Vietnamese Origin Chocolate by Marou: Bold Flavour, Great Story

As I mentioned in yesterday's article, I decided that in the first days of 2015, I would experience some 'firsts' in chocolate tasting....well, firsts for me anyway. Until January 1st, I had never tasted Marou's bean-to-bar chocolate, a brand that I heard so much about. And since it is made in Vietnam by two French men, it is difficult to buy in Canada (outside of Quebec).

Marou not only makes chocolate from the bean, but they make it at its source.  The cacao is all grown in Vietnam and their mission was to make "unadulterated chocolate made from nothing but cocoa and sugar" (ref). And that is exactly how they make it today.

I purchased only one bar of Marou's, Dong Nai 72%, and I am already regretting not purchasing others. The chocolate was just what I thought it would be: a serious, get-straight-to-the-cacao-flavour kind of chocolate. Bold flavour, bitter dark with the kind of tanginess and acidity only created by an excellent chocolate maker.

Marou's website described their Don Nai bar as made from 'pod-to-bar'. It is made with cacao produced at Marou's own drying and fermentation station in the Dong Nai Province (ref), and so the chocolate makers really have control over the entire process to develop its unique flavour profile. To me, this was a bar that has fruity zest and hint of spice with a lovely roasted aftertaste.

 

Vietnamese cacao has not been easily found in origin chocolates until Marou began boldly introducing it to the world.  And so this was not only a first for me in terms of tasting a new brand of chocolate, this was a first for me for tasting Vietnamese-origin chocolate.

In Canada, I was able to buy Marou's Dong Nai 72% chocolate bar from La Tablette de Miss Choco in Montreal, a bean-to-bar retailer who just launched an online sales site. You can also buy other flavours of Marou's chocolate and a few bags of beans from Vietnam on the same site.

Here are the key package details from the chocolate that I tasted this week:

Marou Faiseurs de Chocolat, Dong Nai 72%, 100g (3.5oz)
Marou Chocolate Company, Ltd. (Saigon, Vietnam)
http://marouchocolate.com
Ingredients: Cocoa and cocoa butter (72%), cane sugar (28%). Soy, gluten and dairy free.

Fruition Chocolate: It's all about the Brown Butter, Flor de Sal and Rustic Crunch

I decided to start the New Year by experiencing some 'firsts'.  I wanted to taste chocolate that I have never tried before, and learn about more bean-to-bar chocolate makers.  Fruition Chocolate is one of those chocolate makers. I figured yesterday - the first day of 2015 - was the perfect time to taste the craft bars that I ordered just before Christmas.

Fruition offers a unique mix of bean-to-bar chocolate flavours, the most unique being Fruition's Milk Chocolate 'Brown Butter' bar. It has that quality that all milk chocolate has, where your mouth waters for more after just one piece. And yet it is not super sweet, with its rich 43% cocoa solids. The 'browned butter' is churned at a farm local to Fruition (Shokan, New York) and adds a hint of butter flavour that gives the bar more of a melt-in-your mouth quality and a milk chocolate truffle-like taste.

Fruition's 56% Dark-Milk with Flor de Sal (sea salt) chocolate bar was very tangy, and definitely not sweet. The lack of sweetness is partially due to the addition of salt. I find dark-milk chocolate (above 50% cocoa solids) can be confusing on the palette at times, and I am often left wanting something more bitter, or something sweeter. If you have ever made a dark chocolate glaze made with sour cream, you will know what I mean when I say that it tastes a little like that. It is certainly a savoury treat, and it grew on me with every piece that I ate.

The final bar that I tasted was Fruition's 70% Rustic Crunch, a unique combination of coarsely stone ground dark chocolate, cinnamon and small, but chunky, cocoa nibs. The result is a slightly cinnamon-sugar style crunch with an after taste of chocolate and bitter cocoa, as you chew the nibs long after the chocolate has melted away. I really enjoyed this bar.

I am really looking forward to trying Fruition's Hispaniola 68% chocolate bar, simply because I love the taste of chocolate made from cocoa beans grown in the Dominican Republic. Also, I'd like to try their Maranon 76% bar made with Peruvian Nacional beans and only two ingredients: cocoa beans and organic cane sugar - a chocolate meant for tasting!

