Santo Domingo versus Mexican chocolate

This is a tough one today.  I have two couverture chocolates in front of me that I am about to use for chocolate-making.  I  am tasting two more of the Cacao Barry Origine chocolates, the Mexique Origine rare, with 66% cocoa solids and the Saint Domingue (Santo Domingo) Origine rare with 70% cocoa solids. When I first opened the boxes, I could not identify a difference in smell between the two!  But after sticking my nose directly in each package and then tasting, I can now see an enormous difference between the two chocolates.


The Mexican is sweeter, and since it has a 66% cocoa solids, I guess I need to get past that difference in order to truly taste the chocolate. It seems tangy, yet mellow, and has a distinctly different smell than the Saint Dominique.  Previously, when I tasted this chocolate on its own, I really liked the strong, hardy flavour of it.  But in comparison to the Saint Domingue (Santo Domingo), it seems lighter with citrus-fruit flavours and very tangy. The package says liquorice notes, but I`m not quite tasting it.


I am enjoying the full-bodied flavour of the Santo Domingo.  It is darker, spicy and thick with intense flavour.  The package says `wine-flavoured` and I`ll agree - it reminds me a merlot.  In fruit form, it`s something like deep, dark cherries.


If you are not a chocolate professional, you are probably wondering what on earth you can do with this information about chocolate couverture, which you will not find in any of your regular stores.  Well, many chocolatiers use the Barry Callebaut/Cacao Barry lines of chocolate couverture in their products.  So the next time you go to a little chocolate shop that makes single origin chocolates, ask them what brand of couverture  they use.  If they say Cacao Barry, then it's likely one of the Cacao Barry brand of Origine chocolate. And hopefully this blog will help you select which of the four Origine chocolates you might like to buy. For information on the other two Origine chocolates by Cacao Barry (Venezuelan and Tanzanian), see my previous tasting at: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/venezuela-versus-tanzania-couverture.html.


At some point, I should sit down and compare all four of these Origine chocolates by Cacao Barry - at the same time.  But I won`t bore you with all that. If you would like a four-pack of tasting squares, covering all four of Cacao Barry`s Origine flavours, contact me at ultimatechocolateblog@gmail.com.

Starbucks chocolate...is it as addictive as their coffee?

Today I am tasting two dark chocolate bars by Starbucks.  I have never been able to resist their chocolate bars.  It may be because they sit directly next to the cash register at Starbucks cafe's and I have no self control, or it could be that they are always perfectly portioned (34 grams) and I can justify it. Or, more likely, it is that I love to have some chocolate with my coffee.

The two bars that I am tasting today are:

• Starbucks® Dark Chocolate, 34 grams - "sourced at origin, artisan crafted."
• Starbucks® Dark Chocolate with Starbucks VIA Ready Brew, 34 grams - "100% natural roasted instant and microground coffee blended into rich, dark chocolate."

The plain Dark Chocolate bar smells better than it tastes.  Don't get me wrong - it tastes great, but the smell is so intense and rich with aroma that I was instantly surprised by the difference in the taste when I popped it into my mouth. In fact, this chocolate smells so good, that if I ever had to give up chocolate, I could probably just smell this chocolate bar and be happy...probably.   Overall, I do like the taste.  The vanilla is apparent in the flavour and it is sweet, but chocolaty with a rich, organic flavour to it. It is just the kind of bar that I like and it holds up well to other artisan-crafted chocolate bars.

As for the Starbucks Dark Chocolate bar with VIA Ready Brew - I'm not so sure about the smell of it.  It smells like a vanilla ice cream, or perhaps a vanilla latte.  It is a strange combination of very strong vanilla and coffee aroma combined with sweetness. Once again, I am surprised by the flavour which - like the plain dark chocolate bar - is very different than the smell.  It tastes very bitter, and the coffee is strong.  Right now I hate it.  But I think to be fair, I will need to try it at a different time. This coffee bar was just too much bitterness for my taste buds after that first sweet-tasting dark chocolate bar.

