His fellow coffee servants swiftly gathered around the mysterious black bag and upon seeing the contents, they surely had hard times waiting for opening that newly discovered black gold. Eventually however, the proof is in the tasting, and seeing some of Belgium’s most famous coffee cup champs rolling their eyes on munching these wonderful chocolate bars, was a pleasure all mine!

Rob mailed me some days later with more detailed notes, so here it is: the uncensored Caffènation review on some of the ‘Selected by Choqoa’ chocolate bars. It’s great to see how people take a personal twist on taste

François Pralus – Madagascar: 7/10 Citric, a very ‘natural’ taste, somewhat ‘beastly’ even, needs time to adapt yourself too it.
Bonnat – Trinité: 9/10 Very sweet and buttery. Gives a sensation of melted chocolate with orange and cherry. Delicious!
Bonnat – “Hacienda El Rosario” : 6.5/10 Somewhat in between, slightly too powerful on the palate en brute. Very complex though.
François Pralus – Venezuela : 5/10 Very ‘bitter’ and pretty harsh.
Michel Cluizel – Vila Gracinda : 9/10 My favourite. Starts really creamy and evolves into huge piles of tropical fruit with fresh made chocolate mousse.

A big thanks to sharing your impressions and feel free to follow the Caffènation blog. I’m looking forward to publish many more responses from people who rediscover superb chocolate with Choqoa!

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Chocolate and its plethora of surrounding topics always make a great conversation starter, so pretty soon we had a good vibe, getting us open to enter the tasting part. After 4 bars only, people were amazed already by my broad offering and the variety in tasting sensations, even ‘less appreciated aroma’s’ were adding to overall discovery experience.
Noteworthy where also organic Pacari, the recent Akesson’s and absolutely the handcrafted Amano Jembrana, which I exclusively got from the USA directly from founder Art Pollard, with a big help from Martin at SeventyPercent as well in London.
These treasures aside I also showed a bloomed bar of Willie’s (don’t know how that happened actually), and wowed them with the Michel Cluizel ‘Grand Lait 45% milk bar’ (‘Is this milk chocolate?!’), shared unroasted and roasted cacao beans I received from Pralus, and put the cherry on the cake with the Pralus 100% as the usual über chocolate experience!

You can tell it was fun if people say they would come back for another tasting session, hope to see you next time as well!

Continue reading for details on the tasted bars…

List of tasted bars

1. François Pralus “Madagascar”
   a fresh, bold and citric opener on which most agreed it had a short aftertaste
2. Michel Cluizel “Los Ancones”
   so creamy, complex and rich in taste
3. Valrhona “Guanaja”
   the nutty one, and more gritty than the Los Ancones bar
4. Bonnat “Ceylan”
   This is a very spicy and leatherish bar, dark tones and though not varying in flavour, it keeps its strong character in an unusual sustaining & lasting curve
5. François Pralus “Dominique Républiquaine”
   very different reactions on this fresh feeling bar, but raisins was at the center
6. Michel Cluizel “Vila Gracinda”
   I think still the most special sensing and tasting bar from Cluizel, very surprising opening that leads to tropical fruit sensations
7. Domori “Sur del Lago”
   I think Domori’s style is iconic like an Italian fashion brand, you may argue on taste, but it’s all in all a very special signature carried over all his bars
8. Pacari “Esmeraldas”
   Something new and organic from Ecuador, and the Arriba’s freshness was for many participants a never experienced sensation in chocolate, leaving them hungry for more.
9. Amano “Jembrana”
   Something very special from the USA, this bar reigned in lengthy subtleties topped with pepperish sensations. Although I had only received 2 bars, one participant was so crazy on I couldn’t refuse to give the second one to him
10. Akesson’s “Brazil”
    More novelties with Akesson’s Brazil creation, feeling pretty melty on the palate, and evolving surprisingly spicy over time. Also here people really liked it a lot.
11. François Pralus “Le 100%”
    My favrourite tasting bar to see how people would react, and this time thye reported both sour & salty sensations, however despite its 100% label, bitter was not a word used, again.
12. Michel Cluizel “Le 45% Grand Lait”
    To clean the 100% from the palate I offered Cluizel’s award winning milk bar, and not to my surprise people were stupefied on how a milk chocolate could taste that good, mentioning a lot of caramel flavours. Bingo again!

