hmm, thanks for the info. will go and check it out. beschle wants to release a porcelana as well.
later, alex

i think i spoke to soon. seems hard to come by this bar. unless you order it under the url above…

Thanks for the info.
I took a look into their catalogue. The bar bears “En exclusivité pour Manufactum”. So no more doubt: Only buyable via Manufactum. As I planed an order anyway I will gladly order a bar or two along with it. But it’s really strange that you can not buy the bars in their store in Munich.

This is all very interesting. I would like to read more posts from people who know more of the details on this bar. Are the porcelana beans from Venezuela or Mexico (like those used in Pierre Marcolini’s). Why are they only sold on this website? I am not familar with this website. Alex, let’s see your review on the review page!

hi brady, i can’t answer your first question. but i heard from a bonnat representative here in germany that the bars were made exclusively for manufactum, a company that sells expensive hand-made products. kind of a back-to-the-roots thing.
where the beans are sourced i can’t say, i don’t know.
i’ll try and get a review out there, but that’s not my forte. for now let it stand as written above. i’ll see whether i can’t get a bar to martin or montegrano. let them review it ;)
a good porcelana for a fair price, if it truly is porcelana. i have no doubts, but there have been some regarding marcolini. it’s been a while since i’ve tried marcolini’s porcelana but i can understand the scepticism there. marcolini’s version didn’t come across as well as this bonnat. and it didn’t compare to other porcelanas i’ve tried. the bonnat does.

hi sean, i don’t think bonnat has the ratio on the packaging, but will have a look. if i remember correctly, though, they list cocoa butter after sugar. the bar didn’t seem too loaded with cocoa butter.

I see that this bar is now available at chocosphere.com .

” This rare cocoa, with an annual production of less than 1000 kg, comes from an ancient plantation in Venezuela. Porcelana beans are unique, in that they are a translucent white color. Fragrant and well balanced, the resulting chocolate is filled with the complex flavors imparted by the soil around Lake Maracaibo. From it’s powerful fragrance to it’s delicate taste, this chocolate will exceed the expectations of the most demanding chocolate connoisseur. “

ChemicalMachine- Thanks for the heads up. I just placed an order with Chocosphere last week and it wasn’t available. $16.95 is still a lot cheaper than most decent bottles of wine.

quote:

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Originally posted by bradyb

This is all very interesting. I would like to read more posts from people who know more of the details on this bar. Are the porcelana beans from Venezuela or Mexico (like those used in Pierre Marcolini’s). Why are they only sold on this website? I am not familar with this website. Alex, let’s see your review on the review page!

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Review is written, awaiting only a good bar image. Summarising what I’ve written, overall I found the bar to be very well balanced and in some ways a textbook example of what one might want in a “base” chocolate for blending – something simple and chocolatey that doesn’t interfere too much with other chocolates and adds no negatives. Not that there’s any real chance it’ll be blended with anything and it definitely stands alone without difficulty. I’d say Domori still has the overall edge but this is another worthy contender.

Alex Rast
Alex_Rast_Alternate@hushmail.com

I took a look at the reviews. While I do not care much about texture, taste is supreme here, I think that the over-roasting is probably not necessarily a result of bad beans, but of Bonnat’s dark roasting style, which has a tendency to make tender beans taste very much the same, regardless of origin. This is an issue with all makers; Domori is cheasy, Amedei tastes raisins and Valrhona is acidic. In general, however, I think Valrhona is best at preserving differences between beans.

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My name is Polarbear and I am a chocoholic…