When I started this round of Eating the Chocolate Alphabet, I knew that some letters would be more difficult to fulfill than others.
Really, how many alcohol names do YOU know of that start with “U”?
A Hungarian chocolatier friend of mine was going to make Unicum bonbons – but I chickened out because that liqueur is EXTREMELY bitter! You probably don’t believe me that Unicum actually exists, but here is a link to a Bon Appetit article reviewing it!
Anyway, I digress…
When I attended the Northwest Chocolate Festival in November 2019, my problem was solved. Lo and behold, a chocolate made with a U alcohol: a beer from Uinta Brewing! Yes, I realize that using a brand name is a bit of a stretch, but I already feel guilty about not covering every letter this round!
Love the stylized honeycomb mould design which reinforces the fact that this chocolate is sweetened only with raw, unfiltered Utah wildflower honey. Or, it could be that it is paying homage to Utah’s nickname: the “beehive” state!
Deep dark brown color, trending toward black – which makes sense given the name of the beer! Medium to soft snap, smooth/silky to the touch and a slight fruity aroma at the cut edge. Placing a hexagon-shaped morsel on your tongue, your taste buds awaken as if you’ve just sipped an aperitif. There’s a slow/even melt and a distinctive sweetened-with-honey texture when chewed (meaning that it’s lightly grainy, reminiscent of halva or fudge). I’m not much of a beer drinker, so I can only assume that the long lasting bitter after taste can be attributed to the multiple types of malt in the beer.
Utah isn’t really the first place that comes to mind when you think of beer, but Uinta Brewing has been around since 1993 (starting out in an old mechanic’s garage…imagine the confusion of people wanting to get their cars repaired!) Since 2001 they have been 100% wind powered (one of the first Utah businesses to do so) and added solar panels a decade later. With their commitment to precision, passion & people, they are always looking for ways to make beer in a way that is better for the planet. If you would like to learn more about their history and products, please visit their website.
Can you believe there are only 3 more chocolates lined up for this round of the Alphabet! Do you have any suggestions for the next theme? Leave me a comment to let me know!
Imagine the intensity of 100% cacao, a chocolate without ANY sugar! Next, imagine the intensity a Laphroaig Single Malt Scotch Whisky, which is known to be smoky and peaty. Now, what if you combined those two very polarizing flavors?! These Mademoiselle Miel smoked honey bon-bons with scotch will blow your mind! 🤯
Thanks to Susan Brown (aka Madamoiselle Miel) for sending me a couple of sets of these bonbons for this Alphabet project. My apologies for not tasting them sooner, but I can assure you they were still SO VIBRANTLY flavored!
I enjoyed learning that Susan, who is both a beekeeper and an award winning chocolatier, collects honey from rooftop hives throughout the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota). If you’d like to learn more about Susan and Mademoiselle Miel, here is the link to a Well Tempered podcast episode.
Let me be honest, I’m not a big fan of unsweetened chocolate…it’s a little overwhelming for my palate. Scotch whisky, especially one that is smoky/peaty, won’t be at the top of my wish list either. BUT WOW, combining those two ingredients together is a revelation.
These bonbons are like tiny jewels unto themselves. Just
look at how the edible, copper colored lustre dust shimmers in the sunlight.
Popping one of these morsels in your mouth is a multi-layered experience. The thin, bitter outer shell easily gives way to the semi-liquid center. The honey is smoked over sweet hickory wood and then paired with the Laphroaig. Not sure if the mouthfeel is supposed to be slightly grainy/crystallized; maybe it’s because I waited a little too long or perhaps that’s just what happens when alcohol interacts with honey. The comparatively sweet center disappears quickly and the smoky/leathery taste coats your palate. The flavors linger and there is a short-lived astringency/drying of the mouth once the chocolate is gone.
With 3 more bonbons left, now I’m curious to pair them with a dram of Laphroaig. Wish me luck! 😲
According to a Laphroaig timeline, their whisky was “officially” born in 1815 when they decided that it was more cost effective to distill alcohol than raise cattle. Check out their website to learn more about their products.
If there is a whisky or chocolate lover in your life, might I remind you that Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! ❤️
My hiatus from blog posts has been lengthier than I’ve wished or expected. However, when I woke up this morning (March 5th) & discovered that it was National Absinthe Day, I was inspired to launch my new Alphabet project even though I’m not fully prepared to do so…I just couldn’t let the perfect opportunity pass me by. In this round of Eating the Chocolate Alphabet, I plan on featuring chocolates that include or are inspired by different alcohols. So, if you have any recommendations for future letters, please leave me a comment or send an email!