Here are the package details from the three Fruition Chocolate bars that I tasted this week:

Chocolate Maker:
Fruition Chocolate (Shokan, NY)
Website: http://www.tastefruition.com/

Brown Butter Milk Chocolate, 43% cocoa solids, 60g/2.12 oz
Ingredients: can sugar*, cocoa butter, cocoa beans*, nonfat milk powder, butter, vanilla beans* 
*organic.  Contains milk. May contain traces of nuts.

Rustic Crunch, 70% cocoa solids, 60g/2.12oz
Ingredients:
Cocoa beans, cane sugar*, cocoa butter, vanilla beans*, cinnamon
*organic.  May contain traces of nuts and milk.

Dark Milk with Flor de Sal, 56% cocoa solids, 60g/2.12oz
Ingredients: Cocoa beans*, cane sugar*, whole milk powder, cocoa butter, salt, vanilla beans*
*organic
Contains milk. May contain traces of nuts.

Three Chocolate Paté Recipes: The Perfect New Year's Eve Dessert

Several weeks ago, I posted a recipe for milk chocolate paté, which is delicious. Since then, I have been experimenting with a few other kinds chocolate paté recipes, using both milk and dark chocolate, and some fun toppings. And since this is a 'snack' type of dessert, served with cheese spreaders or butter knives and cookies, it really is a great dessert to serve at your New Year's Eve party or New Year's Day gathering.  

This is also a fantastic way to use up all that extra chocolate that you bought for baking before Christmas, or that you found in your stocking (let's face it, there are always too many treats in the house on January 1st!). So feel free to use my recommended chocolate brands below, or replace with chocolate chips, baking chocolate, Lindt chocolate bars, or whatever you have on hand!

Be sure to check out the 'Tips & Substitutions' Section at the end of this article for some alternate ideas (i.e. the best cookies and chocolate to choose) and what to do for your gluten-intolerant friends.

Here are the recipes...

Vanilla Bean White Chocolate Paté with Fresh Blueberries

You need...

• 8 ounces of white chocolate (see tip at bottom of this article for choosing white chocolate), about two-and-one-third 100 gram bars
• 1/4 cup of whipping cream
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 1/8 tsp ground vanilla bean, or 1 the scrapings from 1 vanilla bean (or use pure vanilla extract if you have no access to vanilla beans)
• 1/2 cup of fresh blueberries

Instructions:

1. Line a small loaf pan or a cupcake pan with plastic wrap.
2. Break or chop your white chocolate and place in a heat-proof bowl.
3. Chop your butter and place in a medium saucepan with the whipping cream and vanilla bean or extract.
4. Turn the heat to medium and stir using a wooden spoon or small silicone spatula until the butter is melted fully and the mixture comes nearly to a boil.
5. Pour the cream/butter mixture over the chocolate and stir until smooth.
6. Pour into your prepared pan.
7. Let sit on counter overnight or for 8 hours. Then refrigerate for 1 hour until firm. 
8. When the pate is set and about 2 hours before serving (or before your party), flip the pate upside down onto a serving plate and remove the plastic wrap.  Then place the blueberries on top, or press them into the top and all around the sides. You can also sprinkle with white chocolate shavings if you like!
9. Add a cheese knife or butter knife, and shortbread or other cookies of your choice to your platter to serve (see tips below for choosing the best cookies). 

Hazelnut Milk Chocolate Paté with Caramel

You need...

• 8 ounces of a Hazelnut milk chocolate bar (see note below on the chocolate bar brand that I used and my reasoning for using it), about two and one-third of a 100 gram bar
• 1/2 cup of whipping cream
• 1/4 cup of butter
• Dulce de Leche sauce, butterscotch sauce for ice cream or SKOR bits for decoration and added flavour

Instructions:

1. Line a small loaf pan or a cupcake pan with plastic wrap.
2. Break or chop your hazelnut chocolate bars and place in a heat-proof bowl.
3. Chop your butter and place in a medium saucepan with the whipping cream.
4. Turn the heat to medium and stir using a wooden spoon or small silicone spatula until the butter is melted fully and the mixture comes nearly to a boil.
5. Pour the cream/butter mixture over the chocolate and stir until smooth.
6. Pour into your prepared pan.
7. Let sit on counter overnight or for 8 hours. Then refrigerate for 1 hour until firm. 
8. When the pate is set and about 2 hours before serving (or before your party), flip the pate upside down onto a serving plate and remove the plastic wrap.  Then place press the SKIR bits into the sides, or place your caramel sauce into a small sandwich bag and cut a tiny hole off the corner to drizzle your sauce over the pate. You can also garnish with whole roasted hazelnuts or chopped hazelnuts!
9. Add a cheese knife or butter knife and shortbread or other cookies of your choice to your platter to serve.

