Delicata PUUR Chocolade 85% Cacao

About: This is the Albert Hijn supermarket upscale brand. I like the packaging and even more the thin bar. Nothing is more annoying than having dark chocolate that's too thick and which forces you to strain to get a small piece. Well, almost nothing. There are gnats.


Flavor: Well... it's dark and not very sweet. And the flavor is full. But to my taste, the flavor is not as smooth as it could be. There is a sour bitterness that I associate with darkly roasting the beans, but maybe it's just the bean variety. At the end, you're left with a sour mouth and not with that satisfied feeling of having just eaten something exquisite.


Texture: Perfectly reasonable, but nothing to cream about. It's smooth, and there's not chalkiness or harsh brittle waxiness. 

My rating: Tricky. I think people that like a dark roast might like this better than I did, but I only found room in my heart and palate for a 7.5.  

Here,  10 means 'mind shockingly good' and 1 means 'would not bother'.


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Hachez Cocoa d'Arriba classic 77% cacao

About: Hachez is a German chocolate with a well deserved reputation for taste. They've been making chocolate in Bremen, a pleasant university town, since 1890. Their product line is broad, and if you can read German, you can find out a lot about chocolate at their professional, if somewhat austere, web site. I like the lack of emotional appeal in their marketing. It's no-nonsense chocolate that  delivers.


Flavor: Full flavored and very smooth. Many high cocoa content bars are bitter or sour, but this bar is flavorful without any unpleasant "oh I must suffer through this sour bit to get to the chocolate flavor" going on. It's Just the right level of sweetness (IMHO), with a nice follow through that leaves you satisfied and wanting more.

Texture: Oh so smooth.Heavenly.


My rating: 9.0  on the scale of 1-10, where 10 means 'mind shockingly good' and 1 means 'would not bother'. Give me more!




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Raaka Belize Yacon 79% cacao virgin chocolate

About: Raaka is a hipster chocolate. One of the founders "was introduced to chocolate making at a yoga school on a beautiful island in Thailand." Enough said.  Their spin on chocolate is low temperature processing of the cocoa beans, and it does lead to a full flavored bar that's excellent. 


Flavor: This Yacon Belize variety has a milder flavor that's more sour than, for example, the Bourban Cask Aged bar.  

Texture: Smooth, pleasant and creamy. 


My rating: 9.0  on the scale of 1-10, where 10 means 'mind shockingly good' and 1 means 'would not bother'. Give me more!




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Raaka Bourbon Cask Aged Belize 82%

About: Raaka is made from unroasted cocoa, and it's different, and it's good.They claim their beans are ground at 145 degrees F, where are other manufacturers roast at 250 to 300 degrees F. It's plausible that roasting at higher temperature removes some flavor, and tasting this chocolate supports that idea. But... it's fair to say that this chocolate tastes pretty different, and possibly too different for some. 


Flavor: The raw chocolate gives this a hard-to-define"green" flavor. The flavor is very earthy and full, and it's definitely 'different.' There is a strong sourness, but not the kind that comes from overly roasting the beans; the flavor progresses from an initial strong sour opening to a soil-ish depth, to a smooth rich finish with subtle fruity notes. 

Texture: Unlike many high-percentage bars, this is smooth and creamy.


My rating: 9  on the scale of 1-10, where 10 means 'mind shockingly good' and 1 means 'would not bother'. This is an exceptional chocolate worth eating and eating.



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L'Amourette 72% Caco Ginger Dark Chocolate

About: The L'amourette website has a (hopefully fabricated) story of the young, love-spurned chocolatier who wins his love's hand in marriage through chocolate. I'd rather be loved for my body, but whatever. Where they fall short on marketing - for example their currently empty list of distributors - they compensate with solidly tasty chocolate.


Flavor: Ginger flavor, like coffee, is a cheat. You add it to almost anything to elucidate exclamations of "oooh... ginger" (hopefully for the ginger, not the coffee). So it is here, where the piquant flavor comes through from the first bite. The chocolate itself has a nice aroma - always a good sign - even before eating it. This is a pleasant bar, with a good chocolate flavor.

Texture: Smooth, except for the bits of ginger. If I have a complaint it's that the pieces are large and hard to bite into small mouthfuls. You have to take the whole, thick (oy!) large piece in your mouth (oy oy!) at once. But... that's not the end of the world, if you're into having chocolate into you.


My rating: Great 8.5 chocolate - maybe more -   on the scale of 1-10, where 10 means 'mind shockingly good' and 1 means 'would not bother'. L'Amourette has many flavored chocolates, and they're all worth tasting. 




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Guittard 91% Cacao Nocturn Blend No. 09

About: Founded in San Francisco in 1868 by Etienne Guittard, a Frenchman who found that gold rushers were willing to pay a premium for chocolates, the company has kept his name and family owned status, awww,  (in spite of the possible association with challenges guitar players). They seems serious about chocolate, offering a range of chocolates for eating, baking, and rubbing on your body salaciously. Their website has a lot of information about chocolate, pleasantly presented. I liked it.