You might have heard that for nearly 100 years it was illegal to import, manufacture or sell “real” absinthe in the United States. But do you know why? Well, many believe that wormwood (the bitter component to absinthe, as well as the herb responsible for its characteristic hue) contains a toxic chemical called thujone, and this was believed to be the cause of all sorts of bad things: drunkenness, hallucinations, rage, violence and even death.
With a back story like that, finding and tasting a chocolate called Absinthe intrigued me! To be clear, the following chocolate bar does NOT contain any alcohol, only botanicals which impart a licorice flavor that is similar to the beverage that inspired it!
Introducing, Endorfin Foods’ ABSINTHE 70% dark chocolate with anise & wildcrafted mugwort:
Endorfin leaves the cacao beans unroasted and uses caramelized coconut + coconut blossom sugar to sweeten their chocolate bars more naturally. Essential oils of mugwort, anise, sweet fennel and lemon balm provide the absinthe-like flavor profile without any of the bitterness.
Love the vintage font and corner illustrations on the 100% compostable packaging that makes me think of the Arts and Crafts movement / Craftsman style which is so prevalent in my hometown of Pasadena, California. If you look closely, the company logo sports a series of cacao pod cross sections, which at a glance could be mistaken for flowers.
Removing the relatively plain, conjoined 8-rectangle bar from
the packaging, you immediately see a mostly pristine/glossy dark brown surface as
well as smell a vibrant anise/licorice aroma.
Sharp snap, revealing a few tiny air bubbles at the break
point.
Slightly crumbly when chewed and not completely smooth on the tongue, I attribute these to the coconut sugar. Creamy mouthfeel during the slow/even melt; the herbal flavors mingle harmoniously with the base chocolate making for a pleasurable experience, sans hallucinations!
Since I happened to have a few bottles of absinthe at home, I decided to conduct an impromptu tasting:
If I’m being completely honest, I MUCH prefer the aroma and flavor of Endorfin’s rendition of absinthe!
For more information on Northern California-based Endorfin Foods, please visit their website: https://endorfinfoods.com/
Behind every chocolate bar, there is a story…this one is truly unique!
There was a time when I feared it would be impossible to feature the letter “Y” this round!
My boyfriend & I had scoured the internet for possible cacao growing cities around the globe that started with the letter Y: Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Yaoundé, Cameroon; and Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast were contenders, but then came the issue of actually finding chocolate bars from those areas.
I had issued a plea on my Instagram stories and pinned the post to my profile for WEEKS afterwards; sadly, that resulted in very few responses.
Needing to reach a bigger audience (and running out of time), I posted to a chocolate-centric Facebook group asking for suggestions. Someone with connections to a farm in Yorkin, Costa Rica replied, but then nothing ever came of it. Another person suggested a 100% bar made from Yamasa, Dominican Republic beans…but, have you ever tasted a 100% bar…ugh!
I became resigned to the fate that I might have to “bend the rules” to achieve a blog-worthy post. Then, the most amazing series of events started to unfold!
Lauren Heineck from WKND Chocolate spotted an Instagram post of a woman roasting cacao beans in Yariguíes National Park, Colombia and tagged me in the comments! I immediately reached out to @spiralterra asking if there was ANY possibility of getting a single bar using those beans. Unfortunately no bars existed, but she had returned from the trip with a small quantity of fermented/dried beans that she could send to me. One small snag, she’s in Belize and I’m in Southern California. Oh, and that tiny (yet crucial) detail: I AM NOT A CHOCOLATE MAKER!!
The elusive “Y” was finally within my grasp! My head was spinning! What should I do?
Accessing my mental rolodex: who do I know that could transform cacao beans into chocolate for me? Over the last two years of blogging, I’ve gotten to know several chocolate makers even though I’ve never met them in real life. Map Chocolate and Violet Sky Chocolate were both instrumental in Round 2 of the Alphabet, so of course I would reach out to them for their advice. I also wanted to involve Lauren since she was the one who had first alerted me to the origin. Then, I remembered a blog post from Will Marx of Wm. Chocolate where he detailed his experience with test batch after test batch, trying to find a substitute complex & dynamic flavor profile after a favorite origin ran out.
Quickly firing off an email to these four chocolate makers, I needed a “reality check.” Should I take the risk of requesting that an “unknown quantity” be shipped internationally? Could a few bars of chocolate be made with 5 pounds (or less) of beans? What pitfalls did I need to consider?
