#tttt_s

Posted @withregram • @cocoaencounters As I had already posted about the sensational @solkiki_chocolatemaker smoked bars for #tttt_s week, I couldn't use again for #tttt_smoke but after reading the post about the @somervillechocolatecsa by @myic2016, I realised I could twin with the suggestion of tasting smoked bars as a drink and see how the smoked chocolate flavours behaved in a different state. So I did! 🍫❤️ I chose the Gran Chililique Smoked Orangewood, as for me, this is the one with the most pronounced smoke notes: a real peaty aroma that permeates through the dreamy tropical fruit notes as the flavours unfold, revealing both the character of the smoked orangewood and even more sides to the personality of the Gran Chililique cacao. Adding a little water and enjoying the flavours as hot chocolate added yet another dimension to my experience of both. The notes, this time instead of delivering intensity bring an openness to the tasting experience, the flavours are more accessible and gentle but still distinct, enticing and delicious. I loved it, and it turned out to be a great accompaniment to Young Americans 🎶 Thank you @myic2016 for the inspiration. 🙏 #fridaymood #fridayfeeling #tttt_2021 #smoked #woodsmoke. #chocolatetasting #hotchocolate #hotchocolatetime #davidbowie #youngamericans #craftchocolate #chocolatepairing Looking forward to hearing your experience @myic2016 with smoked hot chocolate too. ☕️🍫❤️ https://www.instagram.com/p/CWeKW4gNo3L/?utm_medium=tumblr

Posted @withregram • @cocoaencounters It is Sunday of #tttt_s week, and time to share the smoked bars from @Solkiki. Having previously tried the award winning Gran Nativo Applewood Smoked, I bought the remaining three smoked bars with a view to tasting them all together. 🍫🍫 Smoke is definitely not something I would normally embrace in my chocolate but I remember a singular batch of #Taino from @duffyschoc which, for some, had an undesirable smokiness but for others, including me, it brought an intriguing new dimension to the tropical fruit notes in the bar. Working on a whisky pairing with @@dramitwhisky, I used this smokey profile in a pairing with a sweet, smokey Islay whisky, the Ardbeg Uigeadail. This highlighted the toffee notes in the whisky and altered the smokey notes in the chocolate, harmonising with the sweet pineapple and chocolate notes. Even after this experience, the words chocolate and smokey on a bar still make me nervous, but Bob and Iris @Solkiki are becoming masters of the surreal: their juxtaposition of unexpected ingredients creating something altogether dreamy! The Applewood Smoked is very subtle. The sweet raisins, pineapple and green apples are dancing in the foreground with the smoke of a wood fire just curling up into wisps in the evening air. The Olivewood bar brings the alcohol to the party! We are now passing around that smooth sweet, Ardbeg Uigeadail single-malt whisky paired with the deep chocolatey notes of the Gran Chililique dark milk. The Orangewood lightens the mood with more light dancing fruit notes but the smoke is more pervasive, more intense with the real peaty aroma of a smokier more complex Islay, the 10-year-old Ardbeg perhaps, which comes with the familiar but unexpected whiff of a bacon sandwich! Surreal but still perfectly dreamy. The Bourbon smoked intensifies the atmosphere even further. This is my heart of a Saturday night bar. The smoke has dispersed a little but still serves to deepen the juicy fruit and spicy notes of the Costa Esmeraldas. I thoroughly enjoyed these bars. I enjoyed them last night (Saturday) and again today. I would love to hear more opinions on these bars. 🍫🍫❤️❤️ https://www.instagram.com/p/CO8ta4FD5FW/?igshid=m6m8tsct5rxe