Starbucks did not list the cocoa solids percentage on the packaging, but I assume the plain "Dark Chocolate" bar is somewhere in the 60% to 70% range with a lot of vanilla, which makes it seem sweeter than it is.  The coffee bar though tastes so bitter in comparison.  Unfortunately, I have waited a while now and have been drinking coffee and water to remove the taste of the other chocolate bar, and I have to admit that I still do not like the Starbucks VIA chocolate bar.  I am sorry Starbucks - I am still a loyal customer and I like one out of two of your chocolate bars, which isn't bad! The coffee bar is just too acidic and lacks that familiar sweet yet strong Starbucks coffee flavour.  I'm sure I've tasted a different coffee/chocolate bar in the past that was branded as Starbucks and it tasted better than this one.

What is very strange is the Starbucks web site.  I have gone through the site and I can not find these bars listed anywhere.  I know they are newly launched, but I can't even find one chocolate bar listing on the site, and I know for a fact that this isn't Starbucks first branded chocolate bar product.  Just recently, I tried their caramel and dark chocolate bar and loved it, and I know I've tasted the solid dark chocolate bar that they used to sell at their cafe`s.  (And since this post, I've tasted the Starbucks Milk Chocolate bar and liked it a lot).  It doesn't make sense though - it is Starbucks, the biggest coffee retail chain, so everything branded by them should be on their web site, shouldn't it?

Well, check it out for yourself: www.starbucks.com/menu/ - perhaps you can find their website information on Starbucks chocolate bars for me!

So to answer my question asked in the title of this post: is the Starbucks chocolate as addictive as their coffee?  Well, their solid dark chocolate "artisan crafted" bar may be, but their VIA ready brew coffee is better left for drinking, rather than eating.  I think I will mix the rest of this VIA bar into a hot moka drink.

Otherwise, here are the stats on the two chocolate bars that I tried today:

Starbucks® Dark Chocolate, 34 g
Starbucks Coffee Company, Seattle, WA USA
http://www.starbucks.com/
Ingredients: cacao beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla.  May contain traces of milk and tree nuts.
Marketing on package:  "Starbucks is committed to ethical sourcing.", "sourced at origin, artisan crafted."

Starbucks® Dark Chocolate with Starbucks VIA Ready Brew, 34 g
Starbucks Coffee Company, Seattle, WA USA
http://www.starbucks.com/
Ingredients:chocolate mass, sugar, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, Starbucks® instant and microground coffee, emulsifier (soy lecithin), natural vanilla flavour.  May contain traces of peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seeds and milk.

'Chocolate Treasures' from Equador, Tobago, Trinidad, Peru, Papua-New Guinea, Madagascar, Venezuela and Costa Rica

I was recently shopping at Costco - a large Canadian membership-based discount retailer - and I spotted an amazing box of plantation/single origin chocolates made from cocoa beans from eight different cocoa plantations. Each of the eight varieties are individually wrapped single-serving-sized pieces of chocolate, four of which are milk chocolate and four are dark chocolate.  Each has a different percentage (%) of cocoa solids.  Best of all, they come in a lovely "treasure box" - a great thing to put out with the desserts at a party, or alternately, you could bring it to a party as a hostess gift.

I was very excited to see such a box and I decided that I just had to buy it.  I thought, what a great way to have a tasting of single origin chocolates from one brand name and the cost was only about $15 for 150 pieces! What's more, I don't have to go onto their website and order eight different chocolate bars at $4 or more per bar. It also means that I have left overs for my friends, stocking stuffers and for future group tasting events.

So today I am tasting these chocolates.  Like usual, I have not followed 'proper' tasting rules, I'll admit.  I started with the dark chocolate and worked my way down to the milk chocolate.  However, I did start with the sweetest of the dark chocolate and worked my way up to the most bitter in each of the categories, so I tried to follow standard tasting rules just a little bit.

