Zotter Labooko 75% Ghana & Colombia

Zotter's Labooko CONTEST range pairs two chocolate bars together for comparison. The range mainly includes different origins at the same cacao %, to show the diversity of cacao flavour

 

The Ghanaian had an aroma very chocolate and of wheat. The Colombian was more fruity and herby, with gherkin. In picture, they look very similar, however in real the Ghanian was a little darker

The snaps were crisp and clean, typical of Labooko dark

The flavour of the Ghana was wheat, chocolate, cake batter, with something almost meat-like. The Colombia, on the other hand, was more flavourful. I did expect that! It had fruits and acidity, garden cress, tequila. The Colombian was a lot more vibrant

The idea of the comparison seems a good starting point to those unaware that different origins have different flavour profiles 

Zotter Labooko Bouquet of Flowers

Unfortunately, none of these pictures are mine, all are taken from Zotter's website! The chocolate melted when in my pocket, and it was late, so I thought best not to take pictures...

Firstly is the "Cashew Nougat with Meadow Flowers" bar. It was a cashew nougat blended with milk chocolate. There were marigolds, daisies, cornflowers, with a touch of lemon and cinnamon. Then the "Almond Roses" bar, which was an almond nougat made with caramelised Spanish almonds and blended with white chocolate, covered in rose petals, enhanced with a little rose oil, ginger and cinnamon!

I will just note that Zotter says the Almond Roses bar is a white chocolate, but cocoa mass IS on the ingredients list (cocoa mass is not in white chocolate, only cocoa butter). The ingredients of these bars are also a little different to what it says online. Zotter has occasionally confused me with their ingredients list

To be honest, I did not have high expectations of the chocolate. I took a bite of the roses bar, and oh! my! god! Then I went to the cashew flowers bar, and wow! I was trying to figure out WHICH I preferred, oscillating from each. I just couldn't, both were incredible 

Zotter Labooko Ecuador 75% Arriba - Los Rios

Yes, another Zotter. What we have this time is a dark chocolate, with the cacao within having grown in the Los Rios region of Ecuador. Often you may see "Arriba" written on Ecuadorian chocolate bars, however strictly speaking "Arriba" refers to cacao which is grown in the upriver areas of the Guayas River. It's a word often used correctly! Like this time. But other times it's used more as a marketing tactic

An aroma so wheaty, with cocoa and a touch of fruit (thoughts of jam). The taste was strawberry jam, guava, chocolate-cherry-jam

Zotter's Labooko chocolate is always smooth, and this bar was no exception. I feel as if I have no more to say about this chocolate, so I shall leave it at that

Zotter Labooko Nicaragua 60% milk

So, Zotter's 50% Nicarguan milk chocolate is supposedly the best milk chocolate out there, according to Georg Bernadini. The 50% is something I do not have, but here is the 60% Nicarguan milk chocolate instead! A little richer in cocoa ...

The cacao within is from Don Francisco in Nicargua, there was whole milk, cocoa butter, raw cane sugar, vanilla and salt 

An aroma quite creamy, with cocoa butter, vanilla, white chocolate

The taste was creamy, with bitterness (or more a lack of sweetness), prettiness, Belgian truffles/pralines, chocolate sauce, ice cream, chocolate pudding, vanilla

The finish was bitter, hay, barn and cocoa 

The chocolate had a smooth back, nice sheen, a smooth, buttery melt. It tasted like a blend of milk and dark chocolate. It wasn't wow, but it was not bad

Zotter Handscooped Walnut-Marzipan

Zotter makes 365 different chocolate bars in Austria, all using his own made chocolate, all organic, all fair-trade. In regards to the flavours of those 365 bars, some are classics, others more innovative. Zotter's single origin bean-to-bar range, named Labooko, is one I am particularly familiar with. Then there's Zotter's Hand-scooped range ... so many bars are oh so tempting, and few greatly experimental; think 'blood' 'artificial fertiliser' or cheese as flavours in chocolate