I was thrilled to get responses back from everyone within hours of me pressing send, even though it was already late in the day! They each provided insightful advice, feedback and thoughts. Overall, my idea was met with enthusiasm and they were willing to help out. Now I worried if air mail would cost me an “arm and a leg” or if the package would somehow get lost in transit or stuck in customs limbo.
I asked Giulia (aka spiralterra) for a shipping estimate, knowing that her response would probably “make” or “break” my decision to move forward. After a couple of days of stress and anxiety on my part, she provided me a more cost-effective solution. Her partner (Sam), based in New York, had the same batch of beans and could ship me two pounds!
Cue the choir of angels singing…
During my initial fact-finding email exchange, Will from Wm. Chocolate had indicated that he had some time coming up in his schedule for a quick turnaround…this project was suddenly becoming very tangible! Fast forward about a week, now I was daily monitoring the shipment of beans from New York to Wisconsin (where Will is based); I needed to know the precise moment that the “eagle had landed.”
Part of me was curious to know everything about those beans, but another part wanted to be surprised. Staying in suspense won! Leaving things in Will’s capable hands, I didn’t learn the “backstory” or even the final cacao percentage until AFTER I had tasted the finished chocolate bar!
Thanks for reading this VERY long preamble! Now for the moment you’ve been waiting for! Insert drumroll…
This was my first time seeing Will’s custom logo mold, since the “K” bar and the “W” bar were created with completely different molds!
Despite the chocolate “dust” that clung to the front of the bar, the logo indentations were eye catching and well defined! Looking closer, I noticed tiny, reddish-brown flecks reaching the surface of the bar.
Knowing that I love the artistic “drip patterns” that often appear on the backs of bars, Will unleashed his inner Picasso and opted not to smooth out the liquid chocolate with a vibration machine after filling the molds. These are the backs of just 2 of the 6 bars that I received, but each one had its own personality and quirks. I’ve tweaked the photos below with black & white filters so that the images will “pop” better! Let me know what YOU see!
Originally I was going to wait a few days to taste the bars in the morning, when my palate was fresh; but, since half of the bars arrived cracked, I took that as a sign for an immediate, impromptu late-afternoon tasting session!
There was a sharp snap and a fruity aroma at the break point. I noticed some flecks of white and interesting shear patterns.
But OH MY! I was NOT prepared for the flavor explosion in my mouth! There was an immediate back of the throat, vibrant burst of fruit that reminded me of molasses, dried raisins, or alcohol-soaked cherries. Smooth mouthfeel, slow/even melt and a bit astringent during and after the melt.
About a week later, I was finally able to make time to taste in earnest. The partially consumed bar still had a sharp snap, but the aroma at the break point was more earthy and woody. This time the flavor was deeper and a bit subdued. Don’t get me wrong, it was still complex, robust and full-bodied. The flavor was now more tangy, like sour cherries or a fruity Greek yogurt, with a long lasting tannic finish.
No longer worried about being “pre-influenced,” I could finally contact Will to request his notes and photos from the production process!
As you can see, the beans look mostly pristine!
Photo credit: Will Marx, Wm. Chocolate
Will decided that a medium roast would bring out the inherent qualities and flavors of the cacao. I can almost smell the winnowed nibs from this photo! [Note: winnowing removes the papery skin/husk from the roasted beans.]
Photo credit: Will Marx, Wm. Chocolate
Pre-grinding the nibs a bit makes them easier to process, these powdered nibs were ready to be put in the refiner/melanger to be slowly ground into a liquid state.
Photo credit: Will Marx, Wm. Chocolate
After several hours, a sweetener could be added to the chocolate liquor (Note: this has nothing to do with alcohol, but means liquified chocolate). Will chose sucanat, a whole/unrefined sugar from Costa Rica that has a flavor similar to mild wildflower honey.
Photo credit: Will Marx, Wm. Chocolate
The final formulation included just 3 ingredients: nibs, cocoa butter and wholesome sweetener; resulting in a one-of-a-kind 74% dark chocolate!
I’m very grateful to Samuel Kent Combs for sending a note with the beans to explain their “provenance.” I had never heard of FEC2 & FSV41 varieties of Trinitario beans until then! If you are interested, there are several Colombian cacao documents online (in Spanish) explaining these clones: Fedecacao El Carmen 2 (FEC2) & Fedecacao San Vicente 41 (FSV41).
Usually with these posts I have featured the origin itself rather than concentrating on the bar, but hopefully you agree that its story was too special not to be featured.
