Seventy% - Topic: Coppeneur

taste choc on Coppeneur

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:33:10 +0000

quote:

Originally posted by Bittersweet

The Chuao region of Venezuela no longer belongs exclusively to Amedei; they lost half. Stay tuned.

I had a feeling something was up with Chuao. What is the source of this information and are you able to elaborate yet?

Tracey

taste choc on Coppeneur

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:30:30 +0000

I found that many of the Coppeneur bars tasted very similar - burnt and bitter with very strong coffee flavours.

The Trinidad bar that I tried was grainy, had an earthy/woodsy aroma and tasted quite burnt, like the beans had been over-roasted. The Grenada bar was similar but with more of a coffee-and-cream flavour (not so much burnt).

The Jamaica bar in contrast was extremely smooth with a strong bitter flavour and heavy tobacco end notes.

The Hacienda Iara bar started with some nice dried fruit notes, but once again ended with an extremely bitter coffee flavour that completely ruined it for me.

Out of the bars I tried, I actually liked the Ocumare the best (which really isn't saying much). I have a few others that have been sitting in my office for months; I should bring myself to try them, but after just re-tasting some of the bars again I am left with an unpleasant taste in my mouth!

Tracey

Bittersweet on Coppeneur

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:09:08 +0000

Robert: Coppeneur has new single origin and single plantation bars:

Single Origin:

1) Trinidad
2) Grenada
3) Jamaica

Single Plantation:

1) Plantation Tabuna, Papua New Guinea
2) Plantation Buena Vista, Dominican Republic (Sept, 2009)

An important "rate a chocolate bar" web site, soon to be online, rates several Coppeneur bars very high.

The Chuao region of Venezuela no longer belongs exclusively to Amedei; they lost half. Stay tuned.

It may be time to take a second look.

Tchaikovsky on Coppeneur

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:01:45 +0000

I acutally phoned Coppeneur to see if they sell their bars in Vancouver. They said Capers Market will carry the bars sometime in August and Stong's Market is carrying them now. They also said http://www.coppeneurchocolate.com will sell the bars and truffles online soon. I haven't tried their truffles but I've had their filled bars at "Cacao Drink Chocolate" in Portland. I tried cassis with champage, saffron with orange and chili with whisky. Definitely in the "WOW" catagory.

I didn't find Coppeneur to be arragant or snobby like 'marioh' said.

karashi on Coppeneur

Wed, 30 May 2007 15:33:42 +0000

Robert - sorry, I meant my local chocolate shop in Canada, where I was scamming samples, not their Germany location.

alex_h on Coppeneur

Tue, 29 May 2007 22:20:10 +0000

i've had a pretty bad ocumare 61 from coppeneur, but lately they've been more consistent and the bars are really good. i even dare to say that when they get it right they can run with the best. but that might be for lack of competition or the quality of the bean itself.
i also love their dark milk bar with salt and caramel!

aguynamedrobert on Coppeneur

Tue, 29 May 2007 19:11:11 +0000

So you have been to their shop? Is there just one main shop or do they have others in Germany of elsewhere?

Robert
http://www.chocolateguild.com

karashi on Coppeneur

Tue, 29 May 2007 17:59:05 +0000

Hmm, interesting. Of -course- I just bought a bar of the maligned Ocumare. Haven't tried it yet, though. I did try a tasting square of the 52% milk (Madagascar Menavava) with nibs and liked it quite a lot. It did confirm that the little bits of crunch that I got in Domori SDL/Arriba were in fact cacao nibs.

I also tried (via taste test at the shop) some of their chocolate and pepper blends, but I didn't like them at all and had to just sort of be politely non-commital, since the proprietor quite liked them.

chocolatero on Coppeneur

Wed, 02 May 2007 15:40:07 +0000

for those of you who are interested, Coppeneur makes a lot of the chocolate for private labels such as Hotel chocolat...

aguynamedrobert on Coppeneur

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:33:09 +0000

http://sta.uwi.edu/cru/icgt/types.asp

Robert
http://www.chocolateguild.com

aguynamedrobert on Coppeneur

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:28:58 +0000

There are many debates on what the Main categories of cacao are...when researching this very topic I looked into the Cocoa Research Unit and gene bank at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago...They have four types labeled...

Criollo
Trinitario
Forastero
Refractario

Last I checked they categorized Arriba as a Forastero...I found the Refractario confusing though...

This is definitely a subject with not enough information from professionals(myself not being one in this subject). I hope that some people working in the Gene banks and clerify somethings soon...

Have a good one,
Robert
http://www.chocolateguild.com

cioccolato on Coppeneur

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:25:43 +0000

There seems to be some discussion here regarding Forastero vs Arriba. And may be a good topic for another discussion. Although I am not claiming this as my opinion, DesAlpes recently wrote a chocolate methodology course for professional chefs and was authored by Chef Anil Rohira who was winner of the "Best Sugar Showpiece" at the Coupe du Monde World Pastry Cup Competition in 2003. I will qoute from his book, "While there are many varieties of cacao beans-3,000 different varieties of plants and trees have been identified-they are categorized into 4 main varieties of Theobroma cacao: Criollo, Forastero, Trinitario, and Arriba/Nacional." Some chocolatiers are now taking the position that as we learn more about the cacao bean, our knowledge should allow us to to expand and accept new varieties.
He describes the Arriba as follows: Full, smooth cocoa flavor with additional floral, nutty notes. The pod and tree as Large green, wrinkled pods, beans are large and purple. When this was discussed in the class, he provided the scientific study and data to back this up, but you have to contact him, for more information.

aguynamedrobert on Coppeneur

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:22:42 +0000

I just got the samples actually 2 weeks ago...they were ok but I was not a huge fan of the overall flavor of their bars...I thought the bars were more acidic than any of them needed to be...I wouldn't buy them to munch on...but some might like them.

Robert
http://www.chocolateguild.com

deb on Coppeneur

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:22:36 +0000

Robert,
what did you think of Coppeneur?

Alex Rast on Coppeneur

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 21:31:59 +0000

quote:

Originally posted by marioh

Alex, I believe you get me wrong. As I wrote before I tasted more than one bar from Coppeneur...

Always a good idea to review one's past posts [:I]

Yeah, I wasn't remembering the entire context of the thread.

Still, Coppeneur does have some winners if you're willing to persevere. Definitely their best ones seem to be the ones you didn't manage to have an opportunity to try. That, I suppose, is the risk of inconsistency. I get the feeling Coppeneur's quality appears inconsistent because they try too hard to impose their style upon the bean. With some beans it works, with others it falls flat.

Alex Rast
Alex_Rast_Alternate@hushmail.com