So let’s exclude the idea of  ’porcelana’ from our minds and review the bar for what it is, chocolate made with the native cacao of Peru.

As usual, Bonnat bars are still 100 grams, a good chunky size that few other high chocolate makers still use.

The colour of the chocolate is brown with vivid burgundy hints, shiny and perfectly made in Bonnat’s traditional mould.

Tobacco and unlit match-head are strong in the aroma, but with definite floral hints – faint rose, mango and something like over-ripe fruit or perhaps papaya.

The taste has full fruitiness leaning towards apricot and lychee, with underlying brown sugar and malt, passing through a creamy burst. The fruit though leans towards overripe, with too much ‘yellow’ fruits and a slight underlying mustiness, suggesting fermentation issues. To cope with this, Bonnat has set the roast fairly high, which contributes to a bitter background note, noticeable especially in the length.

The mouth in the early stages is pleasant, balanced by the fruit, but tips off a little towards the end, when Bonnat’s typical high-cocoa butter content really becomes noticeable. Though the flavour while eating went on some interesting dancing fruit and floral explorations, the after taste is much less exciting. Fading of into faint lactic milk.

In my eyes Bonnat’s other Peruvian, Piura, is far cleaner and superior, and this seems to be the general opinion from Bonnat as well. An interesting bar to eat, but – in the case of this batch at least – does not reach the heady heights others have found.

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On the tongue, Pralus’ thick texture is the first thing you notice, followed quickly by burnt toffee, some cherry/plum and notes of Dominican Republic rum (more salt than sweet). Along the way their are true Chuao tones and pleasant subtleties, including a fizz of light passion fruit/mango in the top.

Something here though is clearly burnt, as was Pralus’ own Chuao of the same period. There is a continual and lingering taste like the bitterness of burnt toast, and fatty fried cacao at the end. A great shame as this really spoils the potential. I believe this is the same batch (or similar) as Pralus’ first Chuao, as tried at the 2009 Salon. Even they didn’t like it then. The more recent batch, in a square 50g box, is much, much better.

That said, the after-taste is not all bad, and actually gets better as the burnt-bitterness clears, with some fruit, but still sour.

For the appearance, the bar is well moulded and shiny, with a burgundy brown colour. There is a good snap, though the chocolate is a little more flexible than we might hope.

Not the best of Chuaos by a long stretch, but edible despite the burnt note – a bit like eating burnt toast covered with lots of butter and apricot jam. Pralus’ high cocoa butter recipe probably helps with this.

The post Chapon – Chuao – Martin Christy review appeared first on Seventy%.

We’ve watched Grenada Chocolate grow up from being a small, innovative homespun chocolate maker and develop into an international fine chocolate brand, losing none of their colourful Carribean charm. along the way. They’ve survived through hurricanes and over time, have gradually improved the quality of their solar-powered organic chocolate.

Grenada Chocolate 71% – unwrapped

Grenada Chocolate is almost unique in the world – the chocolate factory is right on the founding cacao farm, which brings big advantages in terms of cacao quality control, and almost zero ansport and storage issues, but also brings it a bunch of challenges with temperature and humidity control.

As a further hindrance, for a while, Grenada Chocolate had to use a blend including Costa Rican cacao, while waiting for the local tress to recover from the storms. The chocolate is now though all purely made from Grenadian cacao beans, grown on the company’s own farm and associated cooperatives.

Now a new roaster has finally eliminated any hint of smokiness or burnt notes at the ‘edge’ of the flavour profile. Grenada have really cracked chocolate making in tropical conditions, coming close to the quality we’d expect from the top European houses. (Back in 2005, we were calling this same bar ‘rustic’).

Tasting notes

The chocolate has a light, rich brown/burgundy colour. There is a masculine snap, as this is rather a thick bar. Raising a piece to the nose, there is a beautiful cocoa dust smell, with hints of sulphur, cream and a hint of figs.

Grenada Chocolate 71% – low roast gives a light burgundy sheen

There’s a soft crumble on biting into the chocolate, followed by a beautiful explosion of thick, rich dates, wine, toffee, some cream, spice, ginger and honey, figs and then (black) toffee, toffee, toffee. The sugar is Caribbean organic cane (or maybe Costa Rican, I forget), so not being pure white, there will be a flavour contribution here from the sugar.

