On the other hand, I’ve always been vaguely skeptical of the notion “pure taste of the beans”. It seems to be fairly in vogue to think in these terms currently, but I think that whether there is such a thing, really as a “pure taste” is somewhat questionable. For each bean, I do agree that there’s probably a best interpretation, i.e. a way of processing that yields the most satisfactory flavour, but in my view this is different from being a pure taste of the bean: chocolate is a processed product, and the nature of process decisions affect the result, so that to say that there is an “intrinsic” taste to a given bean is at best only half the story. Yes, two different sources subjected to the same process will arrive at two different endpoints, but whether one bean subjected to different processes can be said to have one version that is most representative of the taste of the bean as such is, I think, an imprecise statement. Better to say that there is an optimal result, without any particular claim as to whether this is closer to the bean – and this does more justice to the manufacturer in his efforts to give the best possible outcome.

In my opinion, Amedei have achieved that “optimal result” with the Chuao bean. I’ll admit that this is personal. But you’ll note in my review that in my view Coppeneur have arrived at the same end point, i.e. likewise achieved an optimal result. So, rather bizarrely, like you I feel that Coppeneur have “found it” – the best outcome.

I suppose this also reveals my opinion, that in my view there is usually going to be a single best outcome, so that, with any origin, two independent manufacturers working towards the same optimal outcome will almost inevitably end up with identical results. Interestingly, as you point out there are some “traces of the undesirable flavours of the cocoa” – and it seems, based on what I’ve experienced, that the optimal result with Chuao does indeed have this property: traces of aggressiveness remain. I do agree that it would interesting to try the 100 hour conche, to see what differences that would make. I think I can probably predict this quite well, but we will see!

Now, to me, again, the Hotel Chocolat/Coppeneur bars seem very, very similar to Amedei. That’s a personal opinion. But let it not distract from the basic fact: Coppeneur’s result is a *great* bar in every way, one of the best chocolates made.

Already the add of cocoa butter change the total taste of the Chuao-beans. The vanilla even increase the changement of the taste.
For me the Amedei Chuao is surely an excellent chocolate bar, but completly overstyled. This bar don’t have realy the character of Chuao.

Coppeneur made a long experience to find out which would be the best way to get a pure taste of the Chuao beans. In my opinion they found it.
I don’t say that the Chuao bar from Coppeneur or Hotel Chocolat is the best of all Chuao bars. But I can say that the taste of this two bars (Coppeneur and Hotel Chocolat) is the most representive taste of Chuao cocoa in the world.

In Coppeneur’ s bar you might find some traces of undesirable flavours of the cocoa. That’ s true. This is done to the roasting temperatur and the technology of the production. The Chuao beans need a longer conching time. For this I prefear the 100 hours conched chocolate than the 70 hours. You might taste the limited edition from Coppeneur. One Chuao bar with 70 hours conching time the seocond one with 100 hours. Both are from one production batch. The only difference is the conching time.

I could write more about this chocolate, but I think that it is enough for today.

Georg