Ritual Novo Coffee

Ritual Chocolate are chocolate makers in Utah, USA. For this bar, the cacao had been grown in the Camino Verde farm in Balao, Ecuador, and the coffee is named Anyetsu from Novo coffee roasters, which is a sun-dried Ethiopian coffee.

The aroma was peppercorns (black, red and pink), coffee, caramel, digestive biscuits. The melt starts slow and remains a bit gummy, this is most likely because there is around 33% fat, which is considerably low. There is 10% coffee in this bar, but it is completely ground in so it gives a smooth experience.

The taste had a well balanced acidity with sweetness and bitterness. There was some yeast and earthiness in the background, but the flavours all round up in the finish, with digestive biscuits, Hobnobs and golden syrup. A chocolate of a digestive biscuit-flapjack hybrid... 

Dormouse Peru 80%

Cocoa beans from Piura, Peru of the Gran Nativo Blanco type, are such delicate and fine flavour cocoa beans. The beans, from Cacao Tales, are grown by cooperatives in Northern Peru, and they are the most awarded cacao beans grown in Peru, see here for more details.

Dormouse Chocolates, Manchester's first bean to bar chocolate maker, is a ridiculously skilled chocolate maker. So basically, this bar just suggests a real synergistic experience...

An 80% dark chocolate, made with cocoa beans and muscovado sugar only, meaning no added cocoa butter.

The aroma was caramel, lightly acidic, green apples. The taste had perfect acidity, with notes of lime, wheat, ash, rhubarb, and very caramel-rich from the molasses of the muscovado sugar. The flavour was so smooth, as was the texture, which could be explained by the grind and conche time having been 54 hours, all in a 2l capacity grinder, just some fine details for 'chocolate nerds'

This bar really amazed me. Sometimes 80% can be a little too high for me, but it was such an easy going 80%. So much so that I had the whole bar in just a couple of hours. Each piece literally made me say "wow", which I first noticed I was doing when biking in the sun through London 

NearyNógs Hispaniola 70%

NearyNógs first got my attention in early February, it was with their São Tomé 70%. The chocolate, from what I remember, was very good, and more interestingly so was that it had been made in Northern Ireland! 

Onto their Dominican Republic 70% bar, the ingredients are simple: cacao beans and unrefined cane sugar.

The taste had a great acidity, somewhat rich with red currants. The texture and flavour both felt like a chocolate brownie, the texture because it was quite a thick and uneven melt, the flavour because it's just mad chocolatey. This type of melt, however, works well with a taste like that... The finish had a 'green' earthy note to it.

This bar was enjoyed during the mid April heatwave in London. For me, it's always so good to have great chocolate in hot weather

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

Chocolate Tree Peru Chilique 70%

http://www.choctree.co.uk/product/peru-chililique-dark-70/

First tried this chocolate back in October 2016, and it became the ultimate highlight of the Chocolate Show that year, for me. It wasn't exactly ready for sale back then, and was only available to try on request - kinda like on a if you know, you know basis

A year later, and this Chocolate Tree Chililique 70% was again the highlight of the Chocolate Show for me, as well as the Gran Nativo chocolate they crafted (though this one was not for sale, more to showcase the Gran Nativo cacao to chocolate makers)

Aroma was at first not too loud, a little wheat and biscuity, some prunes. I go at it again, and bam! Sour sauce, peppery, herbaceous (oregano, thyme), um... Monster Munch crisps, MSG (monosodium glutamate), woaaaaah

It's a toasted bite, smoked. Then when on the tongue, it's sweet and sour, with the sour balancing with savoury notes. There is a strong acidic kick, like a squeeze of lemon juice. Nearing the finish, it's a smooth chocolate-y flavour that gets attention, a flavour that was probably always there, as the foundation

An avant-garde chocolate I feel. Good stuff

Dormouse Guatemala 72

Dormouse, micro batch craft chocolate, use Muscovado sugar, this being maybe my favourite sugar, and always they get their hands on really great cacao beans. This bar, as you can see, is a Silver award winning bar. Many people have mentioned the Gatsby-esq pattern of the packaging...

A strong aroma as soon as. A little ferment-y, very bright. Root beer spices. The flavour's richness is molasses and toffee, with acidity like lemons and fruitiness of blueberries. It becomes fairly tannic and oaky in the finish. I also picked up on milkiness and raisins a couple times

Strong aroma, strong flavour. I really love Dormouse craft chocolate 

Solkiki Marañón 70 Unroasted

This post is well overdue, having been given the bar at last years Chocolate Show (London 2016) and then finally opening it the following Easter

Bob and Iris are the two chocolate makers behind Solkiki, and when we met for the first time, this friendship meant they wanted to gift me a chocolate bar of theirs. Tasted all, listened to Bob give a little background into each bar, and my choice had to be the UNROASTED Maranon

Solkiki's Marañón was smoky, astringent on tongue, a little metallic, black tea. The melt was somewhat gummy. And overall, it left me thinking: I like that