I get definite hints of sulphur, which I find typical of Grenada and which remind me of a sulphured Dalmore single malt, or Dominican Republic rum. (Have to confess to not having tried Grenadian rum, if such a thing exists!) Completely gone are any hints of fat burning or and defects from the non-Grenadian beans.

The melt is thick and fudgy, but not at all sticky. After-taste is clean cacao, lightly tannic, with a little bitterness and continuing notes of  chocolate ginger cake with a scoop of full cream.

This is less fruity than the 82% bar, a style choice according to Mott, so slightly less appealing for my own palate and for this I’ve scored taste and opinion a little lower than I might. The 82% on the other hand is of course stronger, so I can’t help wondering how a fruity 72% would do.

On the other hand, Mott gave me this bar late last year, so it’s been in the review box for awhile and has probably benefited from sitting for awhile – the fruit side has evolved a little since I first tried this batch last September.

If you want to understand the flavour of Grenada, you need to try this chocolate. Here we find the full expression of the flavour notes only hinted at in the Grenadian cacao sourced through the Goverment controlled monopoly, as tried in the likes of Amedie and the Felchlin made Larry Burdick bar.

Speed eating

Here’s another take on the Grenada flavour. At our public talks, we’ve increasingly been demonstrating ‘slow motion’ and ‘high speed’ chocolate eating  as a way to show people how to eat chocolate. The point is it makes a world of difference to the flavour if you don’t eat chocolate the right way.

Eating super-slow, only melting the chocolate on the tongue with NO chewing at all, you can really get the full flavour experience. The ‘fast’ way is chocolate in the mouth super quick, no smelling, just chew the chocolate and gone in less than ten seconds. Now the cocoa butter has no time to melt and interact with the cacao solids. Fruity flavours tend to be missed and  tannins allowed to reign free. Try it on your favourite chocolate, you may be shocked by the difference.

So Grenada 71% eaten the fast way? (Took me about 11 seconds.) Faint chocolate, not bitter, ginger biscuits, nutty, very fatty after taste, lightly tannic without flavour, tannins increase after time. No hint of figs or toffee, except a hint a minute after eating. Altogether a different chocolate. Remember, eat it slow(ish).

Grenada 71% – the old version

Grenada Chocolate 71% – old style packaging

When Mott gave me samples of the new Grenada 71%, he also wanted me to make a comparison with the old style chocolate, made before the new roaster was in place and sold in the old style horizontal packaging (which was not so supermarket friendly, it seems.)

The aroma has a sharp intense floral note, almost like jasmin. The mould is the same as the new bar, the colour though has less  of burgundy tinge.

On tasting, at the beginning the flavour begins quite similarly to the new version – spice, ginger, toffee, but then dives off into milk, sour fruit then milk again. There’s also some bitterness and a lack of balance, which previously held back the bar from a higher score. The after-taste is again lightly tannic, but has something a little metallic going on as well and is a little fatty after a few minutes.

Grenada has always been enjoyable chocolate, but was held back processing limitations, it’s been improving with every step though, and while always moreish, now also stands up as a fine chocolate in its own right.

The post The Grenada Chocolate Company – Organic Dark Chocolate 71% Cocoa – Martin Christy appeared first on Seventy%.

When other bars joined the range though – first Chuao, then Ampamakia, then Palmira later replacing Chuao – Gran Couva always felt to me like the poor cousin. It’s trinitario roots didn’t quite stand up next to the genetics of the others. The grapevine has it though that some new ICM varieties have been introduced to the plantation, resulting in some interesting changes and added complexity.

Gran Couva 2010 close up

Previous years’ Gran Couva could be summed up as ‘orange candy tobacco’. Smell the 2010 and you think you’ve got the same. A big candy forastero note leaning towards orange cream biscuit with light fresh tobacco.

The first note is biscuit, then chocolate – no sign of candy at all, just a sweet orange burst. Then toast and the flavours slowly start to twist – the first hint that there’s something new going on here and that we’re about embark on a complex flavour journey. Molasses, light red fruit, rising up with a baked feel, butter, toffee, fruit cream, coffee at the end, slightest ash. Give it another pass and the journey can be different – grapefruit, orange, salt, caramel, bourbon biscuit, earth. Again later sweet toffee and fruit, different at every take.

The chocolate melts with no complaints – there’s too much going on with the flavour journey to notice, which is a good thing. The ideal requirement could be ‘seen but not heard’ when it comes to the melt.

