Hoja Verde 50% dark milk

Unfortunately, there is no beautiful shot of this chocolate. This dark milk chocolate is described as "a delicacy" by Hoja Verde, and it has been awarded 'best milk chocolate of Ecuador 2014'. I love the packaging, with cow spots along the side

Despite having tried this chocolate before, the aroma was not what I expected. It had tones of lucuma, cocoa and general lightness. It wasn't the floral-ness I was expecting from Ecuadorian cacao

In the mouth, the melt begun swiftly with a smooth, buttery, creamy, thick texture. The taste, like the aroma, was unique. I thought herby, dairy, lucuma. It was strange but ever so compelling

Hoja Verde 66%

My second look at Hoja Verde's organic chocolate. My first post was on their Quinoa bar, and I enjoy the Ecuadorian chocolate a lot, so now I go to their 66%. I bought this bar because during three rounds of sampling Hoja Verde it was my favourite

The cacao is grown in the forests of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. In addition there is cane sugar, cocoa butter and non-GMO soy lecithin

The aroma had soy sauce, wasabi, this was a sushi affair, smokiness. All very subtle, simultaneously creating a very attractive aroma. The mouth texture was smooth and buttery. The taste was light cocoa, with the herby flavour of wasabi, the glutinous rice and soy sauce together making it that sushi experience. But overall this chocolate had a warming chocolate flavour and great acidity

An impressive chocolate. Hoja Verde is good. I look forward to my dark-milk chocolate bar of theirs ... 

Hoja Verde 58% + Quinoa

This quinoa chocolate bar was gifted to me at the Chocolate Show by Hoja Verde, as quinoa in chocolate is an interesting and surprising pairing - Jolanda had said many question this bar, so thought it would be great for me to review!

The Nacional cacao beans Hoja Verde work with come from Esmeraldas in North Ecuador. And this is a bean to bar company, with the action happening at origin! This is great, and hopefully will inspire and encourage more to work this way, developing cacao sustainability and the HDI of commodity dependent countries

The chocolate had an aroma of flowers, the archetypal delicacy of Ecuadorian cacao, and suddenly a catch of malt

The texture was a Nestlé Crunch bar, as it felt like crisped rice, and almost reminded me of Cadbury's Double Decker. The chocolate itself was very smooth

The flavour was dark chocolate, nice and sweet, very creamy (not dairy, just creamy) and vanilla. There was no added vanilla, but there was non-GMO soy lecithin

The finish was very chocolate. And what a lovely chocolate this is! It was easy to eat, it was not bitter at all (though it was only 58%) and the texture was great

At the Chocolate Show I was glad to have tried all of Hoja Verde's range, as they had been on my list of chocolate to try since I found them on Cocoa Runners a few months back. One that I enjoyed particularly was their 66% (of which I couldn't resist buying...) and their 50% with cows milk

Hoja Verde is available here from Cocoa Runners! I highly recommend this chocolate