Both Solkiki and Chocolate Tree have mentioned how delicate the Marañón is when it comes to roasting the beans, so it's a Peruvian region worth trying 

Palette De Bine 70% Guatemala

PALETTE DE BINE is a Canadian chocolate maker. The face behind the chocolate is Christine Blais. 2016 was the year of Canadian craft chocolate, I feel, so what a great year for me to have visited Canada and try lots of untested makers, PALETTE DE BINE being one of them

The 70% Guatemala: flavours of rooibos tea, wood, black currants, and overall very sharp. First impressions were that is was heavy on apple cider vinegar, but with subsequent tastes, it calmed down

In the International Chocolate Awards 2016, PALETTE DE BINE was immensely recognised for its quality

Soma Porcelana & CSB Chama

SOMA 2015 Golds. The Porcelana and the CSB Chama. The bars were bought in Soma's Distillery District, Toronto factory in the summer of 2016.

The packaging is cool on the eye. Somewhat flawed, or genius, in that it cannot be resealed

Porcelana 70% had an aroma of mulberries, chocolate, molasses. The taste was too mulberries, a stout like Guinness, cream crackers, fresh churned butter, the texture was very creamy. The finish was "chocolate" 

CSB Chama 70% is a Porcelana-Ocumare hybrid. The Ocumare is another Venezuelan cacao. The aroma was sweet and sour - punchier! Mulberries, fig tart, shortbread, very pretty. The taste started herby and creamy, then flowed in spices like aniseed and vanilla, then it became quite juicy. Fig biscuits. It subtly finished with prunes and chocolate, with the odd orange marmalade here and there 

Dandelion Chocolate

Founders with their backgrounds in the dot com bubble of Silicon Valley, now immensely respectable chocolate makers, Dandelion Chocolate is case study material. Chocolate factory & cafe, in San Fransisco and Tokyo, with menus too amazin

When Todd, founder of Dandelion Chocolate, visited Damson chocolate, he left 3 bars ...

Zorzal, Dominican Republic. Smooth in flavour, it was woody, walnut, caramel, brandy, chocolatey 

Camino Verde, Ecuador. Straight away digestive biscuits. It melts into chocolate fudge brownies, taking on my mum's approach to baking: cutting the sugar. It feels as if more sugar would have made the brownie-feel to be more effective, but overall super chocolatey and warm

Ambanja, Madagascar. Raspberry jam, liquorice, wholewheat, it was noticeably thicker in the melt. It was beautiful with its flavour. This one was so good, so, so, so good

Ombar dark, mylk, and centres

Ombar, what is its purpose? You would think that Ombar is selling itself on being raw, "RAW CACAO" being defiantly stated. Sure, people must buy Ombar for its raw-ness. But its differentiation is its live cultures. I mean, there are a few "raw" chocolate makers out there, using low GI sugars too, but none that enrich their chocolate with live cultures

I like live cultures

The chocolate is made with unroasted Ecuadorian cacao, cocoa butter, coconut sugar and Lactobacillus acidophilus. The occasional bar has vanilla, creamed coconut, and also the eponymous additions. Ingredients are organic, obviously; it would be super weird if this wasn't stocked in Planet Organic

The Chocolate Alchemist

The Chocolate Alchemist is a NOOOOTORIOUS chocolate maker in Philadelphia. The magic behind the chocolate is that they utilise cacao, and by doing so it becomes a "vehicle for true flavour, nutrition and energy"

The packaging, when in hand, is distinct. It is made from lokta paper (i.e. tree-free). The ingredients are all organic, and clean. Looking online there is great emphasis on paying fair prices for The Chocolate Alchemist's raw materials. Through and through this chocolate screams quality.

The 80% Philly Blend, a 5 different region blend, had an aroma of dill, coconut cream, vanilla, Muscovado, and a taste herbaceous, coconut, Muscovado, cream. The melt was a little sandy. The sugar was coconut sugar

The 75% Cultivagro was a single origin from Ecuador, sweetened with coconut sugar. I had the notes: smoky, lapsang souchong tea, leather, butterscotch, some peaty whisky; the mouthfeel had thoughts of astringency and tannins

80% Philly blend

The 90% Zarumilla, made from Tumbes Peruvian cacao, was super lime juice, pancakes, brown sugar, grassy bamboo, acidic juiciness, flowers. This one was sweetened by Colombian panela sugar

Clasico 60% was a dark milk chocolate, with a blend of 5 different cacao and sweetened by brown sugar. This was an inclusion bar with roasted hazelnuts, coconut, vanilla and salt. I felt this really could have been harmonious and toasty, it was instead quite raw in flavour 

Goat Maple 65% dark goat milk chocolate, with a blend of Dominican Republic and Peruvian cacao, sweetened with local maple sugar! It was like a creamy creamy creamy chocolate pudding, made with goats cheese obviously. The maple sugar here was a nice touch

Out of the collection, I was very much for the dark chocolates; particularly the Cultivagro and Zarumilla - these two being very nuanced 

Dick Taylor 72% Black Fig

image: Caputo's Deli

Dick Taylor, handcrafted in Northern California, bought in UK up-market supermarket M&S, wow! That is a great moment for craft chocolate. Selected Marks & Spencer stores currently stock Dick Taylor's Belize and Black Fig bars. Belize I've had, so Black Fig I had to buy. I am fond of Dick Taylor craft chocolate, mostly because of their Belize bar...

