Hoja Verde 50% dark milk

Unfortunately, there is no beautiful shot of this chocolate. This dark milk chocolate is described as "a delicacy" by Hoja Verde, and it has been awarded 'best milk chocolate of Ecuador 2014'. I love the packaging, with cow spots along the side

Despite having tried this chocolate before, the aroma was not what I expected. It had tones of lucuma, cocoa and general lightness. It wasn't the floral-ness I was expecting from Ecuadorian cacao

In the mouth, the melt begun swiftly with a smooth, buttery, creamy, thick texture. The taste, like the aroma, was unique. I thought herby, dairy, lucuma. It was strange but ever so compelling

Hotel Chocolat Rabot 1745 Colombia 75% Aractaca

image from Hotel Chocolat

The cocoa beans in this chocolate are from northern Colombia on the Caribbean coast. Hotel Chocolat give extra details such as the cocoa being a 2013 harvest, having a roast of 25 minutes at 130°C and with a refine and conche of 60 hours. As a high street brand, this is good to read, as even amongst craft chocolate such explicit detail is rare

The aroma was raisin, smoky, cherry, nice. The taste was noticeably acidic, with then tannins, H2O and finally metallic notes. Overall it was pretty sour

I appear to have messed up settings on my camera

In texture was the fine sugar particles. There was no soy/sunflower lecithin, whereas in other Rabot chocolate there often is. I think this is interesting

Kiskadee Dark & Creamy Puerto Rico 70%

Kiskadee is a small batch craft chocolate maker in Austin, Texas, U S A. I bought this bar from Chocolatiers where there are a few more Kiskadee bars available. With only two ingredients, the cacao from Aguada, Puerto Rico mixed with 30% pure cane sugar, this chocolate appears to have taken the purer chocolate-making approach

The aroma was tropical fruits, metallic, biscuits and mango. The flavour was fruity, so very citrus, predominantly lime. It had the darkness of dark chocolate, without bitterness. There was a bit of nutmeg, pepper, vanilla, nuttiness. Meanwhile, I thought: wow, I haven't had a chocolate like this in a long time (i.e. before Christmas). This fruity flavour is one I often associate with craft chocolate; I like it, alot

Ideally there would be more fat, as the texture was brittle and it failed to melt adequately. But the aroma, flavour, and 2-ingredient-list made this a very adorning bar of chocolate

Hoja Verde 66%

My second look at Hoja Verde's organic chocolate. My first post was on their Quinoa bar, and I enjoy the Ecuadorian chocolate a lot, so now I go to their 66%. I bought this bar because during three rounds of sampling Hoja Verde it was my favourite

The cacao is grown in the forests of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. In addition there is cane sugar, cocoa butter and non-GMO soy lecithin

The aroma had soy sauce, wasabi, this was a sushi affair, smokiness. All very subtle, simultaneously creating a very attractive aroma. The mouth texture was smooth and buttery. The taste was light cocoa, with the herby flavour of wasabi, the glutinous rice and soy sauce together making it that sushi experience. But overall this chocolate had a warming chocolate flavour and great acidity

An impressive chocolate. Hoja Verde is good. I look forward to my dark-milk chocolate bar of theirs ... 

Talamanca Totonac 75%

A look at another elusive, authentic micro-batch chocolate, and again bearing the Costa Rican origin. The other chocolate I am referring to is The Beach Chocolate Factory's

The 75% cacao comes from Finca La Isla estate in Playa Negr, this estate belonging to Talamanca themselves. The ingredients for the Totonac bar was as follows: cacao, organic sugar, vanilla. The name 'Totonac' is after the Totonac people being the first producers of vanilla

The aroma was vanilla, little orange, but simply a vanilla-infested dark chocolate. Vanilla is ubiquitous in mainstream and cheap chocolate, however pure vanilla is an aroma so charismatic, and the vanilla in this chocolate was just that

A hard snap. The taste was classic hot chocolate, Mulino Bianco chocolate biscuits, potent vanilla, and overall quite uplighting (I feel the brightness came from the fresh vanilla). It wasn't incredibly rich, but that's okay. The finish was an assortment of biscuits