The Dark Chocolate Knight

Company: Solstice Chocolate Terroir: Sambirano, Madagascar  Blend or Single Origin Economics: Direct Trade, Fair Trade Values: Soy-Free, Vegan, Gluten-Free, Organic Price: Spendy! Sugars: 11g/32g bar

Summary from the Company: Sambirano is cultivated in a distinct, tropical climate along the Sambirano River. This chocolate has hints of citrus and berries believed to be a result of former fruit plantations enriching the soil during French Colonial Times.

Greetings, Citizens!

I’m back this week with the second of the Solstice chocolate I have on hand. I quite like this maker, thus far. They do something I love, which is make all the same darkness (70%) from different locations, so you can really taste the difference that terroir makes!

The Madagascar really is different from the Uganda. 

Their description says citrus. I find that mostly what this means is the taste is brighter and lighter. Like Kenya coffee compared to Sumatra. There’s a rich after taste of cocoa that’s quite lovely.

Between the two, I prefer the Uganda. This is a personal flavor note preference. Citrus notes just don’t speak to me.

Solstice is definitely a maker of note, though. And I look forward to trying more of their line!

Company: Solstice Chocolate Terroir: Bundibugyo Uganda Blend or Single Origin Economics: Direct Trade, Fair Trade Values: Soy-Free, Vegan, Gluten-Free, Organic Price: Spendy! Sugars: 11g/32g bar

Summary from the Company: Solstice Uganda premium chocolate bars are handcrafted from fine cacao grown in Bundibugyo. This area is part of the flourishing growth of cacao farming in Uganda.Taste Notes: This dark chocolate has a subtle bitterness of cocoa powder with fresh, earthy hints of berries and tree fruit.

Greetings, Citizens!

I’ve run out of new things to purchase at my local haunt, so I’ve had to reach out! If you’re in the United States and find yourselves in need of a chocolate ship, give Cacao Review a try. They currently have a Kickstarter up for their second Special Collection of limited run chocolate bars from the country’s bean-to-bar makers. 

So, to help support a chocolate vendor of their caliber, I picked up some makers I hadn’t tried before. The first I’ll be squawking about is Solstice.

Check out that color difference! The dark one is the Uganda. 

What does it taste like you’re, wondering? Dark and caramely, for starters. One of the Marou bars I’ve told you about previously had a very cereal grain, flavor, and I get that with this bar as well. 

The packaging describes the flavor as earthy. I could go along with that, but if your point of comparison for “earthy” chocolate is a Lindt 85%, this is much smoother, much less bitter. Not so much bite to the beak!

The color really tells the story here. My next review will cover the Solstice 70% Madagascar on the left in the image above, but a savvy human can probably predict what I’m going to say.

Company: Soma Chocolatemaker Terroir: Tien Giang, Vietnam Blend or Single Origin Economics: Values: Soy-Free, Vegan Price: Spendy! Sugars: 

Summary from the Company: Upon visiting Marou Faiseurs de Chocolat in 2013 we felt immediately jealous; Their funky workshop in beautiful Saigon, the vintage old roasters, & the fact that they can just jump into their old 1975 Citroen “La Dalat” and drive out into the countryside to purchase cacao beans. Their journey led them to this interesting cacao from the Mekong delta named “Tien Giang” of which we received a shipment earlier this year.

Greetings, Citizens!

Followers of this blog may know that I have a soft spot for Marou chocolate. Little did I know when I picked up this Soma bar that they too are in love with Marou! Their entire reason for making this bar was having visited Marou’s operation!

Good humans, Vietnamese chocolate is something special. As I’ve previously reported to you, every bar at Marou has a markedly different flavor profile. This bar from Soma follow in that tradition.

Inexplicably, this Tien Giang, unlike Marou’s, has a strong cinnamon flavor that comes entirely from the bean itself. I’m not sure what they did, but if Marou could bring out this flavor it would improve their Tien Giang bar.

One of the nicer Soma bars I’ve tried.

