Durci 70% Joya Rara chocolate

                                   

About: Durci is an American chocolate manufacturer with a handful of 70% cocoa bars made in Utah. Their chocolate is cocoa beans, sugar, and cocoa butter - so sort-of bean to bar - ish. There's not a lot of information on their web site, which has the feel of two guys in a garage (which is totally okay). You know it's not okay when someone says "which is totally okay." Oh well.

Flavor:  While they claim that this bar is made  "from a special heirloom cocoa bean rediscovered several years ago" and that it is "composed of roughly 40% white beans ... with a characteristic light orange-brown color with a taste that is slightly sweeter than most cocoa beans." But for me, the flavor was on the flat side.

Texture: Unfortunately wildly brittle in an unpleasant way. After the initial "did I just bite into a piece of plastic" is over, the flavor is okay.

My rating:  A 5 for okay flavor but loss of points for texture. 

Rating Value	Meaning
1	Really bad chocolate. There's something just really really wrong here in almost every imaginable respect.
2	A bar with this rating has at least two drawbacks.
3	A bar where something is starting to get seriously wrong.... for example, really weak flavor with an otherwise acceptable texture.
4	This bar is below average, but just slightly. Mostly it's not worth eating again. Something isn't quite up to par, for example a poor texture but fine flavor.
5	This is an average good bar that's worth eating. There's nothing really wrong with it, but also nothing particularly spectacular. Or, perhaps it has a good characteristic that's evenly counter-weighted by something weak.
6	A solidly good bar with one characteristic that's above par, for example a great texture.
7	An solidly good chocolate that has two above par characteristics, but nothing mind-blowing. Good, above average flavor, but nothing to die for.
8	An excellent bar with no weaknesses and at least one characteristic that's super.
9	An awesome bar to die for with amazing texture and flavor.
10	You have been touched by God.

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Rózsavölgyi Csokoládé 72% Madagascar Trinitario Bean Chocolate

                                   

About: If your mother was a chocolate maker, and your mother loved you very much, and your mother wrapped some chocolate for you ever so lovingly and carefully to take to school for lunch, it would look like this. But it's not likely that your mother could make a chocolate that tasted this good.

This Hungarian  chocolate is made in Budapest from just beans, sugar, and cocoa butter. They (I'd like to put their name here, but Holy Weird Letters Batman, I can't) make a bunch of different bars, including single source bars like this one and strange chocolates like 'rusty tools' and mustuaches! (Chocolate in the shape of rusty tools and chocolate mustaches. How did you live without those?!?). They make cocoa butter and other bars and truffles, and based on the care put into this bar, I want to try them all.

Flavor: This bar has the fresh taste of a bean-to-bar chocolate. You will be hit over the head with a rich, fruity flavor filled with notes of berry. The flavor lasts and lasts. It's awesome.

Texture: While it's slightly brittle, ever so slightly, I have no complaints.

My rating:  A nice 8 for superlative flavor.

Rating Value	Meaning
1	Really bad chocolate. There's something just really really wrong here in almost every imaginable respect.
2	A bar with this rating has at least two drawbacks.
3	A bar where something is starting to get seriously wrong.... for example, really weak flavor with an otherwise acceptable texture.
4	This bar is below average, but just slightly. Mostly it's not worth eating again. Something isn't quite up to par, for example a poor texture but fine flavor.
5	This is an average good bar that's worth eating. There's nothing really wrong with it, but also nothing particularly spectacular. Or, perhaps it has a good characteristic that's evenly counter-weighted by something weak.
6	A solidly good bar with one characteristic that's above par, for example a great texture.
7	An solidly good chocolate that has two above par characteristics, but nothing mind-blowing. Good, above average flavor, but nothing to die for.
8	An excellent bar with no weaknesses and at least one characteristic that's super.
9	An awesome bar to die for with amazing texture and flavor.
10	You have been touched by God.

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L'Amourette 72% Cacao Raspberry (that was really Ginger)

                                   

About: L'Amourette is a San Fracisco brand of chocolate. The most interesting about this bar was that it was packaged as Raspberry but was actually Ginger inside. They make many flavors of chocolate (including, duh, Ginger!), and I have had a few and always enjoyed them.

Flavor: The Ginger comes through nicely, with a bit of a pungent bite. The chocolate is solidly earthy and full,without the fruitiness of a bean-to-bar chocolate.

Texture: The Ginger in this bar is ... well... Ginger. So it is a big chewy and doesn't necessarily match the smooth, creamy texture of the chocolate. But the chocolate is pleasantly smooth.

My rating:  A nice 7.