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Amedei: La Tavoletta Toscano Black 70%

No need to introduce the Italian brother and sister Tessieri that helped putting fine cacao crafting on the map like no other. The 70% Tavoletta smells fresh and flowerfull and this packaging design is timeless.
Chewing on it, it keeps its really fresh character, and almost reminds me of eating fresh raisins. An always present very light chocolate flavour gives persistent support to coffee, red fruit. It won’t let you go that fast and melts down really slowly. The taste curve keeps its pace and sustains a continuous experience, really ‘fleshy’ almost, forcing you to discover the subtleties. A lingering aftertaste only slowly leaves you waiting… for the next chunk.

Zotter: Labooko Nicaragua 80%

This rather new Austrian chocolate maker has some very interesting and unique origin offers, like this Nicaragua. The whole Zotter ‘Labooko’ series come in a unique design wrapping and a 35gr pocket fit size.
A well designed bar that smells very tobacco and leather. This Zotter bar takes a breath, starts slowly and then speeds up to a powerful release of unique flavors: liquorice, pepper, coffee that build up strong to the 80% and then go steep downhill your throat with a clear end point, a remarkable experience curve, hinting for molasses, walnut and mushroom, ending with surprising fruity goodbye.

Bonnat: Puerto Cabello 75%

I could not resist more chocolate and had to unfold another one. With a fresh delivery of some Puerto Cabello bars, I looked forward for what is said to be one of Bonnat’s best bars in his white wrap collection. Opening the bar you recognize the typical perfectly tempered bar that looks shiny and silky. The smell is a promise for something deep and rich, chocolaty, with nuts, caramel and cinnamon or clove?
Put this bar on your tongue and you will be welcomed by a very mature cacao experience, entering your palate with a polite bow. Then it starts to dance and waltz to every bud on your tongue releasing one flavor after the other back and forth: cookies, cloves, nuts in a moving mouth choreography with berries and tropical fruit. There is not a single touch of bitterness at all, and the 75% makes it a perfect balance of intensity and flavor. Damn I ate it all!

The Verdict

I’m not taking into account the wonderful Bonnat here. As for the experience itself, the Amedei and Zotter were a perfect opposites attrack! Amedei slow and straight, the Nicaragua like a tsunami.
Depending on your music preference, I’d say Amedei is that great piece of Classical music, where the Zotter Nicaragua rather plays the contrabass solo on a standards jazz record. Look at the packaging differences, it says it all! Though all three are awesome bars, I felt pretty jazzy today, so for me Zotter ‘Lobooka’ Nicaragua wins on points from Amedei ‘La Tavoletta’!

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We were with a nice group of about 10. After some earlier small informal tryouts I took some learnings with me and started off with a small introduction on the sexy cacao tree, pods and beans, and briefly explained the making process. We had some good questions then on the differences with industrial brands like Callebaut and I showed some pics of the Amano Chocolate factory.
Mosts really appreciated this introduction, because the cacao tree is funny, sexy and full of secrets, and how often do you wonder yourself about the source of your food?

Off to the tasting then! I learned from Martin Christy, founder of SeventyPercent.com, to make a program instead of just grabbing for some bars, so I made small plates with chunks from all the bars to hand out. I also distributed some sheets to take notes and a tasting wheel to have some reference to our taste buds. All this helpst to take the clutter of the table and focus on tasting chocolate. The Amedei was a great opener to ‘set the bar’and we then moved on to plenty of other bars, the full list is below this post.

Time after time most were pretty intrigued by the variety of aromas and sensations, though they suggested getting some more guidance in what flavors they should detect. A good point to work on! I would also have put some more variety in the selection, I still had too many options, but off course it also depends on your stock as well.

One of the participants, Johan, is doing a great job in sharing the message for me and he brought me a fresh Amano Ocumare milk from San Fransisco. All of us were really surprised by this very untypical milk sensation; it’s a superb bar that gives a whole new level to milk chocolate. I’m leaving the idea of ‘percentages’ more and more and this bar proves it’s very very possible.

As a special for this evening I also served a double fine whisky and chocolate pairing: but you can read all about this tantalizing pairing experience in my previous blog post.

Those true discoveries were the better moments, and most likely everybody said to have had a very nice tasting experience and gladly returned home with their own chocolate bars.

Check out the next Choqoa tastings en events on my EventBrite page, see you soon!

Read on for details of all the tasted bars!