To learn more about where the cacao beans came from [Bosques de Yariguíes in the Santander department of Colombia], please visit this website: http://bosquesdecacaoyariguies.com/en/home/
As I began researching this origin earlier today, I found an online entry listing the location as “Wampusirpi, Gracias a Dios, Honduras.” My eyes glossed over those three middle words, assuming them to be a religious “thanks be to God” phrase that was casually thrown in. However, after the third time encountering those words, I suddenly realized that Gracias a Dios is a department (what we might call a state) of Honduras and that Wampusirpi is a municipality within that department!
Sources mentioned that this remote region could only be accessed by a two-day canoe trip, so it didn’t surprise me to read this description on the C-Spot website: “…Wamusirpi is about as far as one can get from civilization: no running water, electricity nor roads – accessible only via river or air. Just wilderness…which can be plenty.”
C-Spot went on to say “Biosphere sources from 100+ Miskito producers cultivating small plots typically under forest canopy along the banks of the Rio Patuca which forms the eastern border of the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve.” Intrigued, I searched for Biosphere’s website, but was re-directed to Cacao Direct’s website, which didn’t have much information. Thankfully a Map Chocolate 2017 sourcing report filled in the blanks:
“Biosphere Cacao comes from the village of Wampusirpi, a location immediately adjacent to Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve in Honduras, which has been a World Heritage site and biosphere reserve since 1982. In 2011, UNESCO placed the reserve on the List of World Heritage. Cacao Direct went to Wampusirpi with the sole intention of re-starting cocoa production as a way to create a livelihood for native Hondurans in a drug trade-ravaged country. CD financed the construction of a fermentary, provided the farmers with the tools (solar-powered weed-whackers) necessary to reclaim the cacao trees growing in the rainforest there and sustainably harvest cacao, and provided oversight of the fermentation, transport, and marketing of the beans. Farmers are paid immediately at the time of delivering the raw/unfermented cacao, a step which required special dispensation by the Honduran government. Beans are organic certified. {info source Jorge Schmidt, Cacao Direct}”
With all that build-up, my taste buds were eager to sample this Wm. Chocolate bar made with beans from the 2016 harvest and further enhanced by Hawaiian Red Salt (which gets its distinct color from the volcanic clay on the island of Kauai).
There are few frills on the front of this small cardboard box: all the text in capital letters like a newspaper headline, with certain words jumping out at you due to either the font size or the color.
The inner, heat-sealed pouch has a distinctive crackle; that sound tells me that it is compostable.
The bar is made up of 3 slender batons (that look like piano keys) with grooves between them; it just felt “right” to orient it vertically. Straight out of the packaging, the aroma was faintly herbal, with a hint of coconut.
Lately I’ve been obsessed with unexpected images that appear on the backs of bars. I was concerned that the inclusion ingredient might obscure rather than highlight; but, lo and behold, there it was as soon as I shifted the bar at an angle. I’ve tweaked the filter a bit on these two photos, hoping that what I see will be more obvious to you.
To me, there is the profile of a little girl wearing a cap-sleeved blouse and a be-ribboned, close fitting hat (or maybe she’s sporting a 1920s “bob” or Regency-era hairstyle) puckering up to wish upon a fluffy dandelion seed head. Over active imagination, I know!
But wait…there’s more! I also see a tiny smile emerging from the random sprinkling of red salt:
Don’t see it?! How about now! 😉
With a resounding sharp snap, interesting whorls, shear patterns, plus nooks and crannies appeared at the break point…
The salt added a satisfying crunch and the flavors became intensified, though fleeting, while chewing a piece. However, as you might imagine, you will be rewarded with the evolution and unfolding of flavors when you take time to savor and melt.
With the Hawaiian red salt tongue-side down, the generously-sized dense crystals rasp against your tongue and dissolve very slowly, releasing a smoky sweetness that reminds me of paprika or buttered popcorn. Once the salt is gone, I could then concentrate on the creamy, velvety smooth chocolate which melts slowly and evenly, leaving behind the taste of a slightly unripe banana. Switching things up a bit, I tasted another piece; but this time, salt palate-side up! The prickly/mineral notes hit the back of my throat as I inhaled through my mouth and it felt like an echo in a cave…something elusive that I wanted to follow and reach.
Either way, a pleasant, lingering aftertaste coated my palate like a soft and lightweight leather jacket. In the paraphrased words of John Nanci, from Chocolate Alchemy, “there was a slight astringency, but no bitterness.”
