Seventy% » Georg Bernardini

Bojesen – Oialla – Georg Bernardini

Georg Bernardini — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:04:59 +0000

The first time I tasted chocolate from Bojesen was in September 2010. It was a bolivian chocolate with 70% and a first sample, not avaible in the market. Oialla seems to be the market version of this bolivian chocolate.
It comes in a very nice packaging, everything is of high quality. Packaging, design and at the end also the chocolate.
Bojesen don’ t produce himself chocolate, so I suppose that also this chocolate was produced from a bean to bar producer in Sweden…

Aroma:
I can taste aromas of fermantation, red berries, dried fruits and hibiscus. The roasting profile seems to be very clear; light roasting.

Look/Snap:
Look and snap is nice. No bubbles and nice shining, firm snap.

Taste:
Good balance of sugar and cocoa solids. Lightly sour and bitter with a hint of adstringence.

Melt/lenght:
I don’ t like very much the melt. The chocolate is too rough on the tongue and the chocolate melts slowly. But this kind of melt is known for the swedish producer. The lenght is ok, but not much more.

Oialla is an interesting and good chocolate, but not more. The price for 100g is almost ridiculous. More than 20 Euro is definitely too much and this chocolate don’ t worth it.
The history that Bojesen tells about the source of the beans is something that you believe and you impressed… or not. I read so many times stories like this. Discovery of a special bean, own sourcing of them, helping a poor family in a third world country, make their life better etc.
This beans is similar to the Beni bean of Felchlin (and Original Beans), so what is new on Oialla if Felchlin found this source already many years before?

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Domori – Rio Caribe – Georg Bernardini

Georg Bernardini — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:14:32 +0000

Rio Caribe is one of my favourite cocoa bean from Venezuela. there is a wide range of chocolates made with this beans in the market.
The version of Domori is almost a masterpiece in my eyes.

Aroma:
Intense, complex and richly varied. Dried fruits, plum, red berries, raisin and lightly tobacco.

Look/snap:
As always you can trust in the perfect finish of a Domori chocolate. deep mahagony brown, no bubbles and perfect shine. very nice and clean snap.

Taste:
Full body taste with a great development of all the aromas. Perfect balance of sugar and cocoa. Pleasant sweetness with great character of the Rio Caribe cocoa. As Domori add no cocoa butter the chocolate is not too fat and very digestible.

Melt/Lenght:
Slow and smooth melt, not at all sticky or greasy. The lenght is great.

With this chocolate Domori mark a benchmark for chocolate made with beans from Rio Caribe. The chocolate united all the best from what you expect from a high (world) class chocolate. It worth any penny of the price.

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Potomac – Upala 70% – Georg Bernardini

Georg Bernardini — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:10:45 +0000

Look/Snap: Strong dark brown colour, shiny and with good snap. Not perfect moulded, but this is ok for me as there is no added cocoa butter or soja-lecithin.

Aroma: Pleasant aroma of red berries, raisins, fermantation, lightly coffee. The aroma is not very powerful, but agreeable. The roasting is very light and the roasting aroma almost perfect in the balance to the aroma of the cocoa.

Taste: Round taste with the perfect balance of sugar and cocoa, full-bodied and harmoniously.

Melt & Lenght: Nice melt, but a little bit sticky and migthy. The lenght is very pleasant.

This is a surprising chocolate with the perfect ingredients list (only cocoa and sugar). Due to the low cocoa butter the chocolate is mighty, but in this case I like it very much.

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Pacari – Raw Chocolate 70% – Georg Bernardini

Georg Bernardini — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:48:17 +0000

Look/Snap:
Nice dark brown colour, shiny and with good snap

Aroma:
Ecuadorian cocoa is not my favourite cocoa, but I like the aroma of this bar. This chocolate has the taste as it should have. Fruity (citrus fruits), fermantation and lightly Jasmin.

Taste:
This is the real deficit of this bar. The taste is not fruity for me, it is sour, too sour and I can taste also a little bit astrigency. The sourness overshadow the fruity taste too much. There is no control over the sourness during the production.

Melt & Lenght:
Nice melt and the lenght is ok.

This is a polarizing chocolate and for real chocoholics. I like the arome, but due to the strong sourness this chocolate is not one of my favourite.

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Bonnat – Apotequil – Georg Bernardini

Georg Bernardini — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:30:25 +0000

100 grams chocolate bar with thick pieces. I prefear a thin chocolate than this size.

Dark brown colour, shiny and almost perfect moulded.

The aroma is citrus fruits, fermantation and light peaty. This is nice, but nothing outstanding.

Fruity taste with notes of high roasted beans, lightly bitter. With 75% of cocoa solids strong, but due to the high content of cocoa butter not too strong. Bonnat add cocoa butter to all his chocolates. It makes the chocolate much smoother, with a better melt and snap.