The Hand-scooped is quite the iconic range. And one evening, I had the temptation of walnut and marzipan

An aroma of chocolate biscuits and Italian amaretti biscuits. The look and feel reminded me of Penguin chocolate-biscuit bars. The taste was of biscuits, and the texture, with its prominent crispy bits. The crispiness was from the walnuts, of which had been caramelised and blitzed and mixed into the marzipan. Suddenly comes the attention-grabbing marzipan flavour

Of course there's amaretti/amaretto vibes, of course. The rum within gave bitterness, a bitterness that worked so well with all the flavours

The chocolate coating was so creamy, it's Zotter's dark-Mountain-milk chocolate. The ganache layer was gianduja-like, maybe because of the overall nutty flavours. My last bite I had a tiny speck of salt, and it gave a refreshment after such richness!

It all just worked, so well, so well indeed

Zotter Labooko Papua New Guinea 75%

Zotter's "island dream chocolate" is made from Papua New Guinea's first cooperative to meet all organic and Fairtrade criteria. Like all of Zotter's Labooko bars, this chocolate contains raw cane sugar, added cocoa butter and salt

The aroma had a lot on offer. Purple grape, smoked, black currants, butter, vinegar, metallic and peachy

The taste was chocolate, a blunt fuzzy sweet-sourness to it, wood and blueberry. It was very mellow with a toasted cocoa finish

This Papua New Guinea has a good smokiness and acidity. I liked it more the second time around. It can bought from Zotter (spend £15 to qualify for free delivery) or from Cocoa Runners (spend £20 for free delivery)

Zotter Labooko Belize Toledo 82%

The cacao within Zotter's Belize Toledo (minus the added cocoa butter) is grown by Mayan cacao farmers, who live in the middle of the jungle away from the restless Belize City. I chose this bar as I've had Zotter's Belize Special before. Both having cocoa beans from the Toledo Cacao Growers - could they be much different? 

The aroma was literally a perfume; there was juicy raisin, leather, prune, bergamot 

The taste was dark, bitter and roasted for a long while, and annoyingly 'watered' down. It takes some time, but finally comes some fruitiness - and quite a bit of fruitiness. Once there was a herb, though I never worked out which, and bergamot and it was fairly floral

The answer is yes, they could be much different. I had preference for the Belize Special over this 82%. It has taken me a while to consider but I notice Zotter Labooko has a distinct note to it that suggests bubblegum and flowers. And oh, I feel Belize cacao has more flavour than Zotter lets on...

Zotter Labooko Loma Los Pinos 62%

Made from Yacao cacao from the Dominican Republic, conched for 16 hours with quite a bit of sugar, because that's "just the way Latin Americans like it"

The aroma was archetypal 'fruity' chocolate, it too was green (with a dryness) and leather

The taste was fruity, red jammy, toasty, sugar syrup, blackberry. It was pretty sweet and classically Dominican - fruity! Later with my second bar I found it to be that little more complex. Thoughts of Unicum (Hungarian liqueur), but then more specifically I picked up on liquorice root

The texture was smooth, kinda gummy, and the snap wasn't sharp. Overall, this chocolate had a nice flavour and relaxed experience. It wasn't as stimulating as other dark chocolate, I could easily substitute a milk chocolate yearning for this

Zotter Labooko Peru Barranquita 75%

This chocolate had a 20 hour conch. The beans were from Barranquita village, which is on the banks of the Rio Huallaga, in Peru. They were said to be fruity and floral and 100% Trinitario

An aroma of bubblegum, blueberry and raspberry. I thought of the Hubba Bubba® tape. It was very flowery, though nothing specific to myself. There was a numb (zest-less) citrus orange and cherry brandy too. Overall, very comical

A scuffed surface

The taste started cocoa, it was very slow and buttery, then came the blueberry/raspberry and flowers, then back to cocoa and cocoa butter. It was a short lived flavour, as in the fruity/floral notes. It was a shame to receive so much of a 'cocoa' flavour