If you’d like to learn more about Will Marx, chocolate maker and owner of Wm. Chocolate, I encourage you to read his blog entries describing his foray into introducing a 100% bar, made from, you guessed it, Wampusirpi beans! Here is the link to the first of three entries.
Another great article to read about Will’s background and philosophy regarding chocolate making can be found on Bar and Cocoa’s website.
After tasting this bar, the words on my lips are: “Gracias a Dios” 🙂
Originally I was going to avoid inclusion bars this round (unless absolutely necessary) since “Round 2” was dedicated to them. However, once I saw this bar as part of Chocswap 2.0 with Lilla from Little Beetle Chocolates, I knew I couldn’t find a better (or more unique sounding) “L” origin!
The highest elevation within the city of San Francisco de Macorís in the North Region of the Dominican Republic is at Loma Quita Espuela. In case you’re curious about the name, here is what I found on Wikipedia:
“This name allegedly comes from the time when the Spaniards were exploring the island, since the hill was too steep to ride their horses, they had to dismount and remove their spurs and undertake the ascent on foot.”
It certainly sounds like an amazing place to experience nature, based on what I’ve seen from this website!
Now for the chocolate itself: Kilian & Close 52% D.R. with Périgord walnuts
Love the simplicity of this sturdy cardboard packaging with interlocking folds that remind me of a modified “dovetail joint” or “tongue and groove” assembly. There is a single triangular notched tab keeping the box closed and the plastic-wrapped bar tightly nestled within. In retrospect, the bar might have been too secure since the inner wrapper clung to the chocolate in places, leaving several shiny spots.
Honestly, I was NOT expecting there to be several candied walnut halves adhered to the back of the bar, though I should have guessed there might be visible inclusions when the package felt thick in my hand.
As if to alleviate my conscience (about only using non-inclusion, single origin bars for this round of the Alphabet), there were several spots sans walnuts so that I could taste the chocolate on its own!! 💕
The bar segmented easily with a sharp snap and there were hardly any air bubbles at the breaking point.
Handling the tasting morsels with my fingers, I noticed that the chocolate had an ultra-smooth, plastic-like texture to the touch. Perhaps this explains why it was difficult to melt on the tongue? Switching to chewing, creamy, nutty, caramel notes emerged. The flavor remained consistent throughout the tasting, until I got to a piece with the candied walnuts. Chomping on a walnut, there were earthy and lightly bitter notes relegating the slow roasted Dominican Republic cocoa beans to “second fiddle.”
Speaking of the walnuts, these come from Périgord (the old name for the former province in southwestern France) which, as of September 30, 2016, has a new name: Nouvelle-Aquitaine. In 2002, these walnuts were awarded PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status even though they have been in the area since the Middle Ages!
Since Lilla purchased this bar in Germany during her summer road trip, the label is entirely in German.
It wasn’t until AFTER my tasting that I decided to translate the ingredient list. I was surprised to see coconut blossom sugar as the first ingredient and that there was also coconut milk powder at the end of the list! The flavor notes all make much more sense now! Not sure why I didn’t originally make the connection that there would be an alternate milk to retain its vegan certification! 😲
I’m slowly learning to embrace serendipity since not knowing all the information in advance allows you to taste without prejudice and pre-conceptions. 🙂 This was certainly a delicious journey of discovery!
Let me start off by saying that Kafupbo is technically NOT an origin. It’s a cooperative of about 500 small cacao producers in Petit Bourg de Borgne in northern Haiti.
For Wm. Chocolate’s first collaboration bar, owner & chocolate maker Will Marx teamed up with the Madison, Wisconsin-based non-profit Singing Rooster who has partnered with Kafupbo since 2015. Singing Rooster was established in 2009 to connect Haitian artists and agricultural producers to the U.S. market as a way to combat widespread poverty in Haiti.
I love when chocolate makers are creative with their packaging! In this case, Wm. Chocolate used a wraparound photo, taken by Singing Rooster, showing piles of fermented cocoa beans being dried in the sun.
Another neat feature of the packaging that will catch your eye is the “spider chart” which denotes the intensity of certain flavor characteristics on a zero to five scale. You can see that this bar is fairly roasty, earthy, spicy and nutty, as well as cocoa flavored and sweet.
Once you become familiar with tasting craft chocolates and take note of the flavor profiles that you most enjoy, this type of chart will help you pinpoint which bars hit that “sweet spot” combination.
Removing the slender bar, made up of 12 unadorned beveled rectangles, from the compostable heat-sealed inner wrapper, the appearance was neither shiny nor flat/dull. I’m guessing the correct term would be a “satin” finish? Please let me know if there is a better way of describing this!!