Posted @withregram • @passemoilesel What better day for #tttt_S than a Saturday spent sunbathing with Solkiki? ☀️ Half their name is the sun already and what shining souls Bob and Iris are! I still have to go through some of the samples but the two I started with are what they call the "great excuse to eat 2 bars in 1 sitting"! The 68% and the 70% Fortunato No 4 named after Don Fortunato who looks after the trees of the Marañon farm in the foothills of the Peruvian Andes. Number 4 refers to the 4th sample of leaves collected and sent to be inspected only to discover their DNA was a 100% match for the pure, thought to be extinct, Nacional cacao bean. These beans are notoriously difficult to work with and the biggest challenge Bob and Iris have taken on. The complexity of flavours is the great reward here and it is fun to compare 2 bars made with the same bean but one uses them unroasted. The ingredients are exactly the same: just beans and sugar. The 68% was Solkiki’s first bar they ever sold ( one of my favorite wrapper image of theirs too! Reflecting the many colors, flavors and complexity of the bar ). It’s delicate and creamy with a strong earthy bed of moss, delivering fruits and sweetness after a minute but in an intense way. Hard to explain. Tasted first, it was more delicate. Tasted second it felt stronger and more assertive than the first time and I actually liked it even better. The unroasted 70 was a total vegetal and floral trip, it is grounded in earthy tones too at first and then suddenly flies off into a tangy acidic bright loop that makes the experience really dramatic. I turned 0.5 oz of it into a small hot chocolate just to see how it would react and it kept the exact same intense flavors! So so good. I was drinking the sun! . . @solkiki_chocolatemaker #solkiki #marañon #beantobar #tastingnotes #chocolate #craftchocolate #chocomotions #peruviancacao #britishchocolatemakers #flavorsofchocolate #tttt_2021 #sunnyday #unroastedcacao #donfortunato #hotchocolate https://www.instagram.com/p/CO50jNaD21c/?igshid=29tn5pappkxk

Posted @withregram • @cocoaencounters It’s #tttt_s week and time to savour some S related bars that have been waiting patiently in my stash to be selected. My first is a taste of the sea. 🌊 When I think of chocolate and the sea, images of tropical coast lines, Caribbean and South Sea islands are the first to play out in my mind, but then come the gifts of the sea: sea salt and even more so, smoked sea salt are among my favourite inclusions (@duffyschoc bar at the top); I have also enjoyed Irish seaweed in a @nearynogschocolate bar and the sea vegetable, wakame in a @jasperandmyrtle bar and of course the Thai Curry Shrimp in the @fuwanchocolate white bar - a marmite bar if ever there was one! I also see the @cocoarunners tasting wave too. 🍫🌊 Then I see the Solkiki bar, made with samphire picked not far from the Solkiki HQ in Dorset. The Lincolnshire coast where I live, is famous for its samphire beds. They have appeared on Ordnance Survey maps since the late 19th century. Trips to the coast to pick samphire or ‘poor man’s asparagus’ are a family activity in late summer and eaten fresh it is a perfect replacement for asparagus. So I can’t want to try it: The Palo Blanco chocolate has a bold full bodied aroma: deep chocolate and plums with some brighter fruit and a floral edge I think or am I just seeing the sea-lavender in my mind. The salt hits you first, but it is then swirled around by red fruit, cherries, cream and malty hot chocolate. This is definitely a #meltnotmuch inclusion bar. As the chocolate ebbs and flows away the remnants of the salty samphire remain, waiting to be collected and crushed between your teeth with the most satisfying crunch to reveal yet more waves of salt and memories of walks along the Lincolnshire marsh and coast. Spectacular ❤️❤️🍫🍫🌊🌊 https://www.instagram.com/p/COxyuYxjBMq/?igshid=ahma4ydaoyyf

Posted @withregram • @jessica__chokolatejourneys Flavour suprises always spring from @solkiki_chocolatemaker chocolate. It's #tttt_s week in the craft chocolate community and this Limited Edition Gran Palo 67% was scrumptious! After some research I discovered that “Gran Palo is a special varietal of cacao and that is generally recognised by its delicate flavours, aromas and fragrances! How superb! ☺️ My taste journey - entering with a sharp snap, a deep intense aroma of “there’s a chocolate cake baking in the oven” met me. Then, as the chocolate rapidly melted, my palette was flooded with flavours. Initial earthy notes of hot cacao, golden buttered toast and malt, with a nuttiness akin to hazelnut butter. These were almost immediately joined by sweet notes of acacia honey and golden raisins. Such flavour harmony within a smooth and creamy bar! ♥️ Imagine enjoying a hot cacao infused with hazelnut liquor, with buttered fruit toast spread with honey that has been left to soak all the way through on to your plate. Delicious!!! 🥰 #chocolatetasting #chocolatephoto #chocolatephotography #handcraftedchocolate #handmadechocolate #glutenfree #dairyfree #craftchocolate #shippedtoaustralia #smallbatchchocolate #honeychocolate #craftchocolatecommunity #fairtradechocolate #ethicalchocolate #madeinuk #madeindorsetuk #craftchocolate #fineflavourchocolate #67percentcacao #granpalocacao #tttt_2021 #chocolatemakers #limitededitionchocolate #directtradecacao https://www.instagram.com/p/COubHRlDE5P/?igshid=1a3jcq7qxapn7