Company: Soma Chocolatemaker Terroir: Ecuador Blend or Single Origin Economics:  Values: Dairy-free, Vegan Price: Spendy! Sugars: unknown

Summary from the Company: After roasting cacao beans from Ecuador we mixed the nibs with Stratus red wine lees (residual yeast cells and grape solids left after the winemaking process) and aged them in an oak wine barrel. After three months, an incredible aromatic wine—infused cocoa emerged. We continued with our chocolate making process, grinding, refining and conching. The result is an elegant 70% chocolate with a heightened dimension of flavour. An experimental Soma chocolate bar with the subtle flavour of a Stratus wine. Only 400 bars were made 200 being sold at Stratus and 100 at each of our 2 stores.

Greetings, Citizens!

We are about to embark on a journey through the microbatch bars from Soma in Toronto, Canada. Why Soma? Well, the Academy of Chocolate awards came out earlier this year, and Soma gathered quite a few wins. I thought I would get some of these award winners and report back to you.

In no particular order, I’m starting with the Stratus 15. My flock and I tested these chocolates in whatever order they came out of the bag, without reading any of the descriptions first.

When we got to this bar... wow! What a difference!

It pops with red lusciousness. Berries, berries, all the way down. The chocolates we had prior to this one seemed like they were fruity. But they couldn’t hold a feather to this one.

What was its secret?

Turned out, it’s because the cacao beans were aged in the lees of Status ice wine. Wine. Infused. Cacao.

No wonder it tastes like fruit.

The taste is strong enough that I’m not sure a human could eat a whole bar in a single sitting! This is/was a short production bar, so there may not be any still available. But if there are, it’s one to give a try.

Company: Marou Terroir: Ben Tre, Vietnam Blend or Single Estate Economics: Direct Trade Values: Soy-Free, Gluten-Free, Nut-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegan Price: Spendy! Sugars: Unknown

Summary from the Company: When faced with the prospect of making a creamy milk chocolate, Marou looked no further than Ben Tré Province—a bright green patch of islands renowned for sweet coconuts and strong-willed people. A low dose of the province's cassia-scented cacao gels nicely with the essence of the fruit overhead.

Citizens, welcome back to Vietnam and my current favorite chocolate maker, Marou.

Normally, I wouldn’t bother you with something like a 55%, but I kept hearing good things. And sometimes you have to mix life up a little bit.

First impressions... tastes like coconut! This bar is softer than the pure darks, not as much snap to the beak. You can definitely taste the coconut, no denying it. But it goes quite well with the chocolate. Marou’s description of this one is spot on. After the initial impression of coconut, I find it tastes a lot like cinnamon!

There’s no cinnamon in the bar, though, so it’s all the quality of the cocoa coming through.

I don’t have any nutritional information on this bar, as there’s none on the packaging. But I imagine the sugars are up there. If I get any info, I will update the post.

By any measure this is a better option than your standard American milk chocolate. And by virtue of being coconut milk, remains dairy-free. 55% is still on the dark side, even for a milk. So, if you can’t stand that full dark bitterness, give this one a go.

If you love full darks... you still might want to give this one a go. I’m going to give it high marks, for being a (pseudo) milk chocolate that I would have again.

Company: Akesson’s Terroir: Bejofo Estate, Madagascar Blend or Single Origin Economics: Ethically sourced Values: Organic, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Vegan Price: Spendy! Sugars: 9.4 carbs/7.3g sugar per 30g serving

Summary from the Company: Located in the Sambirano Valley, in the North-West of Madagascar, the plantation produces since 1920 world-famous aromatic cocoa. Besides 300 tons per year of Madagascar trinitario cocoa, a very limited production of criollo cocoa (2 tons per year) is harvested separately. This chocolate has a very expressive cocoa aroma with subtle fruity-sweet tartness and pleasant flavour notes that evoke citrus and red berries.

Unbelievable!