The Amacado 60% chocolate comes from the Amacado Plantation in the Amazon in Peru - a co-operative of nearly 1,000 families.  It is sweet, smooth and bitter all at the same time. This would be a good one to keep in your purse or desk at work for the time when you need a pick-me-up.

The El Cuador 70% is from the El Cuador plantation in Ecuador. It has that "organic" chocolate smell to it, and clearly no vanilla is present.  It is bitter and without the vanilla, it is a little flat.  It reminds me very much of Cocoa Camino 70% dark couverture.  So I've had a piece of that too, and they are very similar.  Likely because of the lack of vanilla. Don't get me wrong though, the taste is still great.  I have gotten used to chocolate with no vanilla added, which is often done on purpose so you can taste the real flavours of the cocoa beans, and I have come to like it without the vanilla.

The 75% chocolate from Tobago has a really nice dark, luxurious colour and a wonderful smell.  It is bitter, and tastes like what bitter chocolate should taste like.  It's also thick on the tongue and difficult to melt away and swallow.  But very good. I don't believe there is vanilla in this chocolate either.

The 80% Tembaroro is from a plantation in Trinidad.  It also has a nice smell and is definitely the most bitter (well, duh, it's % is different). There is nothing distinctive about this chocolate compared to the one before it - which may be due to the closeness of Trinidad to Tobago.

Now that I've tasted them all, I realize that I can't really taste any distinct flavour profile differences in these chocolates, which is strange considering that they are supposed to all be made of beans sourced from different countries.  They taste very much like the same chocolate, only more bitter with each % difference. I think I better try this again to really see.

I have laid them all out side by side.  Other than the 60%, the others all smell like the same chocolate, only less sweet as they go up in percentage of cocoa solids.  The 60% is also the only one that looks different - it has a milky chocolate look to it, and in fact, melts in the mouth in such a way that it is possible there is milk products and flavour.   Mmmm...it's very good!

I have now tasted two of each piece and gone back and forth between the different %s and really can't taste a difference between each region that the chocolate is supposed to be from.  Usually I can taste distinct differences.  Either it's my taste buds today, or they are using the same cocoa beans for each chocolate and just varying the sugar content. Alternately, their production process and combination of sugar and cocoa butter is masking the specific flavours in the cacao beans - if that is even possible when the beans come from a single plantation.

I have sampled the milk chocolate, and have noticed that they are melt-in-your-mouth fantastic.
There is a definite colour difference between each of the milk chocolates as the cocoa solids percentage increases.  And like the dark chocolates of the same brand, I haven't noticed any distinct regional flavour profiles between the milk chocolates.

Here are the milk chocolates that come in this `treasure` box:

35% Nouméa  - a plantation in Papua-New Guinea

39% Madanga - a plantation in Madagascar

43% Puerto Cabello - comes from the Barlovento region in Venezuela

47% Guácimo  - a plantation in Costa Rica

I love the 43% and 47% ! I like darker milk chocolates because I feel they have a stronger flavour overall and I guess because I prefer dark chocolate in general, so it is only natural that I like the darker milk chocolates.

Overall, the milk chocolates are creamy and leave your mouth watering for more. So does the 60% El Cuador plain dark chocolate.  If you check their web site, it looks like they have a nice variety of formats of the 60% chocolate, from portion controlled sizes to larger ones.  I highly recommend this chocolate.

The treasure box would be great for a tasting party.  But be sure to include two or three other single origin/plantation chocolates from different brands to really see what flavour differences can be identified between single origin chocolates.  A few Cachet bars or Valrhona would be good ones to try.

All that said, I do recommend this chocolate to people who like portion control - you can just through a few of the individually wrapped pieces into your bag each day for an afternoon-pick-me-up at work.  It is also great for those who like to have a variety of milk and dark chocolate on hand.  For instance, if you really love milk chocolate and your spouse or someone in your family loves dark chocolate (or vice versa), then this is a great box to keep at your house. It is also a great way to introduce yourself to tasting chocolate with different percentages of cocoa solids by giving you the opportunity to taste several at one time.