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Paté with AfterEight Crumble

You need...

• 2/3 cup of whipping (or heavy) cream
• 1/2 cup of butter
• 5 ounces of 55% to 70% (see note below on how to choose the percentage of dark chocolate), you'll need nearly two 100 gram bars.
• 1 to 1.5 tsps. of peppermint extract (or 8 to 10 drops of peppermint oil)
• about 5 or 10 AfterEights or two mini candy canes

Instructions:

1. Line a small loaf pan or a cupcake pan with plastic wrap.
2. Break or chop your dark chocolate and place in a heat-proof bowl.
3. Chop your butter and place in a medium saucepan with the whipping cream and peppermint.
4. Turn the heat to medium and stir using a wooden spoon or small silicone spatula until the butter is melted fully and the mixture comes nearly to a boil.
5. Pour the cream/butter mixture over the chocolate and stir until smooth.
6. Pour into your prepared pan.
7. Let sit on counter overnight or for 8 hours. Then refrigerate for 1 hour until firm. 
8. When the pate is set and about 2 hours before serving (or before your party), flip the pate upside down onto a serving plate and remove the plastic wrap.  Top with chopped AfterEights or crushed candy cane pieces.
9. Add a cheese knife or butter knife and shortbread, chocolate or other cookies of your choice to your platter to serve.

Tips and Substitutions:

For those gluten-free folks, be sure to buy some gluten-free cookies and place them on a separate plate with some additional pate, to be sure that everyone can enjoy your delicious dessert.  Attach a little sign on a toothpick to indicate that it is 'gluten-free'.  If there is only one person who needs 'gluten-free', you can make mini pate's in a mini cupcake container at the same time as you make the larger ones (see picture of the mini pates to the right).

For the white chocolate pate, Green & Blacks has a nice white chocolate bar, or use Joe's (sold at Walmart and other places), or try something at the bulk store, lke Bulk Barn.  Try to choose something with natural vanilla flavouring (not vanillin or artificial flavour) or it will be too sweet tasting.

For the hazelnut milk chocolate pate, I used Camino's Hazelnut 38% Milk Chocolate bar because the hazelnuts are broken up in small pieces, which makes the resulting pate easier to cut through and spread on crackers.  Some hazelnut bars have whole hazelnuts in them, so just be sure to read the package first.

For the peppermint dark chocolate pate, choose your chocolate percentage based on how bitter you like your dark chocolate, BUT keep in mind that by adding the cream and butter, you will be reducing the sugar, so a 70% will taste much more bitter than the 70% dark chocolate that you may be used to). I used about 1 and a half bars of Green & Blacks 70% dark chocolate - it's Organic and Fair Trade, and it was definitely very bitter. Semi-sweet chocolate chips and semi-sweet baking chocolate have a lower percentage of cocoa solids and would be a nice fit with peppermint.

Shortbread cookies really are the best with all three flavours of the pates, and if you want to make your own, you can find my recipe here. Ginger cookies (like the spicy Mary's gluten-free ginger cookies) go well with the white chocolate pate, and chocolate wafer cookies go well with the dark mint chocolate pate (or just spread it on an AfterEight instead of a cookie!). 

Last Minute and Close-to-Home Chocolate Buys - Only one day left!!!

Oh no! You have just one morning of shopping left! So what great gift can you buy for someone who appreciates good chocolate?  And where can you get it TODAY?!? Check out my favourites that I found in stores this week...

At HomeSense I found a multi-pack of TAZA Stone Ground Chocolate discs. These are naturally crunchy and full of antioxidants.  My favourite flavours are the Coffee, the Vanilla (such a natural strong flavour of real vanilla) and the straight-up Dark 70%. I set aside specific flavours for people I care about, depending on their tastes, and threw them into their chocolate gift baskets this year.