Very nice melt, not sticky or greasy. The lenght is ok.

This bar is not the best of the Peruvian line. I worked myself with the Apotequil-beans. Very small and irregular beans whitch needs a very carful treatment. They need also a long conching time to be able to control the acidity.

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Valrhona – Gran Couva 2010 – Georg Bernardini review

Georg Bernardini — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:06:56 +0000

Gran Couva is already a “classic” bar and always from good quality. No negative surprises, but also not a high flyer.
In my opinion the chocolate should have more cocoa solid than 64% and, as it is a single plantation chocolate, Valrhona should not add vanilla to the chocolate.

The look is, like almost always for a Valrhona chocolate, very good. Nice shape, brown-mahagony-coulour, clean and strong snap.

The aroma is mild-sweet and of course you can taste the added vanilla, but also figues, toffee, mellasse and red berries.

The chocolate has a sweet taste due to the low cocoa solids. For me a little bit too sweet, but still ok and round.

The melt is again Valrhona-likley almost perfect. Slow, smooth and pleasant, the lenght ok.

In total this chocolate is a little bit too sweet, but with a nice aroma profile, balanced and round. A good chocolate to those who start the experience of dark chocolate.

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Mast Brothers – Madagascar 72% – Georg Bernardini

Georg Bernardini — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:35:04 +0000

The Mast Brothers use the title Master Chocolate Maker. the fact that somebody makes chocolate don’ t makes him to a Master Chocolate Maker. Generally I think that there are very few Master Chocolate Makers in the world and that somebody who use this title should have a certain experience in making chocolate.
My impression is, that Mast Brothers take more care for the marketing than for the products. Starting with the style of themself, the store and ending with the very beautiful paper used for the bars.
However, Mast Brothers nevertheless do some good chocolates and one ”masterpiece”, but but also too much chocolates of medium of bad quality. The difference in the quality of their bars are very large, too large to be a top chocolatier.
But in the case of the Madagascar bar I would like to use the word “Masterpiece”. This chocolate is the masterpiece of Mast Brothers and it is easy to say; you like it or not. There is no mittle way. This chocolate is very polarizing.

It is great that Mast Brothers never add anything to the chocolate. They use only the beans and sugar. This takes a lot of risk. Difficult to mould, not a very nice look, because the chocolate is thik. For this reason the moulding is not perfect. The snap is not as a chocolate with added cocoa butter, but always nice. Other risks are the taste and the melt.
Not only that the chocolate smells wild, earthy, fruity and also fermented. The aroma is similar. Grapefruit, red berry, fermantation, citrus fruits, raisins, cedar, peat (earthy) and much more, but almost indefinable. The aroma and the taste stay longtime in the mouth.

All this aroma you can taste with a hint of tannin/adstringency and a well present acidity. Normally I don’ t like chocolate with adstringency and too acid, but here it works perfectly. The chocolate is for 72% cocoa solid (only cocoa mass!) unexcepted sweet and with a great harmony.

The melt is not great, but not too sticky. Without added cocoa butter only few chocolatiers control this point. And I think that the Mast Brothers don’ t have enough experience and equipment to control this.

I know that this chocolate is far to be perfect. This is not an overstyled chocolate for the masses. This is not an ordinary Madagascar-chocolate. This is not a chocolate for mass production. This is not a chocolate for people who don’ t like dark chocolate. They would never again try any dark chocolate. This is a chocolate for real chocoholics. With a lot of unexpected flavours from Madagascar beans. No other chocolatiers bring out this flavours.
I hope that this batch of this chocolate is not only a one time wonder and that the other batches are comparable in the style and quality.

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Michel Cluizel – Hacienda ‘Los Anconès’ – Georg Bernardini

Georg Bernardini — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:29:11 +0000

The reputation of Michel Cluizel is now for many years great. In fact Michel Cluizel produce some great chocolates. But against that he also produce, in my opinion, a lot of products of avarage quality. Especially the pure chocolates whitch are not from the single plantation range are often of a poor quality.
But the Hacienda los Anconès is one of the top chocolates in the world and the masterpice of Michel Cluizel. This is a surprise, because normally I don’ t like single plantation chocolates added with vanilla.
I visited some plantation from Michel Cluizel’ s supplier of the beans, Rizek, and I can confirm the great work they do, especially Massimilano Wax, the manager from Rizek. The treatment of the cocoa beans is state of the art and I think in this professionalism in the world unique.

Look/snap
The bar from 2011 was changed to organic and away from 100g to 70g. I like this size and the thin chocolate. The chocolate is mittle dark brown and looks good, the snap nice.