The length is really the most interesting part. At first dry biscuit – which is ok, but almost disappointing given the previous expedition across the flavour map. Soon though comes rising gentle citrus and melon, the sweetness and lightness of which only increases the longer you leave it. Almost no dark or off notes are present, just a light chocolate, with few tannins and a slight wax at the very end.

A remarkable transition from a ‘bulk’ forastero beginning to a sophisticated criollo end. Sometimes trinitarios can be flat and merely ‘worthy’, occasionally they can take you on a transformative journey through the whole world of Theobroma cacao genetics. Gran Couva 2010 is definitely in the latter category.

Looks wise, the chocolate is lighter than previous years, which could come from the genetics and/or a lighter roast. The bar has a sheen rather than a glossy shine, and a rather ‘manly’ snap! Texture is grainy, with the odd small bubble.

Trinidad has always been a complex source, but Gran Couva rarely lived up to that reputation. This year is another story though – give this bar time and fireworks will come. It might have been a tight competition up against the 2009 Ampamakia, but of the current 2010 vintage, Gran Couva is for me – surprisingly – the easy winner.

The post Valrhona – Gran Couva 2010 – Review – Martin appeared first on Seventy%.

Chocolate making should be about bringing out the flavour of good cacao, not a transformative process that starts with one flavour and ends with another. (I also confess that I know Amano fairly well. Mostly because I like what they do, and also because Art Pollard is a funny guy!)

Another bias for me is the bean source. My palate is really towards acid/citrus, and this is one of the typical notes of Madagascan cacao (along with a darker note base, eg tobacco). This can be especially present where there’s a high proportion of criollo genetics involved, which often comes with the better cacao from the plantations in the north of the island, around the Sambirano valley. In a good year, for example, Valrhona’s Ampamakia can have an intensely full lime/cream burst, which is a flavour I love.

I’d also like to add in a more general note about reviewing. Almost all chocolate has flaws. I don’t think any of our reviewers or any others have ever tried a chocolate and concluded that it is perfect. Even the very best chocolate, though it might have a fantastic flavour profile or be supremely balanced, usually has something that we could identify as ‘could be better’. Often these are small, small points that don’t detract from the overall quality, but nonetheless should be identified in a detailed review.

I’m pre-empting my review because, Amano Madagscar for me comes close, very close to being my perfect chocolate. As a chocolate, I find it a huge move on and step up from Amano’s previous batch of Madagascar – which in itself was an award winning chocolate.

Aroma - Pleasant tobacco, balanced cinnamon and light herbs, delicate strawberry and blueberries, raisins. Like a beautiful strawberry cream pudding has just been placed on your table after a great meal.

Look/snap – Light, milk chocolate colour with an ochre tinge, almost translucent. Near perfect moulding with the odd bubble. The surface has a half  sheen rather than being shiny, which is perhaps a slight flaw. Very high-pitched clicky snap.

Amano Madagascar – opened bar

Taste - This is where the bar starts to amaze. After a few seconds on the tongue, a high, tangy citrus starts do develop, followed by tobacco, strawberries in cream, vanilla, spices. At the end it’s as if you’ve had a finely spiced but not too sweet pudding with a dollop of cream with mashed up fresh strawberries mixed in. And chocolate of course. And this just lingers and hangs tantalisingly on the tongue afterwards.

Well, that’s what usually happens.

A characteristic of Amano chocolate, some might say flaw – seems to be its sensitivity in different environments and conditions. Time of day, relation to other food, the weather or perhaps even mood can at times produce radically different flavour profiles. This is true of all chocolate, but seems even more so of Amano – and this bar in particular.

I’ve tried the same exact bar at different times and had startlingly different results. And this is not just me being crazy, I’ve had this experience in the companies of others too. (Collective insanity, perhaps?) On one occasion the bar tasted as above, but about three hours later in a different location (and not long after coffee), tasted of lemon pie!

Other times I’ve enthusiastically given this chocolate to a friend, expecting strawberry citrus fireworks, but all that’s come out is a rather flat liquorice – good, but not stunning.

I suspect that this is a risk that comes from trying to preserve bean flavour, rather than a more traditional approach of roasting higher and perhaps producing something more stable. Its part of the mystery and complexity of good, small batch chocolate, and also part of its delight.