Find out where else you can buy TAZA's stone ground chocolate here.

A Single Origin Collection by  PACARI was also at HomeSense.  This is a great gift for any budding chocolate connoisseur, since it is a multi-pack of region-specific Ecuadorian chocolate.  Slight differences can be tasted from bar to bar, depending on the region of Ecuador where the cacao was grown. Pacari's award-winning Raw 70% bar is included in the pack, but the Los Rios bar is by far my favourite.

Theo Chocolate can be found in a lot of shops these days.  This organic-focused bean-to-bar chocolate is delicious and comes in all sorts of flavours, including a lot of fun holiday bars like the Nutcracker Brittle - a 70% dark bar with a not-too-sweet caramel crunch.  I found this at the Island Jar on Manitoulin Island, but Theo can often be found at the Bulk Barn and a variety of other retailers.

Last Minute Chocolate Gifting Tips:
If you can't find any of the chocolate mentioned above, look around for something unique, new and interesting.  For a chocolate lover, you can never go wrong if you spend a little more, find a unique flavour or go for Organic and Fair Trade Chocolate, like Camino, Green & Blacks or Alter Eco brands.  Any chocolate with 'salted caramel' flavour is always welcome by a chocolate lover, and hazelnut or praline is usually popular with milk chocolate fanatics.

Good luck and Merry Christmas!

Christmas Truffle Selections for the Average Chocolate Lover (and recommendations for the connoisseur)

Christmas is coming and the stores are bursting with chocolate truffles everywhere you look.  Godiva and Lindt are competing head-to-head for the packaged 'gourmet' truffle market, making it hard to choose which truffle selection is best to purchase for the average chocolate lover.

So who is the average chocolate lover?  Someone who loves to eat sweeter chocolate (milk, white or a semi-sweet chocolate) and who does not always care if artificial flavours are included.  They also don't care to differentiate between real-cream truffles and oil-based 'meltaways', which have a long shelf life and often called 'truffles' on the package (i.e. a Lindor Truffle is an example because it is made with coconut oil instead of fresh cream).  The average chocolate lover usually enjoys receiving a Ferrero Rocher or a box of Lindt's Lindor Truffles on special occasions.

So this year, if you are sick and tired of buying the 'usual' box of Lindor Truffles for your friend, try stepping it up to some newer truffle products.  I've tried them all and have written an overview below.

If you have a non-average chocolate lover to buy for - an absolute chocolate connoisseur -  keep scrolling to the end of this article for some great gift ideas.

Truffle selections for the average chocolate lover:

1. Lindt has launched a new box of gourmet truffles this year, which appear to be a step-up from their original Lindor Truffles, and compete in terms of price and presentation with Godiva's truffle selection.

The truffles are presented beautifully and would make a nice gift for the average chocolate lover.  But if the person you are buying for is picky about artificial flavours, keep in mind that there are artificial flavours in these truffles, which can be tasted in each an every truffle. There is also a sweet coconut oil flavour tasted in all of the truffles. For example, I found the hazelnut tasted more like a coconut-vanilla-flavoured truffle, with nearly no hazelnut flavour. 

This box is also meant for someone who likes sweeter chocolate treats - the vanilla truffle was pretty tasty. The 'Extra Dark' had a centre that looked like milk chocolate and overall, I'd say it did not taste as dark as a 70% chocolate, but it did taste good regardless. So if you are buying for someone who only likes 'bitter' or 'dark' chocolate, you'd better look elsewhere (be sure it is about a 65%- 70% dark chocolate or higher for someone who prefers dark chocolate).

2. If you really want to impress the Lindor Truffle lover in your life, I'd say find Lindt's new Peanut Butter Lindor Truffle.  They come in boxes of three and are absolutely delicious (so delicious, in fact, that I can forgive the artificial flavour).  They have not been easy to find, but that may have something to do with where I live.

3. Step it up while being socially responsible and healthy!
I discovered the most delectable milk chocolate truffle at Wholefoods in downtown Toronto under the Alter Eco brand.  These have no artificial flavours and taste like buttery smooth, real melt-in-your-mouth milk chocolate.  I loved them so much that I did not share with anyone! 

