El Caibo Bolivia 75% & 60% with Coffee

El Ceibo chocolate is made with beans grown by the farmers of El Ceibo in Alto Beni in Bolivia

A craft chocolate enthusiast returned back from Bolivia, and over coffee at Workshop Coffee, walked me through his Bolivian trip. He, Tommy, visited few plantations, bought a lot of Bolivian chocolate, and brought home with him a cacao pod. From what Tommy had told me, I learnt a lot about El Ceibo: from the land and the cacao to the fermentation and drying

"our land / our trees / our chocolate"

All the cacao within is organic. The 75% was leather and vanilla smelling, OK. The melting texture was slow. The taste was metallic, roasted, earth, with a strong acidity sparking up. The acidity was good, quite sour, different

The 60% dark milk ("dark milk" being very in right now) with organic Bolivian coffee. The coffee had been grown by El Ceibo. The coffee added crunch. It was overall sweet, caramel, tropical juice, beautiful

Why is it that tree-to-bar chocolate, that is chocolate made at origin, is a rarity amongst the craft chocolate bars found in the US, Europe etc., of where craft chocolate and "bean to bar" are the buzz words of GREAT chocolate? 

Original Beans Beni Wild Harvest 66%

The Beni Wild Harvest is a chocolate greatly admired, and very popular with Cocoa Runners (£4.45). The wild Beniano cacao that makes this chocolate grows on cacao forest islands in the Bolivian Amazon. And when it comes to the chocolate, Original Beans says it is delicate, yet expressive. Original Beans supports the preservation of Beni's forest islands. The ingredients are: fair-wild cacao, cacao butter and raw cane sugar (all organic) 

An aroma of earth, lapsang souchong (smoked tea), honey, apricot and figs. The taste was toasty, dark dark chocolate, it felt darker than 66%, there was slight bitterness, followed by subtle fruitiness, which opened up to essential orange oil, and now the chocolate was rather sweet. There was vanilla, leather, and pure richness. The finish was cocoa-rich dark chocolate

Introducing air into the mouth (aeration, achieved by taking an imaginary sip), I found a distinct liquorice. The texture was smooth, like the Swiss chocolate it is. The snap was crisp

Firstly I was underwhelmed with this Beni Wild Harvest, in my memory I had it down as being more "wild" in flavour, as I have tried the Beni many times before. Although admittedly I don't know if I just made that "wildness" up now, due to its name. The chocolate certainly grew on me. It wasn't so complex, I just enjoyed it's rich chocolatiness. If you love the pure chocolate flavour you will love this bar. I particularly love the ethics behind Original Beans, which you can find out more here

Bettina & Niccolò Corallo

Bettina & Niccolò is a coffee shop located uptown Lisbon. The picture above isn't the best, but it was from the angle I arrived at. So believe me when I say that the interior was fantastic! It was simplistic: wood decor, a glass window below the counter showing thin slabs of chocolate piled on top of each other - all different types. Behind the counter was a lime green La Marzocco making espressos and coffee bean bags hanging on the wall