Melt - The Amano melt typically seems ‘cool’ on the tongue – perhaps a combination of the processing and cocoa butter used (most chocolate makers add some extra into their recipe).

We can have almost no complaint here, as the flavour is delivered to so well. Possibly the feel is a little grainy, and at the end it’s a little glutinous, but there’s not the slightest hint of waxiness at the end, the chocolate disappears very correctly and leaves the mouth very clean.

Occasionally though, there is a particle of unrefined cacao or shell, which is something to be worked on, though perhaps inevitable with small scale batch chocolate making.

Length – Full, full flavour carries on, a little warmer, a little more towards chocolate. There are slight tannins, but so in balance with the fruit they are almost enjoyable. I can well see that some people might find this sour at the very end. It is, but only in the way that strawberries can be without added sugar, and personally it’s an experience I enjoy.

Opinion – I think that by now my opinion of this chocolate will be fairly clear. To saythere are niggles would be nitpicking. For me it’s almost perfect, and I could easily eat it every day, save for the disappointment of having none left. (And well, I’m not always in the mood for such a tart chocolate, I’m often asked what my favourite chocolate is – the truth is I like variation.)

I think after that it comes down to taste. If you like the citrus side of Madagascan, moved a little towards strawberry, then this is for you. If your palate is more into darker notes like spice or treacle, then the appeal might not be there.

For me so far this is the pinnacle of the Amano range, and the point at which they’ve really come of age in the fine chocolate world.

Oh, on an added note, this matches divinely with Berry Bros & Rudd’s own 35 year old Demerara rum. The notes that appear in that combination deserver a whole review of their own, but let’s just say that for a for a couple of moments there, I was transported to pure chocolate rum heaven. Now, how do I get back?

The post Amano Madagascar – Review – Martin Christy appeared first on Seventy%.

Very lightly coloured, could be easily mistaken for a milk bar to the casual sampler.

The aroma is thick fruit, honey, tobacco, blueberry and strawberry jams. There’s the slightest hint of musty, acidic vinegar, but this is not too troubling.

Instantly alive on the tongue with strong molasses, followed by yellow fruits, floral honey, rising up steeply into strong blackberry jam and rum. Chewing brings out some butter, followed at the end again by molasses. Quite a journey. Length is mild toffee, yellow fruit, lightly tannins and developing back up again into a pleasant sweetness/treacle.

Very well made, as is to be expected from Felchlin. Melt is good, arguably a little glutinous, but this is not a problem at all as the flavour is delivered so well.

Definitive of the Bolivian Beni notes and easily the best of the Beni chocolates, and for me the best of the current Original Beans range. A huge improvement on the last Original Beans batch of Beni, and any of the other Beni Savi / Cru Savage chocolates also made by Felchlin.

The flavour profile is quite similar to the Bojesen Wild Bolivian, but Original Beans just pips it because of manufacturing quality (but then the Bojesen is still in development).

Either way, a huge move forward for Bolivia and Original Beans.

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Ampamakia takes this further, and for some years the result is pure lime cream bliss, with some criollo chocolate undertones. This was the case in the early vintages up to about Around 2006 and again in 2009. The latest crop doesn’t quite make it, dropping off towards the end, but is still at the top of the pack when it comes to Valrhona chocolate.

Ampamakia 2010 – unwrapped bar

The look is light burgundy/brown. Not the lightest roast, but could easily be mistaken for a dark milk. The moulding of course up to Valrhona’s typical quality. (Helped by the soya lecithin and Valrhona’s super-sized production).

On the nose this is very clean, typically criollo with dusty cocoa, cream and hints of the lime intensity to come. Also typical is the low liquorice/dark fruits/light tobacco undertone that’s usually around in a Madagascar. Ampamakia does it better than most though.

Ampamakia 2010 close up

The taste is a journey with lots of promise, rising lime and cream, mango, apricot, hints of cinnamon, deep chocolate. The acid is just a little overdone though, like a balsamic that will be better with a few more years maturing, which really comes out in the third act.

This leaves the length going into sugared grapefruit rather than sweet lime. Still good, but the 2009 was everlasting lime delight. Perhaps there’s just a little over-fermentation of the cacao this year. Finally, after 30 seconds, there’s devon cream left on the tongue.

There’s a lot of cocoa butter here, so the chocolate is verging on glutinous, and also there’s the ‘dust’ effect that seems to come with criollos, but on the whole the melt is warm and delivers an overall chocolate tone – with a hint of toast – very well.