They also come individually wrapped, so you can add them to Christmas baskets or toss them into your family's stockings for a tasty treat Christmas morning.

4. Godiva's Truffle Selection always impresses the average chocolate lover, since most people know how expensive Godiva chocolate can be and they will rarely purchase a box for themselves. I find the flavours a bit sweet for me and truthfully, the cocoa bean flavour is a little dull.  But of course, I am not your average chocolate lover!


My recommendation: get Godiva's newest bar, the milk chocolate truffle bar and stuff it in someone's stocking.  It is made with real cream and it is super delicious.  I usually buy it in the cash register area of the Chapters-Indigo in my region.

5. National chocolate retailers (Canada) offer other great Canadian gift ideas to step up from your usual pharmacy chocolate truffle purchase, including Purdys 2014 Christmas Collection (you can still order online with Priority shipping!), Laura Secord's Hostess Gift Box, has a variety of chocolates, including an entire box layer devoted to truffles and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory also offers a truffle selection in their retail stores.

What to get for a true chocolate connoisseur?

If you have to buy a gift for that person who researches, talks about and orders fine chocolate regularly - you'd better buy fresh, real-cream truffles and ganaches, like those of MoRoCo or Stubbe Chocolate in Toronto (also at Wholefoods). Or go with a gourmet local chocolate shop, like the new truffles made by Manitoulin Chocolate Works (see pick below) or my Original Chocolate TOFFLEs on Manitoulin Island.  And if you are really stuck, go and see a local expert, like Joanne at JoJo Coco in Ottawa, who can help you find just the right chocolaty gift for any kind of chocolate lover. If all else fails, e-mail me at info@ultimatelychocolate.com and I'll help you figure it out.

For a chocolate connoisseur, you can always achieve gifting success by buying Michel Cluizel or Valrhona brand bars from an online fine chocolate site such as ATasteforChocolate.com or a bean-to-bar brand from La Tablette de Miss Choco in Montreal. But you had better do it quickly!  Christmas morning is just 9 days away!!!

Manitoulin Chocolate Works Salted Caramel Truffle

Last chance for chocolate, get your order in NOW!

Craft and fine chocolate can often be hard to come by, and Christmas is just 10 days away!  So if you are planning to order online, you must do it NOW.  Here are three great online shops where you can order bean-to-bar craft chocolate, and fine chocolate in Canada:

1. New Bean-to-Bar, Craft Chocolate Retailer Launches Online Sales in Canada

La Tablette de Miss Choco is a lovely Montreal-based retailer who sells craft, bean-to-bar chocolate in a quaint store. But just a few weeks ago, they launched an online sales site, so the rest of us Canadians can purchase our favourite craft chocolate bars from afar. I have already placed and received an order of chocolate bars, including Askinosie Chocolate's unique white chocolate bar made with goat's milk and cocoa nibs, and a Palette de Bine chocolate bar made in Mont-Tremblant, as well as some other Canadian and American craft chocolate brands.

La Tablette de Miss Choco offers a great selection and their service was fantastic. So be quick! If you have a chocolate connoisseur to buy for this Christmas, get your order in today or tomorrow! If you do not speak French, "Achats en ligne" means "Buy online", but to make it easier for you, this is the direct link to their online shop: https://boutique.latablette.ca/.

2. FoodiePages.ca - where true Canadian foodies get their chocolate
On FoodiePages.ca you can not only order my Original Chocolate TOFFLE™, or my CacaoCookie™ only but you can also buy some of Canada's most delicious craft, bean-to-bar chocolate online, including Hummingbird Chocolate Maker's origin chocolate bars from Ottawa, and Waterloo-based Ambrosia's delicious Ghana-origin 55% Dark-Milk Chocolate bar.

3. A Taste for (Fine) Chocolate sells the world's top brands
ATasteforChocolate.com is one of the few places a Canadian can purchase Michel Cluizel, Amedei, Bonnat, Pralus and all the world's most well-known fine chocolate brands. A huge selection of single origin and blended fine chocolate bars await you.  The service is always exceptional and you can count on having your chocolate delivered in just days.