Citizens, Akesson’s is a very award-winning chocolate. You previously saw me try their Pink Peppercorn bar to devastating results, but I was not deterred. Surely there must be something good about them!

So now I’m trying what I believe to be the staple of their lineup. 

It’s good. 

It’s great!

It tastes like potato chips.

squawk!

What did I say? Yes, humans, potato chips. I don’t know how this is possible, because there’s only cacao, sugar, and cocoa butter, but after the initial rush of rich dark chocolatey flavor, it tastes like roasted, salty potato. That sounds like it should be a bad thing, maybe, but it isn’t. 

It’s interesting. And as potatoes are a comfort food, it’s comforting, too. I don’t know what the company is thinking with their “citrus and red berries.” The potato chip flavor is even strong if I have this bar next to a Quetzalli 70% Criollo Tabasco. 

Highly recommended. 

Company: Original Beans  Terroir: Piura Valley, Peru Blend or Single Origin Economics: Charitable donations per purchase Values: Gluten-Free, Vegan Price: Spendy! Sugars: 9.7 carbs/5.5g sugars per 23g serving

Summary from the Company: Flavours of lime, raspberry and pecan divulge the secrets of an Ultra Rare white cacao–nature’s delicious mistake–we found along Peru’s coastal desert and habitat of hundreds of captivating butterflies.

The rare find of a nearly extinct white cacao variety in 2007, which we named Piura Porcelana, allows us to pay substantial incentives for sustainable cacao farming with high pay-back per hectare. Due to our ongoing reforestation efforts, the Piura Porcelana has grown back from near extinction to become a sustainable and profitable production.

Well, Citizens, I’ve decided to dive into this Porcelana bean business. Soma’s Porcelana bar won a 2017 Academy of Chocolate award, so this variety is buzzing a bit. 

After last week’s let down, I decided to find out if it was the bean or the bar. So I went to my 2beans and checked out some other Porcelana bars they had in stock. There were two: Amedei and Original Beans.

Original Beans is still spendy at $10, but literally half the Chocolat Bonnat price. So... what does it taste like?

Well, like a lot more than the Bonnat! It’s got a bright fruitiness to it. And a bit of that citrus bite that hits on the side of the tongue. I’m comparing to the (new!) Lindt 78%, which is strongly cocoa powder flavored. It’s definitely lighter in color than the Lindt and lighter in flavor, too. 

I can’t say that I taste the lime, raspberry, and pecan that the packaging claims. I can tell you it’s definitely not floral and not earthy. So their description is on the right track.

This feels so much more worthwhile than the Bonnat. I can appreciate the Bonnat’s creaminess. And it really was remarkably smooth. But that doesn’t feel like enough for the price. 

$10 for this, especially given that you are supporting a rare bean, especially given that proceeds are being used to replant trees, that seems like a fair deal. 

You can even see where the tree your purchase has planted! Given the good works the company is doing, I feel they deserve a step up. I was going to give them a 3/5 for flavor, because it’s nice but doesn’t rock my world. But saving rare flora! That deserves a gold star!

Company: Chocolat Bonnat Terroir: Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela Blend or Single Origin Economics:  Values: Soy-Free, Vegan Price: Spendy! Sugars: 14 carbs/9g sugars per 33g serving

Summary from the Company: This extremely rare cocoa is grown at an ancestral plantation in Venezuela and has an annual harvest of less than 1000kg. The name of the cocoa originates from the porcelain white colour of its cocoa beans. This cocoa has a very balanced aroma and the complex flavours of the land of Lake Maracaibo, which will delight your palate. With its combination of strong fragrance and delicate flavours, this chocolate will captivate any lover of exception.

Holy roasted beans, Citizens!

I’ve gone off the deep end. Flown the canopy. Cracked like an egg.

Citizens, I spent $20 on this bar. I asked the human at the counter if it could possibly be worth that much. She admitted that she’d never tried it but the bar had been selling well lately. (I suspect this is because a Porcelana bar won an Academy of Chocolate award this year, thought it wasn’t THIS Porcelana bar.)

