Tadzio Vietnam, Venezuela, Brazil, Philippines

Tadzio, a one-bean; two-ingredient chocolate-making operation, taking inspiration from Japanese minimalism in his presentation, has a growing collection of cocoa beans. When life hands you cocoa beans, you make chocolate, when life hands you chocolate, you relish and write ...

Bén Tre, Vietnam 71%
From 2 batches, the second bettered the first. It was smoky, spiced, Bourbon, pecan nut, honey, maple, later came an occasional sharp acidity, but prior to that, it was fantastic with its flavours

Puerto Cabello, Venezuela 71%
A taste of cocoa husk, real-rustic chocolate, spice and marjoram, green notes and rocks. It had a smooth melt. The aroma hadn't been as inviting, but nothing from the aroma gets picked up in flavour. This one is rather chocolate-y! 

Bahia, Brazil
Rainbow Dust yields to roasted coffee. It melts so cleanly, quickly gone. I go back to this one a week later, it's still that lime and Rainbow Dust sherbet, but now it's followed with hazelnut, then raisin, meanders to Cadbury's Brazilian Darkness. Great flavours, and just really quite interesting. I am very familiar with these Brazilian cocoa beans, but not with this flavour profile. This chocolate had the smoothest, coolest and softest melt of Tadzio's collection

South Cotabato, Philippines 73%
Sweet and warming on the nose. Straight away it's toasty, a high roast - these Philippine beans are very small, so "easy to do" says Tadzio in revealing a possible over-roast. With the roasted profile is rich, dark chocolate. And then slowly develops a curry-like aura with fragrant spices. A really lovely chocolate

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!

Georgia Ramon Philippinen 80%

I met Georg Bernadini when judging at the Academy of Chocolate. Throughout the 2 days he gave me his chocolate to try and handed me four bars. A very friendly guy, who is serious about chocolate

Firstly the Philppinen chocolate. It was made with Filipino cacao, raw cane sugar, and cocoa butter. I like how it is made clear that the 80% cocoa solids is NOT 100% Filipino, instead maybe 94% of the 80% is [from the Philippines]

The aroma was fruity, chilli, hummus, wood, olives

There was bitterness in taste to begin, it was like sucking on cocoa powder (texture too). It calmed down and opened to soft flavours of hummus and baba ganoush, chilli spice, mushroom. Squidgy foods align well with the creamy-ish melt. There was an acidity of fruity flavours which COULD be found. The flavour returned to cocoa, finishing with toastiness

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"

Askinosie Davao 52% Dark Milk Chocolate + Fleur de Sel

I've had the original Davao by Askinosie at a 77%, a good chocolate. This chocolate has the Philippine cacao, milk and salt. The milk within is goats', so I found it unusual that this was not mentioned on the front

  

The aroma was Askinosie, it had that distinct Askinosie feel to it: quite light and sweet. This Askinosie-ness was also in taste

The flavour started as McVitie's digestives, the dark chocolate and caramel ones. Nearing the finish came the salt, and boooooom soft, full fat GOATS CHEESE. Thankfully, the goats milk smoothed over to create a creamier taste ... and the 'Askinosie' flavour was restored

This chocolate reminds me of when I bought goats milk assuming great taste because it was more expensive than cows. It made it taste like I took a generous slice of goats cheese with my morning oats and coffees. Goats cheese can be really good, but as for a milk in chocolate, the acquired taste was lost on me

Askinosie 77% Davao, Philippines

76% cocoa liquor, 1% cocoa butter (pressed by Askinosie) and 23% organic cane sugar; my first FILIPINO! chocolate

The aroma had the Askinosie signature, of which is something like marshmallows, sweet coconut, cotton candy (candyfloss), perfumed. It dominated, but the Filipino cacao did give an earthy depth with a touch of citrus

The texture was so smooth. The flavour had 2 differentiated levels, of which were in parallel and with vast space between them. The bottom level was earthy and tannic (astringent on the tongue), and the above was very light and prancy, with citrus and flowers (I thought Violet, Askinosie do actually suggest Lavender). Surprisingly, this chocolate does become quite sour or really sour

Davao is bitter, and that is how the chocolate starts and finishes; however, it is subdued, it is never a sharp bitterness. I had myself once a taste of Bombay mix, but the most memorable (and enjoyable) thing about this chocolate was the tangfastic sour burst

The overall flavour felt too roasted, but I loved the sourness. Though with that sourness, I'd have preferred more sweetness. After all, there is much love for sweet'n'sour in this world

Askinosie chocolate definitely has its own distinct flavour. And I would, without a doubt, be able to spot an Askinosie in a blind tasting