However, if you are looking to taste chocolate with interesting and different regional flavour profiles of the cocoa bean itself, this is not the box for you.

That's it for today.  I've eaten so much chocolate this evening, I only hope I can sleep tonight! This is why tastings should be in the day time...

Here are the stats on the company that makes the Chocolate Treasure box:

Chocolate Treasures, 8 varieties, 150 pieces (1000 grams) by Rausch Schokoladen GmbH
Berlin, Germany
http://www.rausch-schokolade.com/
Plantagen^® Schokolade
Marketing on website: "...a full aroma and still is amazingly mild; every single variety is carefully balanced to bring out the character of its cocoa. For each variety we use only fine flavoured cocoa from one single cocoa plantation."

Raspberries and dark chocolate - the best flavour combination! Godiva, Theobroma and Cocoa Camino have gotten it right...

I'm very excited about the chocolate bars that I am going to taste today.  Raspberries and dark chocolate...Mmmmmmmmm.  My business product line includes quite a few raspberry/dark chocolate desserts because I like it so much, and so do my customers (I can't keep raspberry and dark chocolate tarts in stock!).

I am tasting two raspberry/dark chocolate bars today that are both manufactured by Canadian companies and are certified organic: Theobroma Raspberry Chunks (60% cocoa) 35 gram bar and Cocoa Camino's new Raspberries Dark Chocolate (65% cocoa) 100 gram bar.  They are very similar bars, with the differences being the Theobroma bar is one-third the size of the Cocoa Camino bar and itv is not fair trade, as like the Cocoa Camino's chocolate bar.  I am also going to be tasting Godiva Chocolatier Dark Chocolate filled with Raspberry 43 gram bar today, just to see how it compares to the two organic bars.

When I conduct a chocolate tasting session, I love to introduce people to raspberry-flavoured chocolate. Everyone is always amazed at how real raspberries and chocolate taste so much better than chocolate with artificial raspberry flavouring.  What makes a difference in identifying real raspberries versus flavouring are the seeds.  You will instantly know that real raspberries were used in the chocolate if you are left chewing seeds once the chocolate has melted.  That is the case with both the Theobroma bar and the Cocoa Camino bar.  Sure, the seeds may bother your teeth, but at least you know that the stuff you are eating is real!

So now to my tasting of the first two bars at hand.  Initially, when I tasted them against each other this morning, I didn't like the Cocoa Camino bar in comparison to the Theobroma bar. I think that is because the Theobroma bar is sweeter at 60% cocoa solids, instead of 65%, which the Cocoa Camino bar has. So I decided that, to be fair, I would wait several hours to re-taste the Cocoa Camino bar on it's own. And now I LOVE it!  It is a little bitter and tastes nearly like a 70% dark bar, but the real chunks of raspberries are a nice fit with the chocolate they have used.  The bitterness of the chocolate suits the bitterness (sourness?) of the unsweetened raspberries very well.  Although it is not real smooth chocolate, it is very tasty.  It has real ground vanilla beans and it also has no soy lecithin for those who need to stay away from soy.

So if you like the bitterness of a 70% dark chocolate, and want a simple addition of some raspberries to your chocolate, then the recently launched Cocoa Camino Raspberries bar is a great choice for you.

Now if you like your dark chocolate a little sweeter, then the Theobroma bar is for you.  It is also not very smooth because it has chunks of freeze-dried raspberries and their seeds in it, but the raspberry flavour bursts into your mouth as you eat it. I know a lot of people who are addicted to this particular chocolate bar and believe it is the best of the Theobroma line.  I am in agreement of that.  I like all the Theobroma 35 gram bars (partially because of their flavour choices and partially because of their portion-controlled size), but the Theobroma Raspberry Chinks bar is the one I buy the most.