SOMA Smoke Monster: The Most Interesting Chocolate Bar I Ever Tasted

When I was ordering chocolate bars for a tasting workshop recently, someone at Soma suggested that I try out their new chocolate creation called Smoke Monster. It sounded so interesting that I could not resist. And upon tasting it, it turned out to be extraordinary.

Both the flavour and aroma is very strong of smoke - like that of smoked meat or cheese.  It is nearly overwhelming when you first taste it, but in a naturally smoked way rather than that horrid taste of artificial smoked flavour that is sometimes added to food. It takes some getting used to, and if you can get past the first few pieces, you might even crave it.

So why is this chocolate bar full of smoke flavour? 
Well, it begins with the beans, grown in Vanuatu in the South Pacific. When they were dried, instead of using the traditional method of drying the beans in the sun, the farmers dried them using wood fires, which caused the beans to take on a smoke flavour. 

According to the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO), drying cocoa by wood fire is a method of 'artificial drying' of cocoa beans. They say "Artificially dried beans can be of poor quality due to contamination from the smoke of fires..." (ref).  The smoke flavour is caused when there is not adequate ventilation for the wood fired dryer. However, Soma has used these beans as an advantage to create a uniquely - and naturally - flavoured fine chocolate bar.

Despite its strong flavour, why do I love it?
This chocolate bar is the perfect example of how any one element in the process of harvesting cocoa beans and making chocolate can affect the overall flavour of the resulting chocolate.  Because the beans have been affected by wood smoke, the entire bar tasted like it was smoked. Had the beans been dried out in the sun, the chocolate bar would have taken on an entirely different flavour (likely fruity and somewhat tropical).

Soma tackled these Vanuatu beans head on and made an extremely bold chocolate bar.  However, what could be done to overcome the strong flavour is to make a blended bar, where only, say, 10% of the beans used in the resulting chocolate bar are the smoke-flavoured beans, which would add just a hint of smoke flavour to a chocolate bar. A master blender could make something very interesting from these beans, and I don't doubt that Soma has this in mind for the future.

What is Vanuatu doing to improve its cocoa farming and processing methods?
Cocoa in Vanuatu is considered high-quality and organic, however most of the farmers and co-operatives do not have the money to get the 'organic' certification. (ref). This is an unfortunate cycle because they cannot reap the rewards from higher prices in order to pay for certification, which will certainly enable them to charge higher prices.

Vanuatu mainly supplies the bulk cocoa markets in Asia, but since 2012 there is a strong effort to export 20% cocoa to the fine chocolate industry worldwide. In fact, there is an effort by a local organization (ACTIV) to start a chocolate factory, which will help locals understand how their farming and production methods affect flavour, and to sell chocolate to tourists.  Certainly the more they learn about making chocolate, the more they will understand how fermenting and drying the beans affects the flavour of the final chocolate product, which will lead to changing processing methods.

My Recommendations...
Soma's Smoke Monster is a great chocolate bar to add to any chocolate tasting workshop because it offers a great talking point. You can easily learn about and demonstrate how cacao processing methods affect chocolate flavour.  Also, as a foodie or wannabe chocolate connoisseur, it is simply something worth tasting. In Soma's usual way, the chocolate is immensely smooth and texturally easy on the palette.

If you do not like 'smoke' flavour, go for Soma's Peruvian Nacional bar instead - it just won a bronze at the International Chocolate Awards.  It is smooth and delicious and full of rich chocolate flavour.

And if you find smoky chocolate interesting, you might also like Bourbon-flavoured chocolate by Brooklyn chocolate maker Raaka, where the beans have rested in used bourbon barrels to create a distinct flavoured chocolate bar.  Soma also makes the Stratus bar, which involves resting the beans in Stratus Vineyards' oak wine barrels to create a lovely wine-flavoured chocolate.

Package Details and Where to Buy

Here are the package details from the chocolate bar that I tasted today:

BLACK SCIENCE "Smoke Monster - Vanuatu 70%", 80g
SOMA chocolatemaker (Toronto, ON)
www.somachocolate.com
Ingredients: cacao beans, organic cane sugar, cocoa butter. May contain trace amounts of nuts, gluten, soy & dairy.