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dorchadas
This chocolate was picked out by schoolpsychnerd, because while we could have reached into the bag and pulled out one randomly, we still haven't written the names on paper to prevent the bars being different sizes and skewing the random distribution, and I'm enough of a nerd to care about that.
We got this bar at the local olive oil store, which we don't usually go to because it's 40% more expensive than ordering them online from either of the two other olive oil stores that we buy olive oil from (yes, we have three separate olive oil stores we patronize), but I was in there a few weeks ago because I hadn't remembered to place an olive oil order for delivery and I noticed a kind of chocolate that I'd never seen before. A bit of googling now tells me that it's a Spanish company and not often sold in America, so I might end up going back there a few more times just to pick up Darker than Black chocolate.
I had to look up what the "grand cru" on the chocolate meant, and Wikipedia tells me that while it's usage in wine is well laid down and strictly regulated by law, its use in food is a complete free-for-all, though the French started using it in chocolate and I guess the Spanish have picked that up. Does it live up to the hype?
This was good! It had a little bit of that sour taste that I remember from the French Broad 100% Chocolate, but obviously not as strong since this has a lot less cacao than that one does. It balanced out well with the sweetness, since usually I don't like chocolate that's this low a cacao percentage as much unless it's lower because it has something else mixed in, like matcha, but this didn't taste as sweet as lower cacao percentage chocolate usually does. Maybe there is something to those single-origin grand cru package notes! It does say that it has "flavors of the Amazon absorbed into the cacao and retained from bean to bar," and I can certainly believe that the modern Amazon flows bitter with tears.
It also says it has notes of hazelnut, licorice, vanilla, and lemon, but I'm 99% sure that's bullshit like wine tasting is. I suppose all that combined could be what the sour taste was like, if I hadn't tasted basically exactly the same thing in the French Broad bar, just to a much greater extent.
After a hiatus in its coverage, I want to talk about the packaging. While the chocolate is good but not spectacular, I really like the brown packing paper packaging this bar comes in. With the map and the medieval-style icon at the top of a poor apprentice of the Guild of Chocolatiers, it's exactly the kind of silly faux-ancient hipsterism that appeals to someone like me. It feels like opening a secret parcel addressed just to me, which I'm pretty sure is exactly what the marketing execs in their air-conditioned suite wanted when they came up with the idea. Hey, sometimes marketing works.
schoolpsychnerd's Opinion
...nah, dark chocolate's just better.
schoolpsychnerd, because while we could have reached into the bag and pulled out one randomly, we still haven't written the names on paper to prevent the bars being different sizes and skewing the random distribution, and I'm enough of a nerd to care about that.We got this bar at the local olive oil store, which we don't usually go to because it's 40% more expensive than ordering them online from either of the two other olive oil stores that we buy olive oil from (yes, we have three separate olive oil stores we patronize), but I was in there a few weeks ago because I hadn't remembered to place an olive oil order for delivery and I noticed a kind of chocolate that I'd never seen before. A bit of googling now tells me that it's a Spanish company and not often sold in America, so I might end up going back there a few more times just to pick up Darker than Black chocolate.
I had to look up what the "grand cru" on the chocolate meant, and Wikipedia tells me that while it's usage in wine is well laid down and strictly regulated by law, its use in food is a complete free-for-all, though the French started using it in chocolate and I guess the Spanish have picked that up. Does it live up to the hype?
This was good! It had a little bit of that sour taste that I remember from the French Broad 100% Chocolate, but obviously not as strong since this has a lot less cacao than that one does. It balanced out well with the sweetness, since usually I don't like chocolate that's this low a cacao percentage as much unless it's lower because it has something else mixed in, like matcha, but this didn't taste as sweet as lower cacao percentage chocolate usually does. Maybe there is something to those single-origin grand cru package notes! It does say that it has "flavors of the Amazon absorbed into the cacao and retained from bean to bar," and I can certainly believe that the modern Amazon flows bitter with tears.
It also says it has notes of hazelnut, licorice, vanilla, and lemon, but I'm 99% sure that's bullshit like wine tasting is. I suppose all that combined could be what the sour taste was like, if I hadn't tasted basically exactly the same thing in the French Broad bar, just to a much greater extent.
After a hiatus in its coverage, I want to talk about the packaging. While the chocolate is good but not spectacular, I really like the brown packing paper packaging this bar comes in. With the map and the medieval-style icon at the top of a poor apprentice of the Guild of Chocolatiers, it's exactly the kind of silly faux-ancient hipsterism that appeals to someone like me. It feels like opening a secret parcel addressed just to me, which I'm pretty sure is exactly what the marketing execs in their air-conditioned suite wanted when they came up with the idea. Hey, sometimes marketing works.
The rounded sections are a nice touch too.
schoolpsychnerd's OpinionIt's been a bit since we just had a regular, no things added, chocolate bar. It was a nice break. The chocolate was smooth and I liked the rounded half cylinders as a change of pace from the squares. It kind of reminded me of breaking a kit kat which just fills me with childish glee! It had a pleasant snap to it and a good finish. I got a mild nutty flavor with a balance between bitter and sweet. As far as plain dark chocolates though, eating this one was a good time, if for no other reason than sometimes it's just nice to have a relatively no frills chocolate bar.Alright, maybe that ad copy about having hazelnuts in it wasn't just self-delusion! Perhaps I'm just bad at tasting and that's what I like incredibly dark chocolate, because I can't taste all the subtleties of flavor in lighter chocolates and need the overpowering cacao taste to get anything worthwhile out of the experience?
...nah, dark chocolate's just better.