List & some details of tasted bars:

1. Amedei La Tavoletta 70%
   A good opener to introduce the idea of changing flavours and melting sensations
2. Michel Cluizel ‘Mangaro’
   This is to my experience a perfect entrance bar. Everybody likes it from the start for its freshness and mild citric flavors.
3. Francois Pralus Colombie
   I once thought this is the perfect served espresso coffee, just in the shape of a chocolate bar.
4. AMMA 75%
5. Francois Pralus Brésil
6. Akesson’s Brésil
   “The Brazil 3″: I gave these bars without revealing the details upfront, and have them pay attention to the differences amongst them. Only then I revealed that they were actually all from the same plantation owner, and even from the hand of the same chocolate maker, who’s helping out the other 2 brands as well.
   The AMMA feels like a ‘nouveau Beaujolais’, jumping around flavors like a freshborn foal. The Pralus has more maturity and a balance on deeper aromas, and the Akesson first gives you the melt first but then all of a sudden flips over to spices.
7. Bonnat Trinité
   Everybody adores this grandmother style wrapper design, reminds them of their youth… Bonnat offered a sensation of smooth and creamy, with obviously an excellent melt.
8. Amano Ocumare milk
   As said above, it’s a superb bar that gives a whole new level to milk chocolate. I’m leaving the idea of ‘percentages’ more and more and this bar proves it’s very very possible. I really want more Amano!
9. Francois Pralus Le 100%
   Always have fun with this one, it upsets people! Along extreme facial reactions they discover this 100% tastes rather sour and hardly bitter at all. This Criollo bar also offers and intriguing reddish color.
10. Francois Pralus Equateur (with Carn Mor Vintage Collection whisky, pairing 1)
11. Francois Pralus Papouasie (with Carn Mor Vintage Collection whisky, pairing 2)
12. Francois Pralus Chuao tablets
    All in the end I treated a last piece of the new Pralus Chuao, for a last round of a very complex sensation.

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Bart is an exclusive importer and brought a fantastic Vintage Collection of 24 different small whisky bottles, and the first thing I have to say is that he made me (re)discover whisky! Just like I share my passion to help you discover great chocolate, this kind of whisky stands out from everything I had so far, because I just didn’t know better so far!

Given the idea that this pairing was new for both of us, we just started tasting some bars and bottles, all of them were wonderful, but off course finding a good match takes some more tasting along. The first thing to do to match alcoholic drinks and chocolate is to find the right tasting technique. I think enjoying chocolate with wine is very different from pairing it with whisky. With wine you’d melt a piece half in your mouth and sip in some wine, with whisky however it soon became clear we had to seek a different approach because of the strong character and the alcohol.
What did work was sipping the whisky first, swallow and only then join in the chocolate chunk. The melting chocolate then eagerly mixed with the evaporating flavours of the whisky that last long in your mouth, and that’s a ticket for some nice experience!

Before, I assumed whisky would need by definition a strong chocolate bar, high in cacao percentage like a Michel Cluizel Infini 99%, or a Pralus 100%. But it unexpectedly got a lot more interesting and pleasant to discover that with these particular bottles from a Carn Mor ‘Vintage Collection’, any chocolate had a chance to match. We sipped from exquisite single cask whisky distilled by Balmenach, Clynelish, Glenn Ort, Glengoyne, Glen Grant,… and munched mainly on Pralus with his bars from Trinidad, Equateur, Madagascar, Indonésie, Papouasie, a lovely Brésil and Dominican Republic!

Just as with wine some made war, some separated ways only halfway, and some made love from the start! But above all it was a great discovery to have this sensation of whisky and chocolate finding each other on a long adventure of flavours, and from both ways enrich each other’s aromas and sensations.

To our own pleasure, and because we were really enthusiast ourselves on this experience, our final winning pairings are going to be launched in a limited box, so let me know if you may be interested in this as well!

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The Mexican variety “Soconusco” is said to be the first cacao bean variety cultivated by man. Though that would make me guess that both bars are rare Criollo beans, the Askinosie wrap says his beans are from the Trinitario family, which doesn’t really seems correct with his statements… confusing.

Let’s get tasting!

The Askinosie has a brown paper wrapper that refers to his artisanship, and the bar has a nice red toned brown color and is well molded.
A good snappy bite starts us up, giving fruity hints, tones of red fruit starting slowly, getting stronger and richer in the same tones, combining and melting down really nice, though tiny bit gritty near the end, leaving a bodied darker tone of tobacco or so. I think there’s really something nice going on at the US artisan chocolate scene, exciting bar!

