Bean-to-Bar Chocolate in the Sunshine State: Castronovo Chocolate

Castronovo Chocolate, a craft chocolate maker in Stuart, Florida, has been making a big splash on the chocolate scene lately. A 2014 Silver win in the International Chocolate Awards for their 63% Dark Milk chocolate bar and two just-announced wins in the Academy of Chocolate Awards in the U.K., confirms that Castronovo is making good chocolate.

Thanks to a wonderful birthday gift, I had the privilege of tasting a full line-up of Castronovo's single origin bars last week. I revisited each one, every day for about seven days, from Peru, to the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, two plantations in Columbia and finally, Venezuela.

What's great about this chocolate maker, is that they name the bean type and batch number, and they include a descriptive explanation on the back of each chocolate bar package. Also, the evaporated cane juice used to sweeten the chocolate is organic and Castronovo's chocolate contains no soy lecithin, wheat, nuts or gluten.

Overall, I enjoyed this line-up of chocolate bars. Not only did all the chocolate have a nicely balanced bean-to-cocoa butter ratio, each bar had a unique flavour profile, which made for very interesting tasting sessions. I would recommend this line-up to anyone wanting to hold a group chocolate-tasting session.

My favourite was the 72% Criollo & Trinitario Columbia 'Sierra Nevada' bar.  I can see why this won an Academy of Chocolate award. I found it to be noticeably fruity with a nice cocoa finish, and actually outshone the Dominican Republic chocolate (but don`t get me wrong, the Dominican bar was delicious and it is fully organic). Also, the description of how the cacao is harvested by the Arhuaco indigenous people is worth reading on the chocolate package.

The Peru bar also surprised me, with its heavy cocoa aroma and lightly fruity flavour, which I have not often detected in a Peruvian origin chocolate.

The Nicaragua bar was the only one I was unsure about. In a way, I loved it for its interesting smokiness. In another, there was a funny flavour that turned me off a bit.  But yet I kept going back for more, so that says something. Plus, that smoky flavour really rounded out the range of chocolate bars.

Here is the line-up of bars available from Castronovo Chocolate, which can all be purchased on their website here. In Canada, some of Castronovo's bars are available at LaTablette.ca:

1. Columbia Sierra Nevada 72% Criollo & Trinitario Cacao 'Rare Cacao Collection', Batch 341
Ingredients: cocoa beans, evaporated cane juice*, cocoa butter  *organic ingredients. Contains no nuts, wheat, gluten, soy, or milk.
Taste: Fruitier than the others, nice cocoa finish, bright.

2. Columbia Arauca 76% Criollo & Trinitario Cacao, Batch 339
Ingredients: cocoa beans, evaporated cane juice*, cocoa butter  *organic ingredients. Contains no nuts, wheat, gluten, soy, or milk.
Taste: bright and fruity-floral with a nutty finish, but more bitter than the Sierra Nevada. I detected a slight tobacco flavour.

3. Venezuela Amazonas 72% Wild Cacao, 'Rare Cacao Collection', Batch 345
Ingredients: cocoa beans, evaporated cane juice*, cocoa butter  *organic ingredients. Contains no nuts, wheat, gluten, soy, or milk.
Taste: This one took me a little longer to figure out, possibly because it was the most neutral in flavour - no heavy flavours in any direction - just bold cocoa flavour with hints of earthy or tobacco, and nice low acidity. Very interesting story behind this 'wild' cacao and how it can be harvested during the dry season only and travels by two-day canoe trip by the Piaroa's indigenous communities.

4. Peru Tumbes 70% Trinitario Cacao (printed on front of package, but back says 'Criollo', Batch 332
Ingredients: cocoa beans, evaporated cane juice*, cocoa butter  *organic ingredients. Contains no nuts, wheat, gluten, soy, or milk.
Taste: This is one of the nicest Peruvian origin chocolates that I have tasted. Lightly fruity, possibly with a hint of orange, and some nice cocoa flavour, but nothing like the cocoa-heavy flavour that I am used to with Peruvian origin chocolate.

5. Dominican Republic, Duarte province, 70% Criollo & Trinitario, Batch 344
Ingredients: cocoa beans*, evaporated cane juice*, cocoa butter*  *organic ingredients. Contains no nuts, wheat, gluten, soy, or milk.
Taste: Medium-to-milk fruitiness, citrus flavours and yet also the flatness of dried fruit (compared to fresh fruit flavours). Well-rounded flavour overall and enjoyable, like many Dominican-origin bars are.

6. Nicaragua Momotombo 72% Trinitario Cacao, Batch 342
Ingredients: cocoa beans*, evaporated cane juice*  *organic ingredients. Contains no nuts, wheat, gluten, soy, or milk.
Taste: Possibly it is because the cacao is grown in the volcanic soil of the Momotombo region of Nicaragua, or just the smoky finish, but the flavour is certainly unique. Less chocolaty and more savoury than anything. Certainly interesting.

7. Dark Milk Chocolate, Columbia, Sierra Nevada, 63% Criollo & Triniario Cacao, Batch 309
Ingredients: cocoa beans, organic evaporated cane juice, organic cocoa butter, whole milk powder.  Contains no nuts, wheat, gluten or soy.
Taste: Creamy and smooth texture with a taste that is still a little tart and sour like many dark-milk chocolates can have. It has a very milky colour for a 63% and overall is very enjoyable.