Overall, a slight dissatisfying Labooko bar, especially when I had such high expectations. It had too much cocoa butter for my liking, making it very fatty, disrupting the flavour and creating a very buttery texture

Zotter Pistachios

I found this bar on special in a chocolate shop in Budapest, I couldn't resist. Mountain Milk Chocolate with marzipan and pistachios. The Iranian pistachios were "first processed into marzipan and mixed with aniseed tea, then garnished into the almond-nougat base layer" - I bought unaware of it having marzipan

Overall it was an enjoyable chocolate bar, I am partial to the chunkiness of Zotter's handscooped bars

However, it was the almond marzipan that dominated. The pistachio and unsurprisingly the aniseed, lemon, rose and cinnamon flavours were lost

I liked that it was creamy tasting and as was the 50% cocoa Mountain milk chocolate coating. I enjoy marzipan so I wasn't too disappointed with the lack of pistachio, but I couldn't help but wish that the pistachios were roasted and salted - especially after Hotel Chocolat's Salted Pistachio 

Zotter Labooko Congo 68%

As Africa, regarding its cocoa, is associated with "bulk cocoa", when an African country gives its name to a single origin chocolate bar, I can understand why some may be skeptical

Zotter does a 17 hour conche for these Congo beans, of which derive from a 1km altitude, adding raw cane sugar, cocoa butter and a touch of salt

The aroma was roasted, smoked, blackberry, blueberry, sour, a familiar weirdness (I always think this particular smell in chocolate is piss), spiced, a little bit nutty

The mouth texture was satin, beautifully smooth, though occasionally maybe too buttery. The flavour started roasted and smokey, opening up the sweetness (of which resonates from now on), blueberry, sourness bursts in, the roast lingers and finishes, the finish is very clean. This structure was consistent, the middle flavours making me think 'a dark chocolate, blueberry, Greek yogurt/sour cream smoothie' - distinctly that sourness to it. There is a taste of banana along with the creaminess of banana present

UPDATE 27.7 - the flavour was predominately *chocolate* 

An impressive chocolate from these highland cocoa beans, the microclimate may have done them wonders

Piquant and tangy: if, like me, that's what you're in to, then you'd really enjoy this chocolate. One thing I didn't like was the heavy roast, but Zotter is an excellent chocolate maker so thankfully the roast didn't distract away from the wonderful flavour of the beans (unlike Willie's chocolate often does...)

Zotter Mitzi Blue Coffee-Malt

"Oh wow" was my brother's and my reaction to this chocolate, we knew it was good

This was a coffee milk chocolate disk with a grain coffee (substitute coffee: rye, chicory, barley, acorns & figs) 'Mini Mitzi' lighter coloured disk! All ingredients (but salt) were organic and the cocoa, raw cane & whole cane sugar, and the real coffees were Fairtrade

The smell was creamy cappuccino, mocha and so dreamy. And the Mini disk had a malted touch, slightly artificial on the coffee spectrum, it had me thinking of Ovaltine

The taste was creamy, mocha, a rush of caramel. Again, it was so dreamy. The Mini Mitzi (smaller disk) tasted of cinnamon and gingerbread with malt and caramel. Going from the Mini grain coffee disk to the coffee chocolate brought bitterness to the palate

Although I only chewed this chocolate, its texture was smooth and the Mini was softer

I am a Zotter enthusiast, I love his bean-to-bar, fun, organic chocolate! I thought this chocolate was so relaxing and the cinnamon made it so warm. The grain coffee chocolate was inferior to the real coffee chocolate, but it still was lovely

Zotter Mitzi Blue Marrakech

Oh cardamom, rose and cinnamon, how beautiful you are in a 40% milk chocolate. The aroma was predominately rose with such a delicate cardamom

The taste then favoured cardamom, with the rose ever so soft. It had a smooth texture, and tasted so chocolatey. The almond nougat disc was beautiful, it only tasted of cinnamon. There was a citrusy and floral touch, which would have been the orange blossom

Beautiful flavours. I was overwhelmed. I particularly loved the cinnamon! And I particularly love that Zotter is organic, fairtrade and use raw cane sugar! 

