Have any of you had this?   Thoughts?

Thanks  Matt

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Maricel Presilla mentions in her book that the beans from Chuao village used to be solely criollo, but today consist of a blend of criollo, trinitario and forastero. Probably for this reason Amedei does not call its Chuao criollo, though I've heard it sold that way. Maybe Domori has succeeded in finding the original genetic criollo roots and cultivating them for their bar.

alex_h

It's clear that this is a batch issue because not more than a week ago I tried another bar, in another parallel tasting. This one by contrast was the Chuao we all know and love, and perhaps among Amedei's best yet. It was easily able to make the other 3 bars: Domori Chuao and Puertomar, and Amedei Porcelana (all most-recent vintage) look poor by comparison, and as usual was the best chocolate I've seen in the past year by a wide margin. I regret now not having kept the wrapper for that one; this might have helped in narrowing the problem. I bought it in Rome from Castroni.

So it seems some bars this year have contamination - I recommend Amedei try and track down the offending batch numbers and recall them.

Meanwhile as you can see from the above I can also happily report that based at least on the "good" bar I see no reason to believe there has been any decline in quality this year in general. But watch your batch numbers!

I am selling coffee in Canada and I heard about the Chuao chocolate from Venezuela. I will like to buy some in a regular basis to offer to my special custumers.

Is there anyone here who can help me ? I am looking for a Chuao chocolate producer in Venezuala who sells this chocolat at a good price.

Thanks you !

Natalia

natalya86@hotmail.com

I am so glad to have found this forum!! Perhaps with your assistance I can move along in my search for a replacement of a very nice bar.

The Lindt 70% Excellence bar that I have enjoyed for years is gone, replaced with a "new" formula. I cannot describe what has changed, only that I cannot eat the bar.

Also be aware that formulations may be different depending on the country you buy it in - Lindt seems to believe in a "target market" approach. Personally I think there are big problems with that, in that it assumes a national preference without giving those in the country much of a choice, it doesn't assert a manufacturer style, and it means that it's difficult if not impossible to make a meaningful assessment of the bars, much less to rely on them when away from your "home".

So I do have to ask what country you're in, in part because that also has a bearing on the other options that will be available.

The 70%'s I've tried from them have been fairly acid and sharp. Such a style was once typical of Valrhona but they have moved away from that, it would seem. Amano is the standard-bearer here - and they will be a big improvement over the Lindt - as long as you are OK with a higher price. Probably the Madagascar is the one to get.

If you are looking for a lower-cost option, then in the UK, the Sainsbury's Organic 70% Dominican Republic is well worth getting, and probably the best value for the money of any chocolate in existence. In the US, the Scharffen Berger 70% is fairly good, although not nearly the equal of Amano. In continental Europe, notwithstanding my comments on Valrhona, Guanaja 70% is probably still about as stylistically close to old Lindt (at least the Lindts I tried) as any bar you're likely to find.

Greetings from Switzerland, and have a nice sunday.

Paul

The Lindt 70% Excellence bar that I have enjoyed for years is gone, replaced with a "new" formula. I cannot describe what has changed, only that I cannot eat the bar.

I've been searching for anything close to palatable with no success.

I'm not saying that Lindt 70% was fantastic. It was however a very serviceable bar. If anyone has had the original Lindt 70% Excellence and can help me with terminology or whatever I need to describe what I'm looking for, or better yet, can tell me the brands that are in that ballpark, I would be ecstatic!

Thank you so much for any help

HG

Thanks for your post. The Academy took a year off from the Awards last year (2010), because of the work involved. I'm not sure yet what the next dates will be though.

We are though working on our tasting scheme here at Seventypercent, based on the taste mapping work Alex Rast and I have been doing. It's quite a long process, but we have some new rating and profiling ideas that we will integrate into our reviews as soon as we can. These will give a unique new way of profiling chocolate and therefore assessing its - subjective - quality.

We already use some of these tools in our workshops if you want a preview - we're not quite ready yet to take them fully public, but look out for developments later in the year.

cheers.

Your feedback would be most appreciated.