Aroma
The aroma starts fruity with apricot and very light sour red berries than goes to liquorice and green olive to come back to the fruity notes. The added vanilla do not disturb and accompanied very, very light the chocolate. Only at the finish you can taste a little bit the vanilla.

Taste
The taste is mild and smooth. The aroma of fruits is well accompanied of the sweetness, but also from a certain bitterness. The balance of sugar and cocoa solid is very good.

Melt
Also Michel Cluizel add no lecithin, but cocoa butter to his chocolate. The melt is in this case not perfect, a little bit sticky.

Length
After tasting this chocolate you keep smiling.

Opinion
This chocolate is one of the best chocolates made from beans from Dominican Republic and from Caribbean beans. It would be great to taste this chocolate without added vanilla. I am curious to see if and how it would change the taste.

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Patric – Madagascar 67% – Georg Bernardini

Georg Bernardini — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:44:07 +0000

Patric is one of the newest bean to bar chocolatiers from the USA. I had the chance to taste some chocolates from him and in total he is making a very good job.
It is curious that he don’t print the cocoa solid of his dark milk chocolate on the packaging. He fear a little bit that the customer in the USA don’ t understand a milk chocolate with 60% cocoa solid.

Look/snap
The bar is not so light as usual for Madagascar-cocoa. The finish of the moulding is very nice. No bubbles, mate shiny and with a nice snap.

Aroma The aroma is on one hand typical for Madagascar cocoa, but on the other hand Patric reveal an unusually side of this cocoa. Mainly red berries and citrus fruits, but also molasses, raisins and light coffee. The light roasting flavours are very pleasant.

Taste
Directly with the first bite you can taste the powerfull fruitiness of the Madagascar-cocoa with a perfect balanced sweetness, accompanied from a light acidity. In the mittle you taste molasses, raisins and light coffee. At the end you can taste again the fruitiness and the acidity comes back with a little bit tannin/adstringence. You can taste very good the cocoa and it is great that Patric do not add any vanilla.

Melt
The melt is very fast and smooth, perhaps a little bit too fast.

Length
When the chocolate disappears the aroma of the cocoa and not only the chocolate taste remain in your mouth.

Opinion
This bars is hight end quality and a very good example of a good Madagascar-chocolate.
67% cocoa solid is almost perfect for a Madagascar cocoa. Only the high content of added cocoa butter could be reduced.
It is a soft, fruity and delicatd chocolate.

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Amano – Madagascar – Georg Bernardini

Georg Bernardini — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:45:28 +0000

First I tasted Amano chocolates was in 2007. I was not very happy with any chocolate. They had far too much vanilla added and I don’ t liked them at all, even if Amano was proud to use the very expensive vanilla from Tahiti. What a waste in my opinion…
I have followed the development of the company over the years and in 2010 and 2011 I tasted a lot of chocolates from Amano. I was curious to see if the chocolate was still over perfumed with vanilla.
The chocolate from this review I tasted in November 2010.

Aroma
According to Amano I should taste citrus, raspberry, balsamico vinegar and raisins. Mostly that I taste is vanilla. This chocolate is hopeless over flavoured. In contrast to other dark chocolates from Amano, this one is still as horrible as in 2007.

Look/snap
Light dark colour as typical for a chocolate made with beans from Madagascar. Very nice look and snap.

Taste
Here the chocolate could be a winner. It starts with the typical citurs flavour, a little bit tobacco, earthy. But after a few seconds the vanilla taste overshadowed too much the other flavours of the cocoa. At the end, the main taste that remains is… vanilla.
I really don’ t understand why so much chocolatiers add vanilla to chocolate, especially to single origin chocolate. Where is the sense to produce a single origin chocolate, if I falsify the aroma and taste with vanilla? When I buy a single origin chocolate I want to taste the pure cocoa of the origin and not any other flavours of added ingredients. Already added cocoa butter can change very much the original taste of the cocoa, but vanilla really change the original taste. Particularly when they add so much vanilla as Amano.
The cocoa content of 70% is good. I think that Amano add a lot of cocoa butter to control the acid of the Madagascar-cocoa.
But even with this the chocolate is sour and has a light tannin/adstringence. Both are ok, because they are not too much and representative for Madagascar-cocoa.

Melt
The melt is very good and I suppose that this comes mostly from the added cocoa butter. But I like this kind of melt.

Length
Nobody will be surprise; The length is almost only vanilla taste, but in total ok.

Opinion
This chocolate is a dissapointment in aroma and taste, because over flavoured with added vanilla. In total it is not at all a bad chocolate, but only if you are a vanilla junkie you can enjoy this bar.
Amano does not learned about making (Madagascar) chocolate in the last years and I fear that I will never be a supporter of his products.
I am very confused to see how much awards Amano wins with his chocolates. What a mysterium…

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