Rating Value	Meaning
1	Really bad chocolate. There's something just really really wrong here in almost every imaginable respect.
2	A bar with this rating has at least two drawbacks.
3	A bar where something is starting to get seriously wrong.... for example, really weak flavor with an otherwise acceptable texture.
4	This bar is below average, but just slightly. Mostly it's not worth eating again. Something isn't quite up to par, for example a poor texture but fine flavor.
5	This is an average good bar that's worth eating. There's nothing really wrong with it, but also nothing particularly spectacular. Or, perhaps it has a good characteristic that's evenly counter-weighted by something weak.
6	A solidly good bar with one characteristic that's above par, for example a great texture.
7	An solidly good chocolate that has two above par characteristics, but nothing mind-blowing. Good, above average flavor, but nothing to die for.
8	An excellent bar with no weaknesses and at least one characteristic that's super.
9	An awesome bar to die for with amazing texture and flavor.
10	You have been touched by God.

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Elysia Noir 85% Cocoa

                                   

About: Belgian chocolate. What's not to like. While the chocolate is branded Elysia, it is manufactured by Emoti chocolates. Confusingly, Emoti is a recent brand, but the Elysia claims to be a "fine German brand" since 1895). Emoti makes a wide variety of filled chocolates, truffles, and bars. I don't know about Elysia. I gave up caring. It tastes good.

Flavor: At 85% there isn't room for much sugar, so if you're wimpy about dark chocolate, this isn't for you. I loved it. The flavor is full, just mildly bitter, and not particularly fruity. But it's earthy and satisfying. And this is a solid go-to dark bar. One thing you won't find here is a burned bitter and nasty sourness... two! two things you won't find! Also any unpleasant after taste. Three things!

Texture: Very nicely smooth.creamy. Actually, really amazingly creamy, after the initial snap.

My rating:  A nice 7.

Rating Value	Meaning
1	Really bad chocolate. There's something just really really wrong here in almost every imaginable respect.
2	A bar with this rating has at least two drawbacks.
3	A bar where something is starting to get seriously wrong.... for example, really weak flavor with an otherwise acceptable texture.
4	This bar is below average, but just slightly. Mostly it's not worth eating again. Something isn't quite up to par, for example a poor texture but fine flavor.
5	This is an average good bar that's worth eating. There's nothing really wrong with it, but also nothing particularly spectacular. Or, perhaps it has a good characteristic that's evenly counter-weighted by something weak.
6	A solidly good bar with one characteristic that's above par, for example a great texture.
7	An solidly good chocolate that has two above par characteristics, but nothing mind-blowing. Good, above average flavor, but nothing to die for.
8	An excellent bar with no weaknesses and at least one characteristic that's super.
9	An awesome bar to die for with amazing texture and flavor.
10	You have been touched by God.

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Millennium Extra Brut 80% Dark Chocolate

                                   

About: This Ukrainian chocolate, manufactured only since 1999, was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. It's made in Dnipropetrovsk and has become one of the biggest brands in Ukraine. The website seems to reflect a passion for chocolate, though the model wearing a chef's hat smiling at you (the model, not the chef's hat) doesn't seem to be a devoted chocolatier but just some guy. They have a catalog filled with filled chocolates, dark chocolate and all the stuff you'd expect, including Disney branded chocolate. For me, this takes away some of the focus on premium chocolateering; if you're buying the chocolate because it's a big brown Mickey, you may not care how it tastes. But I was happy with this bar.

Flavor:Sometimes I find addition of vanilla to a bar of chocolate to be dilutive - the vanilla takes away from the chocolate (or is perhaps used to make up for weaknesses in the flavor). But I found this bar, with its strong vanilla flavor, to be well balanced and pleasant. Every bite elicited a "oooh.. nice" (no worried - I used my inner voice). The chocolate itself, at 80% is not too sweet - I loved that - and the flavor was full enough, though definitely dominated (gagged and bound) by the vanilla.

That said, the chocolate is also full flavored with slight hints of raisins. It's a very good bar. 

Texture: Very nicely smooth.

My rating:  A nice upper 7. I just liked this bar for its low sweetness and the pleasant vanilla.

Rating Value	Meaning
1	Really bad chocolate. There's something just really really wrong here in almost every imaginable respect.
2	A bar with this rating has at least two drawbacks.
3	A bar where something is starting to get seriously wrong.... for example, really weak flavor with an otherwise acceptable texture.
4	This bar is below average, but just slightly. Mostly it's not worth eating again. Something isn't quite up to par, for example a poor texture but fine flavor.
5	This is an average good bar that's worth eating. There's nothing really wrong with it, but also nothing particularly spectacular. Or, perhaps it has a good characteristic that's evenly counter-weighted by something weak.
6	A solidly good bar with one characteristic that's above par, for example a great texture.
7	An solidly good chocolate that has two above par characteristics, but nothing mind-blowing. Good, above average flavor, but nothing to die for.
8	An excellent bar with no weaknesses and at least one characteristic that's super.
9	An awesome bar to die for with amazing texture and flavor.
10	You have been touched by God.

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