Mast Brown Sugar

60% cacao, brown sugar, cacao butter, buttermilk. The cacao beans are from Tanzania, but this detail was found on the Mast website not packaging, most likely for the minimal aesthetic, but cleverly allows for cacao deviation

This particular 28g bar was Brooklyn-made, bought in Shoreditch. It had a gummy melt, obvious not much cocoa butter added, although suffice to create a milk chocolate (that would be 35% cocoa butter minimum). It was very sweet, especially so in the finish. The flavour was distinctly Mast Brothers'

Overall, I like Mast Brothers' flavoured chocolate a lot, this one wasn't a standout bar, but it was nice enough. I like the colours on the packaging, and the texture of that too. The chocolate having brown sugar and buttermilk feels American, I like that too

Mast Brothers Coffee

60% cacao, cane sugar, cocoa butter, buttermilk, coffee beans. The Mast Brothers' website tells me the cacao origin - Tanzania - when the packaging fails to. There is no mention of the coffee, in terms of what coffee it is. Although I don't think it would be Stumptown's coffee, because that would surely get a mention

I picked up this small 28g bar at Mast Brothers in Shoreditch, London. It had actually been made in the Mast Brooklyn factory, "surprise!" What would the locavores do?

The standard 70g Coffee bar would have been made in London, but not the 28g miniatures; the same applies to all within the Mast range

Really great chocolate. Fine flavour cacao with coffee will always get me. The texture was really smooth, the flavour was open, deep. Just really sound chocolate

I would love to do a side by side comparison of this coffee chocolate. Few pieces Shoreditch-made, few Brooklyn-made and LA too

Mast Brothers Sea Salt

image MastBrothers.com

This bar of Mast Brothers' Sea Salt was bought in Los Angeles, made in the Mast's Brooklyn factory

The chocolate is a blend of Madagascan, Tanzanian, Peruvian and Brazilian beans. This isn't stated on the packaging due to the Mast's new minimalism. I found out such detail from their website

The first thought when opening the chocolate went to how great that salt looked. Clustered-up, thoughts of purity

It had an earthy aroma. In taste, the salt was instant sweetness of the chocolate, flowing to saline and the ocean. The chocolate was bitter, seeming a little 'tainted' with chilli, there were biscuit notes, but then great juicy fruits (blackberry) too. Tannins surface nearing the finish

The texture was smoother than what I had expected to come from Brooklyn-made Mast chocolate. However, I am sure that a company like Mast Brothers, after hearing light speculation that the London-made chocolate is better, is all for constant improvement

Mast Brothers Olive Oil Chocolate

Dark chocolate and cold pressed olive oil. If you're in the craft chocolate circle, you'll either be shocked that Mast Brothers have ditched single origin from their range, or you just won't care (in pretence)

To the nose: woody, smoky, slow to get the olive oil, but olive oil was most definitely there, red fruits surface. The bite was soft, reminiscent of gianduja, the melt was smooth and cool. An olive oil flavour poured out, with peppery and very acidic chocolate

The goodness hits just before the chocolate is gone! But that goodness was awesome. The finish was a little bitter and astringent, so it was a shame that the chocolate ends poorly, but I really liked when the cacao shone through: cacao = fruity, jammy. Mast Brothers work with blended chocolate now, but I *think* this has definitley got Madagascar in it

Mast Brothers Vanilla & Smoke

A chocolate bar before Mast Brothers' wordmark became MAST, and before Vanilla & Smoke became just Smoke. Mast Brothers have recently launched their new range, and seem to have removed the vanilla from this Papua New Guinea smokey chocolate

The 'smoke' comes from the Papua New Guinea cacao beans being smoked. I feel confident in saying that this post-fermentation act was done at source, due to Papua New Guinea cacao being most commonly fire-dried, which naturally adds a smokey flavour. Mast Brothers stating that it is smoke is good, as we know what to expect

scuffed because from NY to LA to NY to LDN

It's an aroma of smoking car tyres. The taste was smoke, leather, vanilla comes in super quick, the smokiness flattens out and brings out pure cocoa. A nutty taste then leads to citrus acidity, which then rounds to mulberry acidity, all whilst smoking

The texture of Mast Brothers is a lot better than I remember. I liked it. The Dominican bar I had last year was pretty dry, but this Smoke & Vanilla bar was a huge improvement in texture, with the delivery of flavour being more successful 

Mast Brothers 73% Dominican Republic

'Brooklyn based Mast Brothers' is, by far, the coolest wording attached to a chocolate maker, or any business for that matter. The cacao in this chocolate was organically farmed, grown under the canopy of banana and citrus trees

The packaging was charming. The colours, patterns, the front sticker stuck on unevenly, the sticker on the back mentioning "craft chocolate", just charming. Using a knife, I ripped open the paper wrapping. A sweet smell touched my nose, though my eyes were dissatisfied at the sight of bloom

Imagine a bowl of exotic fruits, each sliced in half, their juicy insides catching the sunlight, and then chocolate melting upon it all. That was the aroma. But predominately it gave way to more raisin, prune and sour cherry, red wine, molasses, toast, strawberry, and once a rich creamy cheese. It was immensely balanced  

The flavour was tannin, red wine, spice, raisin, unripe banana, and bitter. It was classic and not too complex

The texture wasn't smooth and was fairly dry. Explanations for this would be that there was no added cocoa butter, and the conching/refining process not being as experienced as, for example, Domori, due to Mast Brothers being small batch, craft chocolatiers. The snapping and chewing felt brittle, but the brittleness was, I think, worsened as it had bloomed. The chocolate was slow to initiate melt and therefore took a while to experience the flavours

Mast Brothers' Dominican Republic was favourably fruity. There were several aspects I didn't like too much, such as the tannin and astringency, and the dry, slow melting texture. But, as a bean-to-bar, craft, single origin, purer chocolate, it was pretty wicked, and at its climax it had the most beautiful, developed, red flavour