TASTING NOTES
“Fruity, and a little Nutty”
Culinary Club Chocolate tasting
February 13, 2006
BLINd tasting
A1. Hershey’s Special Dark forastero ?% cacao $2.25/5oz
Mild chocolate taste, with sweetness dominating. Flavor does not change
from beginning to end. Milk fat in the chocolate lends a pasty texture.
Artificial vanilla flavor is sweet and cloying, leaves a bitter taste.
A2. Scharffen Berger Dark blend 60% cacao $2/2oz
Bold chocolate. Intitial taste is roasty, earthy, and a little herbal.
Acidity then dominates, with flavors of cherry and citrus and a tangy
finish. A satisfying chocolate.
GHANA
B. Pralus Ghana forastero 75% $8/3.5oz From the manufacturer: “Relentlessly aromatic cocoa, spicy.”
West African forastero makes up 70% of the world’s cacao.
Much of West Africa’s cacao is grown in the Ivory Coast, where child
slave labor on cacao plantations is a problem, involving around
10,000 children.
Venezuela These two chocolates are grown on the same coastal plantation. These are both made from some of the purest criollo strains in the world.
C1. Domori Puertofino pure criollo 70% $3.75/0.9oz
Aroma is acidic, spicy, and woody. Taste is dark, evolving from
apricot to earthy flavors to dried fruit and buttery hazelnuts. A
demanding chocolate.
C2. Domori Porcelana pure criollo 70% $3.75/0.9oz
Porcelana is known for its delicate flavors of bread and dairy.
From the manufacturer: “Notes of bread, butter, and jam, with an
exalted smoothness.”
Smells like breakfast – strawberry/cherry, bread, cream, coffee.
Taste shows the same flavors plus pure chocolate goodness and
a long finish. Yum.
Caribbean
D1. Pralus Trinidad trinitario 75% $8/3.5oz
Trinitario is a hybrid of criollo and forastero with high criollo-content.
From the manufacturer: “Persistent aroma, spices, grilled smoked
dried herbs, mild tobacco.”
D2. Michel Cluizel “Los Ancones” blend 67% $6/3.5oz
From beans grown in the Dominican Republic.
From the manufacturer: “Aromas of liquorice wood, then red berries
and green olives with a lingering flavour of currants and apricots.”
Col0mbia & Ecuador
E1. Santander Colombia nacional? 65% $1.80/2.5oz
Grown and made in Colombia.
Initial taste is of cherry cordial, then marshmallow, then developing
earthy flavors of roasted coffee and nuts. Soft and intense.
E2. Dagoba Organic Los Rios Arriba 68% $4/2oz
Grown in Ecuador, from arriba, Ecuador’s native strain of forastero.
Displays classic arriba flavors: starts with bright fruit, then becomes
bold, interweaving roasty flavors and distinct floral notes (lavender?
jasmine?) that are arriba’s signature.
Pacific Not a lot of chocolate from this part of the world.
F1. Pralus Vanuatu trinitario 75% $8/3.5oz
Vanuatu is a chain of islands about 1500 miles of northern Australia.
From the manufacturer: “Spicy, slightly smoked, chewy tobacco,
long on the palate.”
F2. Michel Cluizel “Maralumi” blend 64% $6/3.5oz
From beans grown in Papua New Guinea.
From the manufacturer: “Mellow, with slightly roasted and spicy
flavors, fresh notes of green bananas, and the tangy taste of red
currants, prolonged by charming aromas of Havana tobacco leaves.”
Somewhat sour and astringent, with good chocolate flavor.
Indian Ocean
G1. Pralus Java criollo/trinitario 75% $8/3.5oz
From the manufacturer: “Fresh and subtle, woody aroma with wild
mushrooms, slightly acid and long on the palate.”
G2. Michel Cluizel “Mangaro” blend 65% $6/3.5oz
From beans grown in Madagascar, displaying typical citrus acidity.
From the manufacturer: “An exceptionally perfumed chocolate,
marrying the flavours of exotic fruits with the delicious taste of
gingerbread and acidic citrus notes.”
CHOCOLATE facts
“fruity, and a little nutty”
Culinary Club Chocolate tasting
February 13, 2006
How is CHOCOLATE made?
1. Grow the tree!
2. Harvest ripe pods.
3. Fermentation: Seeds and pulp ferment naturally under banana leaves. Takes 24 hours to 1 week, depending on genetics of the tree.
4. Drying: Ideally in the sun
5. Roasting: about a half hour at 230°F, more for some strains
6. Crushing & Grinding into cacao “liquor”.
7. Mixing & “Conching”: Add sugar, vanilla, extra cacao butter, and mix and knead for anywhere from 4 to 72 hours! Mysteriously, chocolate becomes more delicious.
8. Pour chocolate into molds and cool.
9. EAT!
The Story of Theobroma Cacao
Cacao is native to South America. Prior to domestication, there were two strains:
CRIOLLO – native to northern South America (Venezuela and eastern Colombia); and
FORASTERO – native to the Amazon River basin (the headwaters in Ecuador to the mouth in Brazil) .
For millennia, cacao was enjoyed as a fruit for its sweet-tart pulp.
Criollo cacao traveled through Central America and Mexico, where indigenous Mesoamericans discovered that if the seeds are fermented and roasted, they acquire new, extraordinary flavors. Criollo is the original chocolate bean. The Aztecs traded and appreciated chocolate intensely.
Colonialism and the Bean. Colonial powers consolidated production into plantations, using slave labor. In the 18th century, forastero was ‘discovered’ growing wild along the Amazon. Forastero, formerly used only as fruit and yielding inferior chocolate, came into favor with colonial plantation owners due to its much higher productivity and disease resistance. Criollo was cut down and forastero was introduced to plantations. Promiscuous cacao! – criollo and forastero spontaneously hybridized. Chocolate has never been the same since!
Chocolate sources
http://www.chocosphere.com is the place to get your fix. Their selection is phenomenal.
http://www.seventypercent.com is the place to indulge your inner chocolate geek. They have intense but accessible reviews of unflavored dark chocolates like the ones we’ve tasted tonight.
The New Taste of Chocolate, by Maricel E. Presilla reminds the reader that chocolate is an agricultural product, rooted in the humble cacao tree. This book takes a serious and systematic look at the history and genetics of chocolate. Presilla avoids the breathless adulation that is common among books on the subject.