Tag Archives: Mangaro
Report: Choqoa Tasting Event 10.1

Report: Choqoa Tasting Event 10.1

by on February 10, 2010 in Tastings & Events

The first Choqoa Tasting Event this year was again very different from the previous editions, and not only for the reason that people came from across the country to attend our Antwerp session!

Choqoa Chocolate Tastings

Among the attending chocolate explorers we had Gunther, one of the founders of a chocolate brand (Baru, Diepenbeek), eager to learn about making his own chocolate in some future; Geert, a dedicated chocolatier & patissier who passionately cares about his base Valrhona couverture (Patisserie Vercruysse, Kortijk); and Mo, who runs an inspiring lunch bar and is a former winner of the Best Sandwich competition!

I found it pretty intriguing given their background they often did heard of several of the top chocolate brands we tasted, but hadn’t take the effort or had the chance to taste every variety that they could get their hands on? On the other side also some US brands like Taza and TCHO were not unknown and I was happy to have a TCHO ‘Fruity’ bar on the tasting table (thanks to @ActiveLife). And with brands like Zotter and Pacari, I had something new to offer even for these professionals :)

It was utmost pleasant and charming to see how participants discovered variations in freshness, color, melting patterns and lingering aftertastes by themselves. Even to the detail where they felt one bar more coming up in front or gathering in the back of their tongues and palates. All added their views and knowledge on chocolate and food so we got some lenghty talks along the tasting session as well.

Eventually, again this gourmet chocolate tasting event was full of fun, sharing tasting impressions and notes, discovering the immersive world of real fine chocolate, and brainstorming on future possibilities!

Continue reading for details on the tasted bars…

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Spreading the Passion

Spreading the Passion

by on October 20, 2008 in On Chocolate & Cacao, Reviews

Lately I’ve been ‘sacrificing’ quite a lot of my premium bars to my friends and family to invite them into the world of chocolate, or better the world of ‘my’ chocolate. Because the only way to really enjoy your passion is to share it with others and listen to their input. From the Dusseldorf Collection I already briefly reviewed the Hussel Madagascar, Pralus Venezuela, and the Neuhaus Ocumare, origin bars I had taste at several visits. I wrote a story about my nephew with the Michel Cluizel 1er Cru ‘Mangaro’ and also with a bunch of various people shared a Pralus Colombia, Domori’s Sur Del Lago Classificado and their Arriba, a Coppeneur Trinidad bar and finally also unwrapped a Valrhona Ampamakia 2007 vintage.

Spread the Passion

The Pralus Colombia was mild and fudgy but came with original flavours, again a typically dark roasted Pralus bar that tempts you to discover its terroir aromas. The first Coppeneur I tasted was a Trinidad, and though the first impression wasn’t delivering a lot of ‘wow’, it seemed to taste distinctively better the day after; is it because the cacao had had the time to acclimatize after being sealed in so long in its plastic foil? The Ampamakia 2007 was a known friend from Madagascar, whose mild fruity character and gentle texture pleases to many. Both the Domori’s were a big discovery, since they manage to create indulgent, well-tempered smooth bars that taste far from ‘chocolate’, and with their very expressive hyper-aromatic characters they are definitely an hate-love challenger brand to introduce to people.

Armed with a short introduction into origin chocolate, people were all curious to expect and experience something different, and tasted the chocolate chunks with patience. Almost all of them spontaneously started talking about the taste of cacao on other terms than good or bad, and put aside the ‘bitter’ cliché. I never pushed them into a certain feedback or direction, but on every moment I had offered a tasting, people were into describing various flavours and textures rather than nag on the bitterness of bars.
It works better if you immediately showcase more than one origin bar, so people can nibble from various aromas and experience the differences and character varieties instantly, which always brought the taste discussion on a higher level.

Spread the passion!

The perfect tasting of an innocent child

The perfect tasting of an innocent child

by on October 13, 2008 in On Chocolate & Cacao

When I returned home this weekend from a family trip, my 8 year old nephew wanted to watch a video before bringing him back to his mom. I inserted the company presentation from Belcolade that I just received from a friend who works at Puratos/Belcolade as a Communication Manager.

My nephew was instantly absorbed by the world of chocolate and he started mouthwatering for a bite, and so I offered him a piece of a Michel Cluizel “1er Cru de Plantation Mangaro” that laid on the table. I actually did this on purpose to see how a little child would react on something so different from the supermarket quality chocolate people are used to buy. Just like the previously reviewed  Hussel Bejofo Madagascar, the 1er Cru Mangaro is cultivated in the rich valley of the Sambirano river, where Cluizel’s plantation flourishes on the land of a former mango tree forest.

Micel Cluizel. 1er Cru de Plantation - Mangaro

He was particularly delighted by the taste and I asked him eventually in an innocent way to describe me what exactly he tasted. To my fun and surprise he closed his eyes and said that only when you close your eyes you taste the aromas so much better. Where did he pick that up?! I insisted and asked him what aromas exactly he could discover in this Michel Cluizel bar… he rolled with his eyes and closed them back and soon after regaling his small chunk, promptly said to taste strawberry, closed his eyes again and a little later also reported oranges! I couldn’t resist laughing out of admiration…
This 8 years young expert evaluated the taste of chocolate with fruity descriptions! This in itself was already amazing, but also how close did he came: The Cluizel Mangaro effectively has tones of citrus and orange in particular, and though strawberry maybe too sweet a description, the bar is being classified with a fruity character and hints of raspberries.

I was astonished by the fact that even a child described this chocolate in a very original way, immediately discovering the rich variations in fruitiness, and hence that he evaluated the bar far away from anything bitter that is usually a prejudice when it comes to ‘dark’ chocolate. I guess I’ll have to hire my nephew whenever I may eventually start a cacao business :-)