I long for the 2009, but 2010 is still a pretty good substitute.

The post Valrhona – Ampamakia 2010 – review – Martin Christy appeared first on Seventy%.

Aroma is liquorice deep fruit, some cocoa powder, nut skins and pleasant light cream.

The bar is lightly made, melting quickly with fruit, then sugar, then fruit. Quite delicate with a background of saccharin sweetness. Melts coolly, leaving soft ginger and mulled wine on the tongue.

A chocolatey end, which is a little powdery, but this is very typical of criollos. Also some biscuit and light tannins.

No doubt a well made couverture and a well made bar. Sprüngli’s version leaves behind some of the earthier ground notes detectable in the source couverture, as direct from Felchlin. This is either from the moulding, or helped by ‘shelf time’ allowing the chocolate to settle.

A good, palatable Venezuelan, with some rich complexities balanced with delicacy, though the overall effect is a little sweet. Light and easy to eat, should be widely liked but does lack a little excitement.

The post Sprüngli – Grand Cru Criollo de Maracaibo 65% – review – Martin Christy appeared first on Seventy%.

The aroma is strong, full, perfumed, with honey, molasses and rich fruit cake.

Intial flavour has hints of grapes and lemon, but soon evolves into full cream and molasses, dark fruit with a deeply satisfying chocolate note developing in the back. At the tail end we get a little bitterness / grapefruit tempered by kiwi and strawberry, perhaps some herbal lemongrass.

Eaten in a casual way, this might come across as too sour for some palates, and the Pacari style certainly leads us to new places on the chocolate flavour map, so expect the unexpected.

Red tones indicate a low roast

There is a little dry waxiness at the end – after all this is nacional and we have to expect some tannins. The length goes on and on, with some bitterness, but good chocolate as well.

The texture is a little grainy and the melt is a little dry, but it’s hard to have complaints as the flavour is delivered so well.

Overall it’s hard to believe that so much fruit can come from nacional, though it’s a distinctly different palette from the high citrus and red fruits found in a good criollo.

The strength of the recipe at 72% gives enough backbone to balance the fruit sourness, creating perhaps a role model for the arriba flavour.

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In this case Hotel Chocolat and Coppeneur have shared a shipment from the 2010 crop. I’m not entirely sure whether the chocolate is a shared batch or has been made to two different recipes. Only time and a taste of the Coppeneur branded version will tell.

No one can quite agree on the best way to roast Chuao, with a range of roasts now in use from the very light Amano roast all the way up to the extreme of Pralus’ high roast style. The Hotel Chocolate recipe seems to lean towards the upper end, and is also without vanilla, but with soy lecithin, so we have a few more variables in the mix, and perhaps a more exposed flavour than some other bars.

Notes

The aroma delivers plenty of tobacco and a faint hint of paper ash, along with some dried vine fruits and dried plums. Bring this up to your nose quickly and you get the curious aroma of a match box – a slight sulphur hits you before you can smell the chocolate and fruit notes. It almost smells of Bonfire Night in that first half second. So you can at least say this is an interesting nose!

The colour is dark to red, another indication of the roast. While either the lecithin or proportion of cocoa butter make the texture relatively soft and the snap rather light.

First notes on the tongue are ash, fruit then we’re ten seconds in and this chocolate reaches its peak – the fruit plum / apricot is fully developed and creaminess kicks in. After this we float along with a hint of bitterness, while towards the end there’s a tiny hint of ash again – a slight bitter, ‘cooked’ hint, along with some green tea.

There’s also just the slightest hint here of the ‘rich tea biscuit’ note present in Hotel Chocolat’s Saint Lucia bars. This could come from too much conching and not a fine enough particle size, but I am guessing about this.

The finish is chocolate and cream – a little ‘dusty’ is the best way I can put it, as if we’re tasting cocoa powder. This is where vanilla could have filled a little gap, but you could also argue that this is a purer flavour.

Overall, this is quite palatable and pleasant and identifiably Chuao. Perhaps not the most delicate interpretation, but with some strong points. Given the lack of vanilla and the higher roast – and I don’t say this very often –  a lower percentage may actually be of benefit here, perhaps 65% or 67%.

Personally, I prefer chocolate to taste closer to the cacao from which it’s made, and for me a lighter roast would have helped. Overall not a bad attempt though.

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