Zotter Labooko lactose-free Milk Chocolate

Lactose-free milk chocolate. I love Zotter's Labooko range, with its origins and flavours, but I'll admit that I was somewhat underwhelmed when given these bars, not to sound ungrateful, of course, I just didn't have a lactose intolerance. Little did I know that 'lactose-free' simply meant a sugar removed from the milk: no biggie

The 35% cocoa, cow's milk-milk chocolate smelt like white chocolate; it tasted rich like white chocolate. If it was a white chocolate, it would have been the best white chocolate I had ever had

The taste was rich in cane sugar, vanilla and toffee. I loved it. It had a smooth texture, excellent temper, mould and snap. The only thing I didn't like was fructose-glucose syrup listed on the ingredients, I had never seen this in chocolate before, and there was more of it than there was cocoa mass. But oh god was this chocolate good

The 40% cocoa 'milk' chocolate smelt familiar. Racking my index of smells, eureka!: The Raw Chocolate Company's Vanoffee. It was an aroma not too pleasant

The taste reminded me of, dare I say, 'cheap' chocolate. Occasionally I came across the finely ground cereal [millet powder] which enhanced the texture. The finish was kinda malty

Zotter calls it a milk chocolate, but it contains no milk ... the ingredients are: cocoa butter, raw cane sugar, millet powder, cocoa mass, salt & vanilla. What makes it a milk chocolate is that the millet within was originally made into 'millet milk', a vegan milk substitute, and then dried into millet powder, just like regular milk is. I did not enjoy this chocolate

If you have a lactose intolerance, and even if you don't, I recommend the 35% milk chocolate bar! And if you're vegan, maybe stick with Zotter's Labooko dark chocolate. A little reminder that Zotter chocolate is made bean to bar, organic and Fairtrade!

Zotter Scotch Whisky & Amaretto-Marzipan

That of Zotter I know and have experienced, I am confident in saying that the chocolate is exceptionally high quality. All ingredients are organic and the chocolate itself, made bean-to-bar, is Fairtrade. With the flavours being so innovative, and the branding especially unique, one could be no less than over the moon to receive a few Zotter chocolate bars, from the man himself, to taste and review!

Zotter currently make just over 100 hand-scooped bars! If I had to pick only a few from the range to try, the Amaretto-Marzipan bar would have certainly been one of them. There are many flavours that will blow your mind, either because they sound so heavenly or just so wild

@ZotterChocolate: At recent tastings people said "you must have a huge development team". They looked stunned when I replied "no, just one man-Josef Zotter" 

The Scotch Whisky bar had a great texture, as I'm sure you can imagine. A thin layer of couverture and then a soft, smooth ganache. Let it melt and oh boy. The taste throughout was whisky, with even the 70% cocoa coating tasting of the spirit. The ganache was ever so creamy and sometimes rather punchy with its flavour, but it didn't give that sensation that whisky does. You know, that throat burning one. Overall, it's an enjoyable flavour pairing, and I guess far more forgiving than pairing chocolate with your whisky drink

The Amaretto-Marzipan had a 60% dark milk chocolate coating. "La Dolce Vita". The coarse textured marzipan was soaked in amaretto and laid upon an almond nougat layer. I had expectations of this chocolate being magical. I liked it, but found myself only really enjoying it at its finish. As at first, the plethora of almond (marzipan, liqueur, nougat (flavoured with almond oil)) seemed almost superfluous. But a few more bites in and the chocolate harmonised with the almond; a delicate and sophisticated flavour had been born. Though still not quite bedazzling, and with its less indulgent mouthfeel, it grew on me, and what I liked most was its bittersweet flavours and how it evoked a taste from my childhood