There was a robust roasted and chocolate aroma and deep dark brown color, which you would expect from an 80% bar. Someone needs to invent “smell-o-vision” for the internet, don’t you think?! 😉
While, I don’t often expect to find designs on the backs of bars, I’m always amused and entertained when I do. Take a look at the picture below & let me know what YOU see. I see a myopic caterpillar wearing glasses or the fictional movie character ET, frowning while stuck in a dryer exhaust tube!
The bar segments easily with a sharp snap, leaving interesting shear patterns behind and what appears to be some unrefined Costa Rican cane sugar crystals at the break point.
Prior to tasting, my nose detected either herbal or honey aromas. Popping a piece in my mouth, I could instantly feel a “cooling” sensation on my tongue during the slow, even and creamy melt. If I remember correctly, this sensation is caused by the added cocoa butter content. Herbal, malty, earthy or spice notes danced in my mouth. At the finish, the flavors reminded me a bit of a bowl of oatmeal, oatmeal cookies or whole wheat bread.
The chocolate is “toothy” and solid when you bite into it and I experienced bursts of vibrant fruit flavor while chewing the tasting morsel. Oddly enough, this method seemed to leave a film on my teeth. While 80% is a bit higher in percentage than I generally enjoy, I’m wondering how this will taste as a hot chocolate beverage…more experiments to follow, for sure! Happy National Chocolates Day! 🍫🎉
To learn more about Wm. Chocolate’s philosophy behind chocolate making, please visit: https://www.wmchocolate.com/
OK…is it just me, or have you noticed that as I near the end of the alphabet, it’s getting harder and harder to find viable inclusion ingredients that start with my featured letter?! ?
For “Y” I could have potentially found yams, yeast, yogurt, yuca or yuzu…but I chose yacón root instead!
According to Wikipedia, yacón is an Andean tuberous root composed mostly of water that is a close botanical relative of Jerusalem artichokes or sunflowers. While the root can be red, orange, yellow or even purple, it seems like most pictures online remind me of a slender yam with cream-colored flesh reminiscent of jicama. Upon reading things further, Ecuadorians refer to yacón as “jicama” (wow, talk about confusing!) Speaking of names, it’s also called a “Peruvian ground apple” which makes sense since the French call potatoes pomme de terre (literally translated as earth or ground apples). Yacón is known to have a flavor that is slightly sweet & resinous with floral undertones. I was fascinated to discover that until the early 2000s, yacón wasn’t widely available outside of its native growing areas and that companies have since developed new products like syrup and tea from this root due to its extremely low glycemic index (1 on a scale of 0 to 100), making it popular among people watching their sugar intake (like diabetics or those on a diet).
After all that, I was really curious about how this bar would taste!
Raaka 79% Dominican Republic sweetened with Yacón Root
Raaka leaves their cacao beans unroasted (aka “virgin”) to allow the flavors to come through. For this bar, they are using Dominican Republic beans from the Öko Caribe Cooperative.
I love the simplicity of the micro fine point black ink lines on thick white paper. I see bamboo through mini blinds or plantation shutters. Though, I wonder if the front packaging is really an autostereogram (also called a “magic eye” picture) that needs to be viewed from a distance (or by squinting) for the image to finally emerge.
Removing the rectangular bar from the wax-lined silver foil that was folded with the outer paper like a hiyoku (inner kimono layer), you immediately see abstract art embossed into the chocolate (despite the jagged edge splitting the bar into two pieces; a transit-caused “casualty”).
There was a sharp brittle snap when segmenting pieces and the “breaking point” looked a little dry.
The tasting morsel melted slowly in my mouth (and with a bit of effort), yielding a chalky, powdery, not smooth mouthfeel and a mouth-puckering bitter flavor. There was a starchy, filmy residue that clung to my tongue, teeth and palate long after the piece was gone from my mouth. When “chomped” the chocolate tasted fruity…maybe this was the Dominican Republic terroir coming through?
Overall, this bar was extremely photogenic, but sadly the “acquired” taste of the unrefined sweetener did not win me over. I like earthy bars, but this one was a little too astringent for my taste. Maybe it was the unroasted beans? Maybe it was the 79% cacao content? Maybe I just need to find the right “pairing.” Have you tried this bar? Let me know what you think!