If you like your chocolate and raspberries really, really sweet and don't care much about organic or fair trade, then go for a Godiva Dark Chocolate filled with Raspberry 43 gram bar.  If you have never tried this chocolate bar, but you like this flavour combination, then it is time you pull out your wallet and indulge.  It is expensive (around $3.99 Canadian) but so worth it.  This chocolate bar used to be my basis point for comparing all raspberry chocolate bars.  I thought nothing could ever match it.  Until I tried the Theobroma bar, and now I have two basis points.  I compare all bars with raspberry filling to the Godiva bar, and all other bars with raspberry pieces to the Theobroma bar.

The issues I have with Godiva though are this:
-there is high fructose corn syrup in the bar (not good for our health!)
-the dark chocolate is very sweet (which you may like, but I prefer it a bit darker)
-there are additional ingredients that I don't think are necessary (i.e. butter oil, sodium benzoate, etc.)
-the price is very high
-it is not organic or fair trade
-there is no mention of the type of cocoa beans used or % of cocoa solids in the chocolate

However, I do recommend this bar because Godiva has used real raspberries to flavour it, and the combination of raspberry filling and chocolate match so well that it creates a wonderful flavour explosion for your taste buds.  It is the type of bar that you should open in your car after a long day of shopping or working. Just before you start your cars engine, take a moment to sit back, close your eyes and pop a piece into your mouth. As you let it melt, chew a little and start to taste the flavours, and you will instantly feel the energy coming back into your body. 

That's it for today - I've eaten all the chocolate any one person should in a day!

I bought the Theobroma and Cocoa Camino bars at Loco Beanz Coffee House in Little Current, Ontario (Manitoulin Island) and I bought the Godiva bar at Chapters book store in Sudbury, Ontario - they are available at all Chapters stores in Ontario from what I can tell. If you want to find these chocolates in your region, here is the information on all three chocolate bars that I tasted today:

Theobroma chocolat Raspberry Chunks, Organic with 60% cacao, 35 g
Vigneault Chocolatier Ltee, Quebec, Canada
http://www.theobromachocolat.com/
Ingredients: cocoa mass*, sugar cane*, cocoa butter*, raspberry*, soy lecithin.  Allergens: contains soybean and may contain nuts and dairy products. *organic (certified organic by Ecocert Canada)

Cocoa Camino Raspberries Dark Chocolate, 65% cacao, 100 g (3.5 oz)
La Siembra Co-Operative, Ottawa, Canada
http://www.tasteofcamino.com/
Organic Ingredients: cocoa mass*, golden cane sugar*, cacao butter*, whole cane sugar*, raspberries, ground vanilla beans*. *Fair Trade certified. Minimum 65% cacao.  May contain traces of nuts, peanuts, soy and dairy products. Chocolate made in Switzerland.

Godiva Chocolatier Dark Chocolate filled with Raspberry, 43 g (1.5 oz)
Godiva Chocolatier, Inc. New York, NY USA
http://www.godiva.com/
Ingredients: bittersweet chocolate (chocolate liquor (processed with alkali) sugar, cocoa butter, butter oil, soy lecithin (emulsifier), natural flavor, milk), raspberries, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, natural flavoring, raspberry juice, citric acid, sodium benzoate (to protect flavor), invertase, pectinase. May contain tree nuts. Manufactured on equipment that also processes peanuts and wheat.

Bitter bitter chocolate....how dark will you go?

I have been contemplating the concept of dark chocolate this morning and now I have a few questions for the God of All Chocolate - if he or she exists out there somewhere. 

How dark should dark chocolate be?  Is 60% dark enough?  Or is 70% considered the standard dark chocolate (it seems like it since, these days, most manufacturers of 100 gram chocolate bars include a 70% dark bar in thier product line).  And as a connoisseur, is it expected that I like chocolate that is darker than 80 or 85%?  I hope not, because I'm not all that excited about chocolate with 90% or more cocoa solids.  Yikes.  If you've ever tried to sneak some chocolate as a child and threw a big piece of your mother's unsweetened baking chocolate into your mouth, you'll understand why I am not so excited about the prospect of eating nearly sugarless chocolate.

