Goldfinch 74% Belize

I took a small step back from the chocolate industry over the Summer and Autumn 2017, which meant I hadn't heard of Goldfinch chocolate, usually I am so on it with new makers. It wasn't until I met the maker randomly at my weekend job that I discovered this new UK bean to bar chocolate maker. She was looking at bean to bar chocolate; I saw that as an opportunity to spark a conversation with a stranger about great chocolate

We got talking, found out she was a fellow chocolate maker, which then lead to being given a chocolate bar, of which stayed so close to me until my shift finished. As soon as I got home, I had to try this unheard of chocolate maker!

The cacao from Belize started very juicy, flowers, blueberry, bubble gum (reminding me very much of Brazilian cacao), it was also super chocolate-y. There was a bright, lively acidity. The finish lingers a slightly bitter, hoppy flavour, but it was a long, long finish, which is always good

I can taste and feel that the chocolate is well crafted

The Goldfinch website looks very slick and at the moment has two different origins available (Belize and Dominican Republic) as well as a couple added flavours. The maker is lovely, the chocolate is lovely, and I look forward to seeing more of Goldfinch chocolate

Chocolat Madagascar 50% Milk Chocolate

Woa,    I'm pretty sure this is my first post on Chocolat Madagascar

This is a 50% milk chocolate, so essentially a 'dark milk' chocolate. It won a Bronze award at the 2015 Academy of Chocolate

It has a pretty low added sugar content at around 25% (ignoring the natural sugars in the milk), which is less than your 70% dark chocolate. The ingredients puts cocoa butter first, followed by whole milk powder, cane sugar and then cocoa beans (plus sunflower lecithin)

The aroma is rich, wheat, metallic, malt vinegar. It's slow to melt, but once it gets going it's pretty consistent. The taste starts with barnyard, wheat, malt, then simple 'cocoa' flavour comes in. It has Demerara sugar and toffee flavours dispersed within a balanced acidity

The finish is very fresh and clean, which is helped by there being a lot of cocoa butter. There is actually a lot of cocoa butter here, making chewing it feel too fatty, but it makes the chocolate melt very smoothly. This chocolate seems super French, no political correctness 

The finish is somewhat tannic or raw wholemeal bread dough. An enjoyable milk chocolate, easy to eat...