calories: 150 calories (per label) in 1/2 bar

Cost: $ missing information

Purchased from: missing information

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

Today's 70% Heirloom Cacao - Nicalizo, Nicaragua bar was from Castronovo Chocolate (Stuart, FL). This bar was part of the company's Signature Collection. 

The Nicalizo, Nicaragua cacao (Batch No. 890) was made with heirloom (likely Criollo) cacao known for its subtle flavors and complexity. Aroma included fruit notes (apricot, plum, cherry, and a tiny hint of green).

It had a sweet, pleasing cacao/true chocolate (brownie) aroma with a hint of fruit and a creamy melt and texture. 

Castronovo chocolate maker's notes read as follows: "...The chocolate has fruit flavors of plum, cherry with rich buttery notes of toasted toffee, a little spice of pink peppercorn, and a lovely roasted walnut long-lasting finish..." 

Ingredients: cocoa beans, organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter.

Tabal Chocolate - Nicaragua Two Ingredient 70% (bar) - Oct. 10, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Tabal Chocolate

Nicaragua Two Ingredient 70% (bar)

Good +

Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar

Calories: 225 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar

Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's Nicaragua Two Ingredient 70% (bar) was crafted from cocoa bean to bar by Tabal Chocolate in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. 

The word Tabal translated into English (from Mayan origin) means "relationship." And with distributed supply chains involved in high-quality craft chocolate--spanning from farmers and suppliers to customers and running a small business, relationships are key.

Tabal Chocolate offers a line of single origin bars, as well as chocolate bars infused with organic teas and "superfoods" (including several different varieties of berries). The company is also involved with supporting Criollo cacao growing efforts.

The cacao grown in Nicaragua used to make this vegan, soy free and gluten free, two-ingredient bar was stoneground for three days in small batches. The resulting texture was smooth. 

The true dark chocolate had both slightly bitter and fairly sweet taste elements, with true dark chocolate and dried (green banana, dried fig) fruit notes in between. 

Ingredients: "Direct-trade single origin cacao, cane sugar"

Omnom Chocolate - Nicaragua 73% (bar) - Oct. 9, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Omnom Chocolate

Nicaragua 73% (bar)

Good ++ - Good +++

Weight: 2.1 oz. (60 g.) in 1 bar

Calories: 316.2 calories in 1 bar

Cost: $9.00 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's Nicaragua 73% (bar) was from Omnom Chocolate hf. (Reyjavik, Iceland). 

This wonderfully complex, dark bar had a smooth, uniform texture and melt, and a balanced, satisfying, smokey/savory (umami), faint roasted nut, and rich true dark chocolate aroma and flavor. These flavors were intertwined with more subtle dried fruit (dried goji berry) and green tea notes. The finish possessed a lingering chocolate brownie note.

After a week of milk chocolates with muted cacao flavors, this dark bar that hit so many pleasant chords on the chocolate tasting wheel was like walking into a chocolate factory and taking a deep breath of fresh, roasted cacao air. 

Ingredients: "Organic cocoa beans from Nicaragua, organic cane sugar, cocoa butter, sunflower lecithin (E322).*"

*E322 refers to a group of phospholipids (lecithins) used in foods, found in plant and animal tissues, used as an emulsifier or stabilizer--commonly derived from soy, sunflower, peanuts, corn or egg yolk and other "animal resources." Lecithins are used to blend oils/fats and can frequently be found in margarine, chocolate, mayonnaise, ice cream and milk powder.

Chocolate Naive - Peanut Butter Specialty Milk Chocolate 47% (bar) - Oct. 8, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Chocolate Naive
(Producer/Gamintoja: Mulate UAB)
Peanut Butter Specialty Milk Chocolate 47% (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: 2 oz. (57 g.) in 1 bar 
Calories: 414.6 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Grass Fed Milk Theme Week. 

Today's Chocolate Naive Peanut Butter Specialty Milk Chocolate 47% (bar) was created by chocolatier, Domantas Uzpalis, and produced by Mulate UAB (Vilnius, Lithuania).

This unique, guitar-shaped 47% cacao milk chocolate bar was velvety smooth and devilishly delicious. 

Twenty percent of the content was peanuts, that were ground for 4 days into creamy, whipped peanut butter, that was then so well incorporated you might miss the specific peanut flavor.  Further upping the creamy factor was the inclusion of grass-fed milk powder. 

Ingredients: cacao butter*, sugar*, specialty cacao*, peanuts* (20%), grass-fed milk powder*, sea salt*.

*"wild or all natural farming!"