The Bonnat Xoconuzco bar is a couple of months old but still in well shape, and won his previous battle. This Bonnat signature bar comes with a green wrapper, different from the usual wrappers. Its color is darker than the Askinosie, less red. Taste comes a little faster in this bar, doesn’t evolve as much. Also tastes rather different with more cinnamon, raisins, orange flavors, I’d say, but always sustained with a chocolate carpet. The house Bonnat experiments little, but you may be sure you‘ll get an excellent bar every time, that surely demonstrates his passion and experience.

In the end I’d take home the Askinosie Soconusco bar. I like its vivid style and very nice flavor curve. It melts down really fluidly, and well … this time I simply ended up with more fun putting the Askinosie on the palate

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The location was at The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, where an intimate group of people came to explore the world of cacao, most of them were new to all this. While we started tasting, Martin was introducing each time the specific character and idea of each of the bars, revealing secrets and backgrounds on the whole bean-to-bar process, with excellent insights and fun facts on the go.

For every bar, we all shared what we smelled, tasted, discovered, appreciated and disliked. As more and more bars went over the palate – we had a godelicious selection of 9 in total, see notes below – all of the ‘newbies’ got fascinated by cacao and realized this was something not to be compared with ‘The Usual Chocolates’. All of them swiftly described the different hints they detected (nuts, fruits, citrus, bitter, liquorish,…) and how the chocolate felt in your mouth (silky, grungy, smooth, butterfish,…), making this all very pleasant and sociable.
Really interesting were the parts where Martin had something special for the tasting group  like the cacao butter, and a chunk of raw cacao that he bought himself at a local farmer’s market in Cuenca, Ecuador… There were also dried cacao beans and nibs from different countries we could eat: I had a Grenada and an Ecuador bean, and though still far from a chocolate taste as we know it, one tasted like a hazelnut, and the other was much more bitter like walnuts… All so fascinating! And with trying out all this pure ingredients, I was getting really high and happy from all the substances!

List & some details of tasted bars:

1. Amedei Toscano Black 70: Amedei, named world’s best chocolate brand, this blend is all about cacao craftsmanship and setting a benchmark for further tasting.
2. Michel Cluizel “Hacienda Concepcion”: a bar used to debunk some of the myths of percentages and bitternes, it’s a typical smooth Cluizel with lovely fruity palate works.
3. Pralus Madagascar. One of my favorites, a fruity Criollo bar that has acid notes and a rather deeper darker taste with coffee-ish sensations.
4. Grenada Co: bar from a new batch of the lovely, small Grenada Chocolate Company. Smooth creamy texture, very good chocolaty taste. Remarkable to hear Martin say it tasted better than the same batch 2 weeks ago, as if it were a wine that only now got his taste in shape.
5. Akesson Madagascar: Akesson chocolate was really new to me, never heard of this brand. Very interesting bar with extravert flavor developments, a successful joint-venture product, crafted by a famous French chocolatier, with cacao beans from a plantation where also other top-notch brands get their finest sources. A bar I want more from…
6. Willie’s Venezuelan Black. Being more one of a UK TV hero, Willie’s Venezuelan was not my favorite, though not bad at all, but not really recommendable either.
7. Taza – Stone Ground: time for some USA bars now. This Taza was thrown in more for the sensation for its tradition inspired production by stone grounding, delivering the chocolate much rougher than the creamy and silky bars. Taza tries to get closer to some traditional approach of bar making, and though taste was pretty ok, resulting in a different, but generally less appreciated sensation.
8. Amano “Montanya” Lt Edition. Ah, up for some finely handcrafted American stuff, where a lot of good things are going on right now. I liked it a lot again, Amano bars have a very upfront sensation and this one makes me want to explore the complex finishings once more, again: fruits, nuts, spices are all there.
9. Amano Jembrana. A milk bar to close the evening, nice and different from the supermarket milks off course, but not mind blowing to me. (The Michel Cluizel milks are stunning I think)

Although I’ve been munching and tasting a lot of bars myself, this tasting with SeventyPercent really was pushing all of our senses forward: looking, rubbing, smelling, snapping, munching, melting, smacking, … The more you put effort in your tasting, the more pleasure you return yourself. Regardless of all I know to date, I still picked up a lot of new things from this intimate event and… I hope the have the same experiences soon for you too!

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Then we headed for the beautiful Amedei Porcelana. The Amedei Porcelana his is a very rare bar, and Amedei only produce a limited amount of Porcelana chocolate each year. The boxes are even individually numbered! The texture was a first big difference with Valrhona, but the flavoring really was like a slow hike on the discovery of cacao for the palate. The bar starts only slowly to release its various characteristics from subtle fruity tones towards a real chocolaty sensation.

