Chocolate Report

I like nothing more than a bar of good dark chocolate. I can be perfectly happy with a single square (or perhaps two squares) a day, savored after a long day at work. Joe brought home a number of interesting bars lately...

Malagasy

Mora Mora
Origin: Madagascar
72% cacao

Dark chocolate with cherry notes. Very smooth. Nice and easy on the tongue. Definitely an approachable dark chocolate for someone who is looking to push past the 60% cacao level. The Mora Mora bar took a silver medal at the World Chocolate Awards in 2006.

Sambriano
Origin: Madagascar
75% cacao

A serious dark chocolate for serious dark chocolate lovers. I thought it had an earthy, almost slightly smoky, flavor, whereas Joe detected a faint burnt caramel edge to it. I really really liked this one and will be looking to buy it again.

Michel Cluizel
Noir au Grué de Cacao
Origin: Santo Domingo
60% cacao minimum

Deep dark chocolate flavor with cacao nibs embedded in the bar. It tastes darker than its 60% would suggest, probably primarily due to the unsweetened crunchy nibs. I think the nibs also give it a bit of a chalky texture. (But then, nibs are a bit chalky.) I generally like Michel Cluizel chocolate bars, and I love nibs, so this is a nice addition to their collection.

Vosges
Barcelona Bar
hickory smoked almonds, grey sea salt, "deep milk chocolate" (41%)

My friends know that I really, really dislike milk chocolate. Semi-sweet chocolate chips are fine in cookies. But plain milk chocolate for eating? Not for me. But Joe said that I had to try this one. I had some doubts -- one, it's milk chocolate and two, I'm not a big fan of Vosges -- but then he said the magic words, "it has sea salt" and I was intrigued. Would the sea salt would balance the too-sweet chocolate?

Yes.  Yes, it does. The Barcelona Bar is a fabulous mix of salt and chocolate and almond, with the salt contrasting nicely against the chocolate. I liked the salt so much that I started sprinkling more sea salt on pieces of Barcelona bar. This is a bar I'd definitely buy again, and that's saying something given that it's a mere 41%.

Mo's Bacon Bar
Mmmmmm.... bacon!  This bar features applewood smoked bacon, alderwood smoked salt, and more of that "deep milk chocolate" (41%).  It's really good; you wouldn't normally think of combining bacon and chocolate (well, normal people wouldn't) but it works surprisingly well. The bacon is rich and salty, and also brings a nice umami touch of its own. If we'd had this bar on its own, or alongside more conventional chocolate bars, I think we'd be raving about it. But we had it alongside the Barcelona bar, and it paled by comparison because they're doing some of the same kinds of things and the Barcelona bar is doing them better.

Don't let that stop you, though, because it's worth trying in its own right.  Just don't do it as part of a tasting flight with the Barcelona or something.

 

All these chocolates are available locally at Zingerman's.

Comments

ANY dark chocolate.........[drools]

[Amy]

I love Vosges chocolate. Give all of the flavors a try.