So I have decided that I am going to tackle my fear of nearly-unsweetened dark chocolate today and try to answer at least some of the questions above. 

I have always looked at the Lindt Excellence 99% chocolate bar and thought "who buys that?".  I went through a phase where I considered buying it, just to see, but I would always put it back on the shelf just before I got to the cash register.  However, I was in Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory just to check the place out, and saw at 91% cocoa bar called the Nocturne World Blend bar in a 56 gram size.  So I thought, why not? Ninety-one percent has to taste better than 99%. 

I have discovered, after eating no sugar this morning and having waited the approproate amount of time after eating to taste chocolate, that I can palate 91%.  Or at least this bar - I have no others to compare it to at the moment.  I can taste the vanilla beans immediately.  The chocolate doesn't seem to have any strong flavours either way and perhaps that is because it is a "world blend" so the blend is masking the individual flavours.  Also, it is very bitter, but the vanilla and the smoothness of the chocolate seems to be making it palatable. 

I'm not sure how often I could eat this, or if there is any craving at any time of the day that this will satisfy for me, but I have discovered that it is not as bad as I thought.  I may now be ready to move onto the Lindt bar. 

So how does all that answer my questions to the God of All Chocolate?  Well, I have realized today that, as a chocolate connoisseur, I don't have to like extra bitter chocolate over 80 or 90%, but I should be able to taste it and review it criticially.  And I should be able to understand its composition and what makes a good extra bitter chocolate bar.  And as long as I remain curious, I will keep trying extra bitter chocolate over 80% until I find the ones I do like - like the Rocky Mountain 91% Nocturne bar I tasted today.
And as for my question: How dark should dark chocolate be?  Well, I think it can be anything you want it to be.  I think anything over with 45% cocoa solids qualifies, but if you want the good stuff, my recommendation is to stick to something between 54 % and 75%. But if you're definition of 'dark chocolate' is something different, then that's fine too.

If any of you have any suggestions for good, high quality bars with over 80% and 90% cocoa solids, please let me know by commenting below! If you suggest it, I will try it.


Here are the stats on the bar I tried today:
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, 91% cocoa solids, 56 grams
Burnaby, BC Canada http://www.rockychoc.com/
Ingredients: Cacao Beans, sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin, vanilla beans.  May contain traces of peanuts, nuts, eggs, milk and sulfites.

Lindt Excellence brings us new fruity flavours!

Lindt has recently introduced two new flavours to it's Lindt Excellence line of 100 gram chocolate bars. I was travelling a little while back and saw them and just had to have them: Intense Blueberry Dark (dark chocolate with pieces of blueberries and almond slivers) and Intense Pear (dark chocolate with pieces of pear and almond slivers). I know that Lindt is a very commercial brand, and it's not very "connoisseur" of me to be tasting Lindt bars, but let's face it, Lindt is the most accessible chocolate with a quality standard, and so it is an excellent comparison point for other chocolate bars.

I've started with the Intense Blueberry and there is a little bloom on its surface, so perhaps it was in the sun at the store I was at.  I've tried to store these chocolates correctly since I bought them a few months ago. The taste doesn't seem to be affected though. 

I have to say, it is intensely full of flavour. The first piece kind of shocked me, and not in a good way, but it has grown on me with each piece I've eaten.  I am not a fan of artificial flavour, which is why I was turned off so immediately, but the sweetness and other flavours (pineapple and apple) are working their magic on me. 

In looking at the ingredients list, I am surprised to see some ingredients that I haven`t seen before, particularly "vegetable anthocyane".  I've Googled it and, from what I can tell, it is "...a group of FLAVONOIDS derived from flavonols...they are glycosylated versions of cyanidin, pelargonidin or delphinidin. (WHAT?) The conjugated bonds result in blue, red, and purple colors in flowers of plants." (reference: http://www.lookfordiagnosis.com/mesh_info.php?term=Anthocyane&lang=4)  Does that help or confuse you?  From the sounds of this, they are good for us, since flavonols are cancer-fighting.  Technically, blueberries and chocolate are supposed to contain flavonols, so I'm not sure why Lindt has added this ingredient to their bar, or why they don't write "high in flavonols" on their package to add marketing value.  Perhaps I have misunderstood the concept of 'anthocyane'. 