Maybe I’m developing a “knack” for reaching out at the perfect time? Maybe “fate” is intervening to guide my path? Either way, these moments of serendipity, when things fall into place, make me the happiest 🙂
Just last week, after months of waiting for a CSC (community supported chocolate) subscription allocation to arrive, I decided that particular Massachusetts maker, who shall remain nameless, really didn’t need additional hype since there were lesser-known makers in that state deserving of recognition. Late at night, looking at the Goodnow Farms website under “Retailer Locations,” I saw California listed as “Coming Soon” – this was a good omen! So, I sent an email asking if there might be an update and wouldn’t you know it, the very next day I received an email from Tom Rogan (co-owner of Goodnow Farms Chocolate) advising that, later that afternoon, a delivery of chocolate bars was scheduled to arrive to a shop near me!! The two bars I’ll be featuring below had only been in the shop’s inventory for 2 days by the time I visited, so it’s no wonder that the employees there weren’t familiar with them yet!
The gold foil stamped & embossed thick, textured paper sleeves of each bar feature watercolor landscape paintings of idyllic country life, which I assume reflect Tom & Monica Rogan’s 225-year old farm where the small batch chocolates are made. A quick search on the Sudbury Chamber of Commerce website revealed that Goodnow was the last name of one of the first settlers of that town from back in the late 1600s. I also discovered that there is a Goodnow Farm Historic District in Princeton, Massachusetts…but I’m not sure if the two are related since the two towns are about 30 miles away from each other.
70% Asochivite Guatemala with Maple Sugar
The unique name caught my eye as I was selecting which of their 4 bars to sample. In case you’re curious too, “The remote Guatemalan village of San Juan Chivite is perched on the side of a mountain, reachable only by foot. Part of the journey requires crossing a long, narrow wooden and steel cable footbridge across which all harvested cacao is carried by hand.” / “The Q’eqchi Maya farmers of Chivite, Guatemala harvest cacao from the wild trees surrounding their village.” What a journey for these beans! :0
The gold foil-wrapped bar slides easily from the paper sleeve and reveals an envelope-like fold kept closed with a small round sticker.
[As a side note, whoever thought to use an informational sticker is a GENIUS! I struggled to refold the foil as neatly as it arrived to return the bar to its appropriate sleeve. Without that sticker, I wouldn’t be able to tell which flavor was which for future tastings…thanks packaging designer!]
Simply peeling back the origami-like folds, there was an immediate aroma that reminded me of freshly toasted raisin bread spread thickly with sweet butter. I also really liked that the custom logo mold was the first thing you see upon opening the package.
The bar had a near flawless matte finish, though I did encounter some errant flakes that looked like “fuzz” sticking to the “top” surface. Thanks to Tom for explaining the cause of that phenomenon:
“…[this] is actually tiny chocolate shavings caused by the bars being handled prior to being opened. The reason these shavings happen is that the chocolate contracts a bit as it cools in the molds, and it ‘sticks’ to the sides of the mold slightly, leaving a bit of a ridge on the edges. This ridge is what ends up flaking off a bit when the bar is handled in the wrapper.”
Upon turning the bar over, I noticed 8 squares with concentric rings. I’m intrigued and would love to see a video of their molds being filled since the still photo online from Step 6 of “Our Process” (Tempering and Molding) only showed chocolate being pumped out from one spout?!
Update from Tom on June 6th: “…the 8 squares on the back of the bar are formed by the depositing head we use on our tempering machine. The head is custom made for each of our different size molds, and it allows the mold to be filled more evenly. It attaches to the single spout that you see in the pictures in the ‘Our Process’ section. The depositing heads are a pain to deal with but they allow the chocolate to fill the molds more quickly and the result is a better looking bar.”
Segmenting the bar into tasting bites, there was a soft snap; the chocolate had some elasticity and bent a little before breaking apart. I assume that this was due to the maple sugar used as sweetener. From the packaging and website: the maple sugar is sourced locally from family-owned and operated Severance Maple in Northfield, MA. Milt Severance and his family tap the trees surrounding their sugar house and do every step of the process themselves to produce granulated maple sugar (chocolate makers can’t use maple syrup since moisture and chocolate don’t mix!)
There was a refreshing + short-lived tingly sensation at the tip of my tongue during the smooth, creamy, even melt. A fruity, yogurt tang hit me at the back of my throat and the finish reminded me of roasted coffee.
Limited Edition 77% Nicalizo Nicaragua
According to the packaging, Nicalizo is the first Nicaraguan bean awarded Heirloom Cacao status (last year I tried samples from the “D7 Series”) – the Nicalizo beans are the 8th out of 13 varieties to earn this designation.
Again there was a sticker holding the gold foil folds closed, this one shows a “scarecrow” in a garden, in addition to the flavor’s name.
