Pralus is one of my favourite cacao brands. I appreciate the complexity they manage to manage to mould in a single bar, which results in a exciting tasting adventure (almost) every time. Pralus bars are also very expressive and seldom mild in taste. This also means that even within the huge cacao varieties, you can have something like a ‘brand image’, a signature taste pattern you should be able to recognize through the whole range, much like the Haute Couture creative directors manage to achieve every season for their collections. (For the record, I’ve read the chique Amedei packaging is actually designed by the Chanel house)

The Pralus Venezuela bar is one I estimate high in my favourites range. It’s a Pralus, it’s rather rough, but moreover Venezuela is close to the roots of cacao and used to be the world’s biggest cacao producer. And not to forget Chuao, a tiny village located in the northern coastal range of Venezuela, famous for its cacao plantations where some of the finest cocoa beans in the world are produced. More on Chuao later though… let’s focus on the Venezuela bar!

I tasted this 75% single origin bar a couple of days ago with friends, and upon unwrapping the bar, the smell that was released immediately took my attention from the chat we had to the bar I had in my hands. Next to the seducing scents, the colour was wonderfully deep dark red brown. This seduction of nose and eyes only gets better with the first medium soft bite, dragging along into a complex story of various savours and sensations.

As the dark redness of this bar forebodes, slightly bitter and dark cacao tones open the bouquet with power, though a slight dusty aroma also seems to hang around. The texture is not a smooth as e.g a Valrhona but nonetheless you have a rather creamy bar while it melts away. As it gently does so, it releases smooth aromas with butter, some very light acid tones, but without betraying its blackness with always coffee, woody, and leather in the foreground. Every bite is an opportunity to concentrate on a different aspect of the taste curvature, this is definitely not a simple bar.

My friends are totally not into dark chocolate, let alone single origin bars. However being a enthusiast cacao evangelist, I tempted them into tasting a small chunk from both the Hussel Bejofo I had already on the table, and the Pralus Venezuela, so at least they could experience the huge differences in the universe of cacao bars.

Friend B. was very surprised by the rich bouquet each of both bars offered, and spotted the differences in taste and feel right away. Funny enough he spontaneously began comparing this new experience with wine tasting, which I found very amusing and interesting, since that what this blog is all about. Taking dark single origins bars to friends, evangelise the ‘new’ chocolate and changing the ‘bitter’ prejudices into sweet ‘experiences’.