Flavor: Smokey, sour, with a somewhat astrigent after-taste with hints of coffee. Overall, though, it's not as if your senses will be bowled over. It's really okay. It's definitely not sweet.


Texture: Smooth.

Rating: I like that it's not overly sweet - how can it be at91% cacao. But the flavor is a bit on the bland side - so it gets an 8.

Here, the scale of 1-10 means: scores above 5 meaning 'would get again' and below 5 meaning 'don't bother with this again''.

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Pascha Organic Dark Chocolate 70%

About: This bar, made in Peru - that's deepest, darkest Peru - holds the mysterious allure of Possibilities. It also holds an attitude, since it proclaims again (and again (and again)) that it's allergen free. Even the inner foil package repeats that it's non GMO and whatever else, as if genetic manipulation through hybridization is less risky to people than genetic manipulation via enzymes. There's something over-the-top about chocolate that proclaims its gluten-free origins, and one suspects the chocolate is compensating for some lack of something-or-other.

Of course, I felt bad when I read about the founder's food-sensitive daughters, ostensibly the motivation behind the founding of this chocolate manufacturer. But still, I guess I'm here for the chocolate. 


Flavor: This chocolate has a rich flavor profile, but I'm just not sure I like it. Maybe others would, because there is definitely plenty of flavor to go around. That might also be said of the sweat of prepubescent monkey boys, an image that arose in my sordid mind when eating this chocolate. That's mean, especially since I mean to eat the whole bar and enjoy it. But while the flavor experience starts with "a bit sweet and earthy" and ends with "rich, dark full chocolate," there is a bit in the middle that's a mixture of "ooh! Fruity? Pungent? Fetid?"

Texture: Hard, but with a creamy finish. 


My rating:  7.5. It's good. It's not great. It's not bad. It has hints of greatness, but the weird flavor in the middle... what is that?

This is on the scale of 1-10, where 10 means 'mind shockingly good' and 1 means 'would not bother'.




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Arete Brasil Fazenda Camboa 75% Organic Dark Chocolate

About: This is a hand-crafted chocolate that I bought at the Chocolate Garage on a whim. It's expensive, and worth every penny.  It's a small operation - very small - and they start with the raw beans. From their humble web site: "We make these bars by hand starting from unroasted cocoa beans in our small craft chocolate workshop in Milpitas, CA."

Flavor: This chocolate blew my mind. There's nothing in it but cocoa beans and sugar, so the fantastic flavor is (presumably) derived from the careful preparation of the beans (or crack cocaine). The bar has a great aroma. It's full flavored, fruity, rich, with a sweet after taste. Go out and get some quickly.


Texture: It's firm and brittle, with a smooth finish. I've had bars that were creamier, but the brittle start is more than compensated for by the flavor.

Rating: 9.9 get some. eat it. feel good.

Here,  the scale of 1-10, scores above 5 meaning 'would get again' and below 5 meaning 'don't bother with this again'.

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Venchi Cuor di Caco 75% Fondent/Dark

About: Venchi Chocolate is an Italian manufacturer, proudly making chocolate since 1878 - evidently worn as a sign of accomplishment- which it is. You can't be super-sucky and survive over 100-some years. Starting in Turin, Mr. Venchi started as a chocolatier's apprentice at age 16, went on to found his own shop, and the rest is history (except that I hadn't heard of Venchi chocolate until I stumbled on it accidentally somewhere in Barcelona). The company manufactures a broad array of dark chocolates, as well as, you know, stuff you wouldn't eat. They also make cooking chocolate, chocolate cigars, spreads, powders, and (duh, Italy) Chocolate Pasta. Given the broad array of products, it's a manufacturer worth looking at.


Flavor: This is a full flavored chocolate with excellent taste. Its fruity notes are subtle, but it's earthy, rich, nicely profiled and roasted just the right amount (for my taste). As a 75% bar, it packs a punch - that is, more than you'd expect. It could pass for a higher percentage bar, and I suspect it has more cacao than cocoa butter, compared to other 70-ish percent bars.

Texture: The texture has strengths and weaknesses. It unfortunately starts slightly chalky, but it has a creamy finish. The experience is "wait.. what? chalky... hmm.. " followed by 'oh.. not so bad.. pretty creamy now.. and here comes the flavor" and then a slightly chalky finish again. 


My rating: Tough to rate. The flavor is excellent. The initially chalky texture is a drawback. At the end, maybe an 8.5  on the scale of 1-10, where 10 means 'mind shockingly good' and 1 means 'would not bother'. Would definitely try to taste every dark bar they have - interesting chocolate that's different than your run-of-the-mill bar.




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