The toasted bread aroma was more subtle upon opening the inner wrapper; though I also encountered lightly earthy/woody scents. Tiny “fuzz” particles appeared on the top surface of this bar too, marring the otherwise pristine finish (you might have to zoom in to see below). As you would expect from wispy, thin chocolate shavings, they disappear as soon as you touch them lightly with your finger or tongue.
The same 8 squares appear on the back; I’ve adjusted the camera’s color settings to make them “pop” (the photo next to it was “undoctored”):
This bar had a sharp snap as well as a smooth, creamy, even melt which brought out nutty, grain-like, and wood flavor notes and ended with a lightly astringent, grape wine finish.
Goodnow Farms Chocolate is a relatively new company, established in 2015. This article provides interesting details about how Tom & Monica got started in creating single-origin, 3 ingredient, bean-to-bar chocolates and their continued efforts to improve the lives of the farmers at origin. One thing that especially caught my attention is that they press their own cocoa butter from the same beans as are used in the chocolate bars!
NOTE: If you know of any other bean-to-bar makers in Massachusetts that aren’t mentioned above, please leave a comment or send an email so that we can keep this list as up-to-date as possible!
There almost wasn’t an “N” post this week! :0 I knew exactly what I wanted, but was having trouble sourcing it. After successfully maintaining my own personal deadline schedule of posting one article per week for 39 weeks, would I now have to resort to recycling a review from a year ago?! Had I just followed my instincts and visited my hometown health food store earlier, I might have saved myself a week’s worth of angst, but then I would have missed my various phone conversations with Cole Meeker, founder and one of the owners of the The Great and Wonderful Sea of Change Trading Company. (Is it just me, or does the company name make you think of “The Wizard of Oz”?)
Until today, I didn’t do any research on the Northern California company, so I was excited to find this 5 minute video featuring Cole and his wife Anastasia explaining their passion for making food products with sea vegetation. I certainly didn’t know that there were 400+ kinds of edible seaweed in the ocean and that only about 3 of them were commonly eaten.
Introducing today’s bar…Wild Nori Crunch made with 70% unroasted, stone ground Ecuadorian cacao
Holding the outer packaging at an angle, you can better see and appreciate the spot UV anglerfish, with a sun or all-seeing eye coming out of its head as a lure. Opening the back flap, you’ll see a thank you message to those that were instrumental in getting this project funded in 2015 through an Indiegogo campaign.
Removing the slender rectangular bar from the heat sealed gold foil wrapper, you’ll see that the mold is comprised of 9 slightly textured, matte finish “batons” that are minimally marred by some air bubbles + chocolate dust at the top and bottom corners of the bar.
Taking a closer look at the bar, you can easily see dark flecks of the wild-harvested seaweed near the surface, though flipping the bar over shows just how the well dispersed they really are.
Breaking off one of the rectangles produced a brittle, crumbly snap that released an earthy and mineral-rich aroma.
Taking a bite, I’m reminded of the Middle Eastern sesame paste or nut-butter based snack halva in terms of the gritty crunch that is associated with stone ground cacao.
This is definitely a bar to be “chomped” rather than melted, unless you like having tiny mineralized flakes of seaweed stuck to your tongue and teeth afterwards! 😉
As an experiment, I used a knife to segment another piece from the bar just to hear the rasping “scritch” of the metal blade making contact with the chocolate and dried seaweed mixture. It certainly created a bit of a mess, but it was fascinating to see the delicate and translucent nori chunks apart from the chocolate itself.
I know what you’re thinking…seaweed and chocolate?! If you’ll recall, I wasn’t a big fan of the flavor back in April 2016. However, after a year of eating poke bowls garnished with furikake and enjoying a miso bar last week, I think my palate was better prepared for the flavor profile.
Lightly sweet from the coconut sugar and maple syrup, satisfyingly crunchy and lightly savory/vegetal in flavor, I encourage you to set aside your preconceptions and taste this for yourself. After reading about seaweed today, I’m really intrigued to try their Wild Dulse bar next…now to find it! 😉
In the words of fellow Instagrammer honeycreeperchocolate: “Wow, nori…you are certainly on an adventure!” – Yep, and loving every moment of it!
To learn more about Cole and Sea of Change, check out the “About Us” page on their website. If you’re not lucky enough to find their products in your local health food store, you can order online through their sea vegetable store: https://www.seaofchangetrading.com/sea-vegetable-store/
These are my personal thoughts and experiences. I did not receive pay or any compensation for reviewing this product.
