Blanxart Brasil 76%

Having exhausted nearly all of Blanxart's dark chocolate origins, it is probably time to call it quits now

The cocoa in this 76% Brasil bar had grown in the Amazon rainforest. The plantation from where the cocoa had grown is located on the Transamazonian road between Belém and Itaituba. Belém in Portugal has the best pastel de natas. Anyway, back to the chocolate - that is not affiliated with Portugal - the ingredients were cacao, sugar, cocoa butter and vanilla, all organic!

The aroma was sweet, and sherbet, and suddenly very fruity! The taste was a chocolate bar with a squeeze of lime. There was a subtle coffee cream which would round the finishing flavour. The melting texture was smooth

My first thoughts upon this chocolate were that it wasn't great. It did have too much added cocoa butter, and it had that undesired tainted feel to it, but really it wasn't that bad. I enjoyed it particularly in a baguette from Gail's Bakery, or dipped in a non-speciality coffee

Blanxart Milk Chocolate with Caramelised Seeds

Blanxart, the Barcelona chocolate maker, is no stranger to me. This packaging, however, is. The plastic wrapping allows the display of the chocolate, which is very pretty, although it does prove to be difficult to 'use' (to open and to get the chocolate out). High aesthetic value, low ergonomic value ... something like that

The chocolate felt almost greasy to touch. The mouth texture was gummy. The aniseed and sesame were excellent flavours when they would sing through, they were very distinct and concentrated 

I feel this chocolate should take on Hotel Chocolat's mantra of "more cocoa, less sugar". There should have been more of a chocolate flavour, it lacked cocoa notes and was just so sweet. A richer chocolate (i.e more cocoa mass) would have really complemented the caramelised seeds

The caramelised seeds were excellent, the chocolate itself unfortunately let them down. Like a pizza that has bomb toppings, but an abominable base ... something like that

Blanxart 71% Filipinas

Blanxart have been making chocolate in Barcelona since 1954. The back packaging flatters the San Isirdro cooperative, giving mention to their contribution in the quality of cacao in the Philippines. Blanxart's ingredients list is all organic: cacao, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla

The 125g bar had the familiar unattractive mould, first seen with Blanxart's Peru 77%. The aroma was minty, peppermint, almond, vanilla. The taste was lightly hazelnut, fatty (thoughts of Nutella®, coconut and palm oils), ganache-filled chocolate, the texture was like ganache too. There was no bitterness at all

Overall, this chocolate is not complex. It is boring, but yet so easy to eat, which then in this sense makes it enjoyable. A paradoxical chocolate, and I felt it to be very "traditional European"

Blanxart 77% Perú

White Criollo from Piura. Chocolate made from these beans have never disappointed me, and I have had several different bars! For this 77%, the cacao beans have been cultivated in plantations in the area of Quemazon and Chulucanas - and these are two names I like a lot

The aroma was vanilla, sweet 'n sour, bamboo leaves, pineapple. Snapping the chocolate, it looked smooth and 'well made', as there were no air bubbles. The taste started bitter then sour acidity, cherry blossom, toasted. The chocolate had a bitterness throughout

The texture was surprisingly grainy, I was literally crunching sugar. From previous experience with Blanxart, I do not remember their chocolate being this grainy

This was a difficult bar to finish. It wasn't bad chocolate, just not a chocolate for me. As 77% is a fairly high percentage, there was too much of a roasted profile dominating the ratio to sweetness 

Blanxart Dominican Republic 72

The aroma was vanilla, leather, cocoa, slightly smoked, roasted. For a Dominican Republic bar it's not something I quite expected, as I've known its cacao to be so fruity. HOWEVER, Hispaniola cacao was once known to be more earthy and robust with tobacco etc.! 

The flavour was as I can only describe as Bruce Bogtrotter's chocolate cake (from Roald Dahl's 'Matilda'). The taste came in layers: a fine cocoa dusting, followed by an intensely rich, dark chocolate creamy ganache, then finally a slightly sweeter moist sponge. Surprisingly the chocolate yielded a clean finish

I know many who are in love with this bar, and it's extremely popular at Cocoa Runners ...

It is interesting how such a pure chocolate flavour comes from this Dominican cacao, especially with such specifics of being grown in "Medina, Provincia de San Cristobal"

There are times when small-scale chocolate makers working with fine cacao wish for solely a *chocolate* flavour, not "raspberry, peaches and leather" - in this case the Chocolate Alchemist will advise you to blend your cocoa beans, as a *chocolate* flavour is not one single molecule, but an amalgamation of many!

However, this 72% Blaxart is not a blend... So, if you're working with one origin and just want that chocolate flavour, could you simply find cacao beans with a *chocolate* flavour? It's possible. But you'd be better off higher-roasting to eliminate those fancy nuanced tasting notes (e.g raspberry, pineapple, hazelnut), aerate to further diminish those nuances and add vanilla. It seems likely that this is how Blanxart achieved such chocolatiness

Overall, this chocolate gifts a warm, rich experience