I thought... at some point you must take the leap.

I think, that while this is a very nice chocolate, it’s not a $20 chocolate. My first impression was that it’s very creamy. It’s 75% dark, but has a rich feel to it. I tried my hardest to pick out interesting flavor notes, but the best I could do was a hint of toast. I feel that if I’m going to pay a lot of money, a chocolate should stand out in some way. 

There were more interesting things going on in the much cheaper Marou line. 

I can appreciate wanting to preserve a rare cacao bean, though.

For comparison, I also picked up Original Beans Piura Porcelana 75%, wondering if perhaps it’s just the beans themselves that lack zing. I can report that Original Beans tastes completely different. But you’ll have to wait until next week for the full details.

Keto Double Chocolate Chip Cookies for O Blood Type

The original recipe for this can be found on Peace, Love, and Low Carb. I made some substitutions and additions when the recipe didn’t quite work for me and increased the compliance for Type O and Genotypes Hunter, Gatherer, and Explorer, though Explorer is the least compliant Genotype. I haven’t tried a replacement for the peanut butter powder yet. No one makes an almond flour. I might try a hemp seed flour.

1 cup pumpkin seed butter

2/3 cup confectioners Swerve

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons peanut butter powder 

2 large eggs

2 tablespoon rice bran oil

1 tablespoon Brain Octane/MCT Oil

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract 

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup Lily’s sugar free dark chocolate baking chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin seed butter, erythritol, cocoa powder, peanut butter powder, eggs, oils, vanilla extract, and baking soda. Using an elecrtric hand mixer, mix until all ingredients are well combined. It will be a very thick dough. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Form the cookie dough into 1 1/2 inch to 2 inch balls. This will produce 12 good sized cookies. You can make them smaller to yield more cookies.

Company: Akesson’s Chocolate Terroir: Madagascar, Bejofo Estate  Blend or Single Origin Economics: Directly Traded, Organic Values: Price: Spendy! Sugars: 18.6 carbs/14.4g sugars per 60g serving (one bar)

Summary from the Company: Located in the Sambirano Valley, near Ambanja, in the North-West of Madagascar, Bertil Åkesson’s estate spreads over about 2000 ha and is divided into smaller plantations like this Ambolikapiky. Since 1920, these farms produce world-famous aromatic cocoa and spices (like this pink pepper) used by most of the top chefs and chocolate makers around the world. In this subtle chocolate, the fruity-sweet tartness of cocoa, its pleasant flavor notes that evoke citrus and red berries are enriched by the floral notes of our pink pepper.

Good morning, Citizens!

I was looking over the producers I’ve reviewed so far this year and the winners of the Academy of Chocolate awards 2017 and saw a glaring omission. Akesson’s. They won 11 awards this year, and I hadn’t tried a single bar from them!

So I flew on down to my local specialty shop, which I know stocks Akesson products. But... they didn’t have any pure chocolate bars save the 100%. And, I am sorry to admit my friends, I am not bird enough to eat a 100% bar. 

They had a 75% with black pepper. And I thought... this does not sound pleasant. And they had a 75% with pink pepper, and I thought... I like pink pepper!

So here we are. I’m not sure what I expected. I broke off a piece. And took a bite. And it tasted like chocolate. And pepper. A lot of pepper. Perhaps I envisioned some arcane alchemy whereby there would be hint of peppercorn and it would be like chocolate but with a dash of pah!

It smells like freshly ground pepper. It crunches with bits of freshly ground pepper. And in the end mostly tastes like pepper.

I cannot in good conscience call it a pleasant experience. This particular bar won an Academy of Chocolate award in 2015, so I feel a bit brazen disagreeing. But unless you were planning to make a mole or some other savory dish, I cannot imagine why this would be the chocolate you would choose to eat.

I’m not counting Akesson out. But I think I’ll be avoiding peppercorn chocolates in the future.