The ingredients: organic cacao from Madagascar, organic cane sugar, black mission figs. The chocolate itself is just 2 ingredients. The figs get sprinkled on the back, although less do than I expected (from having seen pictures)

It was pretty vinegar in flavour, though the subtle fig was a nice touch. This chocolate probably tastes like Chocolate Noise's fig and balsamic vinegar truffles, if I ever had one. It lacked the fruity quality of Madagascan cacao, harnessing predominantly the acidity of it. It had a smooth melt, despite no added cocoa butter. Admittedly, I think anything I have said or could say about this particular bar is unreliable, as it just didn't seem like Dick Taylor's approach, nor did it match what other people have found the chocolate to be, i.e. great. (batch no. 16195, if you're interested)

Hummingbird Hispaniola 70%

Hummingbird, who craft chocolate in Almonte, Ontario, Canada; won the Golden Bean award in this year's Academy of Chocolate awards, for their Hispaniola 70%. And so it was kinda the word that this Hispaniola was the BEST bar of 2016. The "best" bar of 2016 is recognised as something else from another chocolate awards, but it's alllllll relative

The aroma acidic, vinegar, cherry wine. The taste is chocolate, red wine, cherries, toasted almond. This chocolate melts smoothly and quickly, which enhances the experience. Cherry jam on toast, so very cherry

The first time I had tried I was underwhelmed, but now it has qualities I really admire. It is balanced, due to a great conche I feel. It's certainly nice, not a standout of 2016 for me, but nice! It took time to get my hands on this bar, everywhere sold out - eventually managed to bypass a waiting list of 100+ people in Toronto

I found the packaging to be unfortunate, inside and out; there was too much going on with many different fonts and images. This, along with the peripheral information is the forgoing of great design. It gives off a European vibe, not in this decade 

Soma Old School

Soma's Old School chocolate range is basically "chocolate as it was back in the day: simple and pure". Cocoa nibs and organic sugar (and milk powder if it's the milk bar) get ground in Soma's vintage melangeur and pressed together. Usually chocolate is further refined, conched and tempered, but not these Old School bars. These bars are designed to have a crumbled, biscuit texture

I cannot remember the DARK Old School cacao origin, but as it tasted of raspberry jam and vanilla, I'm thinking it could be their Madagascar 66%, maybe, just maybe. The bar's texture was like a biscuit (cookie), and you get them sugar crunches

The MILK bar ... just freakin' delicious. It's only 38% cacao, that being Chuao cacao from Venezuela - known as pretty rare cacao - and the rest milk powder and organic sugar crystals. It was sweet, with a taste pretty chocolatey and brownie-like. The texture was again fun

A great creation from Soma!

Risa 70% Bicolandia, 70% & 60% South Cotabato

Risa is a bean to bar chocolate maker in the Philippines. I discovered them at this years Chocolate Show in London, without even a smidge of recognition; it's always exciting to find new makers

The cacao in their chocolate comes from the Philippines, from two regions: Bicolandia and South Cotabato. The ingredients include cacao, sugar, cocoa butter. They also have a "coco" sugar bar which is made with the South Cotabato cacao and coconut sugar! 

The Bicolandia 70% had dill, dairy creaminess, yet a dryness, and sand in the aroma. The taste was coconut, cocoa nib, metallic. A pretty raw, earthy profile overall

Next up, the South Cotabato 70% was demerara sugar and fig on the nose. The taste was caramel, winter spice, brown rice. So rich, especially in comparison to the Bicolandia!

The 60% South Cotabato with Coco Sugar had an aroma of creamy coconut, butterscotch Angel Delight (the bittersweetness of coconut sugar), and buttermilk. The taste was coconut straight away, with then chocolate, coconut milk pudding, butterscotch, oatcakes and sooo digestive biscuits!

Sirene Guatemala 73%

beanbaryou.com.au

Sirene craft chocolate in Victoria, Canada. They use directly sourced cocoa beans and cane sugar, that's it. For this dark 73%, the Guatemalan cacao comes from the Lachua farm, in the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala

The aroma roasted, liquorice and Sherbet Fountain (British confectionary), oak, walnut skin, pancakes 

The taste was sherbet, lime, sweet - I feel these notes came from the sugar. Raspberry Slush Puppie and raspberry seeds, toasty black, Jammie Dodger coated in chocolate, swiftly moves to a BROWNIE finish. The very finish had black tea leaves, Oolong maybe - something earthy. Tannin bitterness

This 73% was a very smooth chocolate, an even paced melt and good mouthfeel. Impressive

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!