Such and addictive signature taste had me grab on the famous “Amedei CHUAO” without hesitation: ranked one of the world’s best bars, to some even the reference. Contrary to the Porcelana, the CHUOA doesn’t have you wait to be indulged in a sublime and overwhelming cacao sensation. Darker, stronger, more powerful, punchy, and thick on the tongue, this bar reveals how intense and complex cacao can be.

To boost the comparison vibe at the table, Marcolini joined our exploration of origin bars. Both the Tabasco and Puerto Cabello came in with very pronounced flavors, both times however so strong you would even suspect Marcolini to add in spices and herbs. After the subtle and strong explorations of cacao with Amedei, Marcolini almost only seemed focused on getting one flavor in charge, which came a bit like a deception, but it depends how you look at it probably.

It’s an easy decision: the Amedei Porcelana and Chuao really got gold, mostly because they mastered to always keep a chocolaty undertone throughout a great palate experience, whilst staying close with the nature of cacao. They had superbly crafted taste curvatures, releasing flavors one after another.
The excitement isn’t that much in having one very particular flavor (I think this is where Marcolini focuses way too much), but Amedei crafts bars that bring the full flavor cacao experience to live, from the first moment you break a chunk until the last bit melted and swallowed along your mouth.

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The other novelty is the “Cacao Real del Xoconuzco”, an exotic name for a truly ‘original’ bar. I kindly got the bar gifted as a ‘secret extra’ from the Bonnat Team on the 2008 Salon du Chocolat in Paris, after I bought bags full of bars at their booth first off course.
It is actually produced from the cacao variety that was the first ever cacao bean cultivated by people, i.e. the Mayans some 3000 years ago. It was equally this Criollo variety that travelled across the ocean to Europe to be the first cacao savourated by kings and emperors centuries ago… Master chocolatier Bonnat now claims to re-launch the first bar with the “Cacao Real del Xoconuzco” since its last use in 1850.

Tasting the bars

The Xoconuzco smells wonderfully chocolaty and has subtle smoky tones.  The Criollo typically has more floral and a strong fruity palate. Both of them offer a nice tasting sensation in time, one that doesn’t shake too much, but softly swells along your mouth and releases its specific notes. The Criollo bar releases its taste pretty quick though, whereas the Real bar only at the end comes to full exploration.
It’s nice to see the difference in color too here, I enhanced the photo a little though to make it more clear. The Criollo typically is more red-toned, the Real bean maintains the darker cacao color, it’s just as like wines.

If I had to make a choice I’d choose the Real as winner. Though the “Manufaktum Madagascar 100% Criollo” has a more upfront taste, the “Cacao Real del Xoconuzco” makes you rediscover an original bean, and has a more darker, woody, chocolaty body. After all it’s all about the fun of discovering single origin cacao!
(More pictures on my Flickr album)

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The other time when I was in Paris I finally had the time to visit the small shop of Pierre Hermé at Rive Gauche, St Germain. It was at that time when I got intrigued by hunting down what chocolate these world class chocolatiers were actually using. Previous efforts trying to demistify a Callebaut, Belcolade or Chocovic in chocolatier stores got me angry faces more than once
People queueing outside the street made clear where the action was. The store was looking gorgeous: small, clean, modern with a lot of sobrely designed wood putting all of the macarons and chocolate creations right in the centre of your attention. What caught my attention really were the prices! I don’t even dare to mention some of the ganache and truffles!  On the shelves I spotted some bars including a “Origine Porcelana”, priced at a fat 10€. Wow, that is what I’d start to call really expensive stuff! I’ve bought Amedei at that price knowing that it was worth it, but here it was an investment for the truth. Turning towards a employee asking what the bar was made of, to my pleasant suprise he instantly revealed it was from Valrhona. I was struck by his open attitude as if he was used to answer the question. It even made me buy the overpriced Porcelana and some other bars to check out this Valrhona creation.

I don’t know what Hermé or Valrhona did wiht the bar, but I frankly was dissappointed. Where’s the taste gone, even the pacaking was rather cheap, with a bar coming wrapped in plastic foil. I had tasted much better Valrhona from their Plantation series in 2005 and 2006, but this one didn’t even come close to Porcelana As Magritte would say: ‘This is not a chocolate bar’. Lesson learned: if you want bars, buy bars from passionate bean-to-bar manufacturers.

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