Overall, if you like sweet, flavourful and very fruity chocolate with a smooth, melt-in-your-mouth texture, then this Lindt Intense Blueberry bar is for you.  You have to also like artificial flavouring too though. 

Next up: Intense Pear. The smell is like a chocolate covered maraschino cherry or a chocolate covered fruit liquor.  So what's with the apple and pineapple added to these bars - are pear and blueberry not enough to create an "intense" favour?  I think I would just prefer a straight up blueberry bar and a pear bar, with no added apple and pineapple. I'm sure there was a lot of market analysis, and product testing, and this is the best flavour profile they could come up with for the widest audience possible, but it just isn't for me.  I like to taste the distinct chocolate flavour and the distinct fruit flavour, not all blended up and masked by fruitiness and artificial flavours.

What I do like about both bars is the little crunchy almond bits. It's a nice element among the smooth texture of the chocolate.

Lindt, I still love you and your chocolate, but it's time to stop using artificial flavouring and use only the real stuff!

Lindt Excellence Intense Blueberry Dark, 47% minimum, 100 g
Manufactured by: Lindt & Sprungli SAS (France), www.lindt.com
Ingredients: sugar, cocoa mass, almonds, cocoa butter, butter fat, blueberry, apple, pineapple, soya lecithin, natural and artificial flavour, calcium orthophosphate, sodium alginate, citric acid, vegetable anthocyane. May contain traces of peanuts and hazelnuts.

Lindt Excellence Intense Pear Dark, 47% minimum, 100 g
Manufactured by: Lindt & Sprungli SAS (France), www.lindt.com
Ingredients: sugar, cocoa mass, almonds, cocoa butter, butter fat, pear, apple, pineapple, natural flavour, soya lecithin, sodium alginate, citric acid, calcium orthophosphate, artificial flavour. May contain traces of of peanuts and hazelnuts.

Leclerc 70% - celebration or vanillabration?

I've been very busy this week and haven't had much time for "proper" chocolate tastings. However, I haven't stopped eating chocolate!  I've been snacking all week on a chocolate bar that I bought in Quebec a few months back: Leclerc Celebration 70% cocoa Dark Chocolate bar (100 g). 

Leclerc has designed this packaging in a very long format in order to stand out, so although you might think you are getting a larger bar than the average 100 gram chocolate bar, it just has thinner pieces.

Immediately I could smell the strong vanilla flavour before tasting it. And that vanilla comes through so much in the taste, that it is overwhelming the chocolate flavour.  This leads me to believe the beans are inferior, so they have masked the chocolate flavour with too much vanilla.  However, the chocolate is smooth, melts nicely and is likely great for the average North American taste for dark chocolate (i.e. sweet dark chocolate).  The vanilla and milk ingredients make it seem much sweeter than most 70% bars, so it almost seems like it has only 60% cocoa solids and more sugar. I am happy with Leclerc for using real vanilla extract, rather than artificial flavouring.

Overall, this bar is okay - I'd share it with people who are not used to bitter dark chocolate or chocolate with strong regional flavours. It is also in a great price range for the average chocolate taster (i.e. less than $3) and is available at pharmacies in Quebec.  To find it elsewhere, check the Leclerc website at: www.leclerc.ca.

Tomorrow will be a Fun Friday tasting day! It's time to try some funky flavours...

Here are the stats on the bar I have been tasting this week:

Leclerc Celebration 70% cocoa Dark Chocolate bar (100 g)
Biscuits Leclerc Ltd.,
St-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Quebec, Canada
Ingredients:  chocolate liquor, sugar, milk ingredients, soya lecitin, vanilla extract. This product may contain wheat.
http://www.leclerc.ca/en/products.php?cat=chocolate_bars&type=celebration&id_product=78