Produced in Germany for Starbucks from fairly traded cocoa beans, and including non-GM lecithin.
Has a good red/brown colour with an even grain. A slight translucence to the chocolate suggests a higher than average proportion of cocoa butter. Aroma is pleasant enough with some high notes of treacle, tobacco and a little burnt coffee.
On tasting there is a slight burnt flavour with milk and candy hints, ending with a turn of oregano and burnt coffee in the aftertaste. Length is still pleasant though even after some minutes, with no turning or ‘metal’. The flavour notes suggest ‘bulk’ rather than ‘flavour’ beans have been used (forestero rather than criolo). The very soft melt is suggestive of a high cocoa butter content, which helps to balance the bean quality. Still, this is sweet and palatable for a 70% and superior to many of the ‘standard’ seventy percents to be found on supermarket shelves.
The great thing here is you can walk into a Starbucks in almost any town (in the UK anyway – we’re not sure where else this is available) and have yourself a bar of not at all bad chocolate, which I guess matches Starbucks philosophy with coffee!