Zotter Labooko Belize Special 72%

This chocolate consisted of Belize cocoa mass, raw cane sugar, cocoa butter and salt, and had been conched for 18 hours. The Belize cocoa mass is the most expensive cocoa Zotter sources, therefore giving reason to the "special" in its name

The aroma was oak, whisky, raisin, floral, and had an acidity that I often call 'urine' which quite suggests the cocoa's fermentation

Belize Special's taste opened with whisky and olive oil, with an almond perking up occasionally. When I've had whisky, I've always loved the sensation but despised its oaky taste. And this chocolate was like a whisky on the rocks, after the rocks had melted. I could taste a toasty roast, and it also reminded me of cherry brandy chocolates. When chewing, it tasted like Italian amaretti biscuits (in particular those cakey ones wrapped in the white paper: Amaretti Autentici). The aroma at times also reminded me of Italian seasoning mix (parsley, truffle, porcini mushroom, garlic etc.). I think the flavour of this chocolate was very sophisticated

It had a reasonably smooth texture. I think this chocolate is for those with a maturer palate. I didn't love it, but it grew on me

Zotter Labooko Milk Brazil 35%

This Labooko Brazil was much lighter in colour compared to the Santo Domingo 40% I tried recently. In this chocolate there too was added salt and vanilla, but, unlike the 40%, there was also soya lecithin and cinnamon (though for some reason cinnamon was not enlisted on the packaging). All ingredients, but the salt, were organic and the Brazilian cocoa mass was Fair for Life certified, being purchased direct from two families in the Amazon. Like all of Zotter's chocolate bars, my two 35g bars came wrapped in gold paper and had a delicate hold

The colour was camel brown, surprising for a milk chocolate. It had a creamy aroma, similar to the Santo Domingo... must be that mountain milk Zotter uses! It was sweet, coconutty, floral with a hinting of spice. The chocolate had a firm snap with a soft touch and a moderately smooth melt

The flavour opened with caramel then up came a wave of cinnamon. It was sweet, creamy and the cinnamon was poetic-like, lingering to the very end of the chocolate. It was such a lovely taste, an Autumn chocolate for sure! I already had a love for cinnamon, having an excessive amount on my porridge daily, but this chocolate reminded me and made me appreciate just how beautiful cinnamon is

A card within every Zotter bar

This chocolate made me feel warm. Whilst tasting, I pictured a hot, creamy beverage with cinnamon dusted on top and a few cinnamon sticks to its side. If this chocolate was a drink, I wouldn't mind having a quick dip of a homemade gingerbread man

I really enjoyed this chocolate and thank Chocablog for it (expect several more thanks as I received quite a bit of chocolate from him!). It can be bought here for £3.95

Zotter Labooko Milk Santo Domingo 40%

This Zotter chocolate had a healthy cocoa % for milk chocolate. It had a considerably high cocoa butter ratio, with the Santo Domingo cocoa being less than 21% which overall suggested a weaker cocoa/chocolate flavour one would expect from a 40%

The milk chocolate contained salt and vanilla. All ingredients, but salt, were organic and majority were Fairtrade. The Hispaniola beans were noted, by Zotter, to be "particularly mild" and had been mildly roasted with a short conche time

The chocolate smelt goood. It was incredibly creamy with a lime acidity. Cocoa and sweet caramel were also recognised. The flavour was similar. It was again immensely creamy, with a mild chocolate flavour which was then surpassed by a very distinctive milk, almost like sour milk (most likely the lime cutting through the heavy creaminess)

The chocolate had soft flavours, in particular a very soft chocolate flavour. The mild cocoa, mild roast and short conche are apparent. The texture in the mouth was smooth and had a clean chew (this is excellent with milk chocolate). The snap and texture was hard. The salt nor vanilla were tasted which simply showed that they were used to enhance the flavour of the chocolate, not to add flavour

Thank you Chocablog for this chocolate. For 70g (2x35g bars), this chocolate can be bought here for £3.95