Forever Cacao Coconut Milk 55%

Pablo Picasso, Rothkos, Rilkes. The man behind Forever Cacao, Pablo.

Forever Cacao work with Ecotribal to protect the strains of heirloom Ashaninka cacao. The Ashaninka are indigenous people living in the Peruvian rainforests, and Ecotribal is an organisation that work alongside indigenous communities to promote sustainable livelihoods and rainforest conservation

The Ashaninka cacao, grown by the Ashaninka, is organic Peruvian Criollo beans that Forever Cacao solely uses, along with organic coconut sugar and organic cacao butter

Here is a coconut milk bar

An aroma coconut. Great snap. The chocolate melts so cooly. Taste of dark, rich butterscotch, coconut flakes, subtle notes of coffee and blackcurrants. It's not too sweet, and with a good cocoa hit. I love it

Congratulations to Forever Cacao for winning Silver in the International Chocolate Awards 2016! 

Malmö Kaffekross

Malmö are Swedish chocolate makers, and I don't think I recognised them. I discovered this chocolate at the Chocolate Show, after tasting it from the International Chocolate Awards

The packaging is all in Swedish. The chocolate is made from cocoa beans, cane sugar, milk powder, cocoa butter, coffee and vanilla. I think the sugar is unrefined 

The aroma was a milky coffee. The taste was a chocolate coffee (mocha). My first go at this bar I could taste the cocoa butter (with it also being dominant in the texture), this wasn't good. However, every day afterwards it tasted so good. Chocolate, rich, coffee, grass-fed butter, slowly transitions to the taste of ... Double Decker!!!! 

I appreciate the thiness of the bar. The texture was bitty, with crunches of the sugar throughout; this style surprised me

Overall, I loved the richness

Svenningsen The Nordic Chocolatier Grated 100%

Svenningsen is the Nordic chocolatier who uses Friis-Holm's chocolate. Friis Holm is bean to bar chocolate made in Denmark. Award winning. Many, many, many awards. Svenningsen is new on the chocolate scene and already award winning

Ahhhh, Svenningsen's minimalism, typeface, letter-spacing, word-spacing, balance

The Grated 100% chocolate won gold in the Scandinavian rounds of the International Chocolate Awards 2015 as well as silver in the World rounds

This is a dark chocolate ganache consisting solely of Friis-Holm's La Dalia (Lazy Cocoa Growers Blend) and water. La Dalia is Friis-Holm's chocolate that is a blend of Nicaraguan cocoa beans from 10 different cacao farmers in the La Dalia region of Nicaragua, of whom are named "lazy"

The shell of Svenningsen's chocolate is the 70% La Dalia, and the pure water ganache is the 70% with gratings of 100%. A single nib on top. I just love this minimalism 

It's subtly fruity (darker red fruits) and warming. It is rich, and with a smooth buttery texture that melts cooly. The texture contrast of the hard shell and soft ganache is satisfying. There is a suggestion of salt amidst, but Svenningsen says there is none

The Grated 100% is  i n t e n s e  and feels like  l u x u r y

Fresco 241 Madagascar 74%

With trial and error, it appears that Fresco have found there to be just one recipe that works best with the Sambirano Valley, Madagascan cacao, and that is recipe no. 214. This is the cacao having been lightly roasted, and the chocolate "medium" conched

The aroma was soft, with cocoa, aniseed and light fruits. The taste was cocoa, fruity, floral, very liquorice, wheat. Very nice and soft. The bite and melt felt brittle, but this happened to be an old bar (check the old style of packaging...)

A new day gave me rubber, smoke, rich acidity, like a Papua New Guinea / Madagascan blend. Overall, an enjoyable bar of American craft chocolate!

A few weeks later I come back to the chocolate, it's liquor filled chocolate coated plums, a flavour with Polish reminiscence

Fruition 100%

Fruition handcraft their chocolate in Shokan, New York. They are one of the major and early chocolate makers, in the world of craft chocolate that is. They are probably responsible for other makers existing, probably ...

... Craft chocolate is captivating and inspiring

This 100% is a blend of Dominican Republic and Peruvian cacao. The particular bar I had was of batch #4, such an early batch meaning probably made a few years back

The aroma was wood, oak cask. The taste was cocoa, wood, lots of wood, raspberry, sweetness, raisin, eccles cake. Each piece highlighted different flavours. Once, unfavourably, I found it to be very bitter and mainly just cocoa. Although my first and general views on this 100% was that it wasn't bitter

This was a smooth 100%, a minimally drying feel on the tongue, although a little tight in the finish. The flavour in the finish was black tea, seriously black tea

Cócó 45% milk & 70% Dark with salt

Cócó are Canadian craft chocolate makers, making their chocolate in very small batches in Kingston, Ontario. Kingston is known as a university city; it's pretty hip, particularly when it comes to its eateries and general vibe (there are a lot of young people)

The 45% milk chocolate was sweet, with coconut, cinnamon, chai and creaminess. It wasn't a smooth melt, with it clogging in the mouth, but overall it felt warming. The ingredients were organic cane sugar, whole milk, organic cocoa butter, organic cocoa mass

It's labelled as a "dark milk", although it is not so dark. Cocoa mass is last on the ingredients list

The 70% dark chocolate had an aroma of coconut and chai, similar notes found in the milk, it was a rich dark chocolate aroma, with little vanilla tones. I would believe this to be the Oko Caribe cacao too, then. Oko Caribe is Dominican Republic cacao

The flavour was coconut, cocoa, floral, very well balanced. It had a simple chocolate flavour. Very rounded. There were nutty and subtle malt notes. It had a slow melt, with the award-winning Achill Island sea salt sparking whenever crunched. The salt was pretty intense. It was nice. It worked best when catching the salt nearing the finish of each bite. Overall, an enjoyable chocolate!