I got as a gift, a big bag of American craft chocolate bars, enough to cover several weeks of consumption:
We love especially the UT’s Ritual Novo coffee chocolate with Anyetsu Ethiopian coffee matching, with character and yet matches delicately well with Balao chocolate.
I stocked up on these single origin bars, one set from Varlhona, the other is Trader Joe’s brand. Both $10. I have enough to last for months.
Another 2 bars of Handcrafted chocolate bars, this time they are from Patric Workshop, Missouri. I like both of them, the Piura Peru 67% bar has a strong note of raisin. Blood Orange 66 is intense in the nutty taste with a slight hint of orange (maybe a bit too subtle or it’s the intention), but overall I like the equilibrium of taste. In the past, I have tried the Patric red coconut curry bar, personally, I found the pieces of nuts a bit too big and rough, it can a distraction from the otherwise excellent bar.
I got it as a gift, I don’t know if they can be found easily in shops.
A bit of history of the workshop: Alan Patric McClure had spent a year in France eating, during this time, he developed a passion for chocolate and upon returning to USA, he determined to make his own single-origin blended and flavoured bars, after several years of daily test batches, tastings and study.
I was doing a bit of Googling on American chocolate Bars, and found this site: http://eatingthechocolatealphabet.com
Quite interesting if you like crafted chocolate.
I’ve gotta stop following this thread! Makes me want to rush out and fill a shopping cart with hundreds of pounds of chocolate.
Nope. No longer have the teeth–or the jaw strength required for that puppy.
My local artisan chocolate place has a deal where children can trade in their halloween candies for a bar of artisan single original chocolate at 50% off. My kid is now the owner of a $17 bar of Patric blood orange bar, with the agreement that she gets to eat the whole bar herself, just not all at the same time.
I have to say the I remember the usual Varlhona Grand Cru boxset I got a few years ago as a gift overall was more pleasing than the TJ Varlhona calendar. Perhaps its because of the choice of chocolate.
I’m surprised that your kid choose the blood orange bar. Usually kids like sweeter chocolate, and blood orange bar has quite some bitterness.
I wonder what will they do with the candies?!
Tcho Dark Chocolate and Raspberry. $1.50 at Grocery Outlet in San Francisco.
How about Mackinac fudge? This thread could use a little Rybas or Murdick’s…
It may be cliché, but it’s an awesome one.
I just finished a bar of FIKA dark chili chocolate - not bad at all. The chili is red pepper flakes that are pressed into the back of the bar, so you really only taste the spice if one hits your tongue directly. Makes for an interesting texture and a different experience with each bite. Their chocolate is otherwise extremely smooth and snappy, very enjoyable.
Ate a lot of Ferrero chocolate during Christmas, I preferred the darker Rondnoir one than the much sweeter classic Rocher milk chocolate more. I continued eating, they were in every salon.
I ate this Bolivian bar made by the Canadian Sirene a while ago, this one tasted like the Patric Piura Peru bar, it has a nice mix of raisin and nut flavour, from an exceptional Bolivian wild bean.
Just tasted 2 more bars, one from a bean cultivated in Mexico, a 70% pichucalco bar, it has a nice nut and coffee taste, not too sweet and with a slight bitter aftertaste. From Manhattan Beach, a CA workshop, Bar au Chocolat.
The second bar Green Tangerine is from Soma, another Canadian workshop situated in Toronto. It’s semi dark 66% Madagascar Trinitario bar with a subtle touch of the citrus fruit that adds some acidity that balances very well.
I can’t decide which one I like more, they are both good. Perhaps the Soma one a little bit more, it has an unusual and more original taste.
Bars like this is like wine, no two batches are the same, I was wondering on their website for more information on this chocolate only to find that their new bar is not more from Madagascar, the new Green Tangerine is made from the Ecuador, Jamaica, Peru beans.
The latest was Diego’s chocolates, very nice cigar shapes, hand crafted rolls from Guatemala. The first one was a pure 80% dark chocolate and the second one 75% with cardamom.
The drawing and colouring on the packaging was really original, enhancing the idea of hand made.
Well, the taste, how should I say that, nothing I was expecting. Actually it didn’t taste like chocolate that I used to know. Didn’t taste even like chocolate. It didn’t have that butter or smooth feeling, I guess it was very rustic, it has a strong spice flavour and was even a bit acid. The texture wasn’t very smooth or refined either. I didn’t like it at all at first and thought the one I taste (the grey one with cardamom) must be a mistake, they must have put too much spice and ruined the taste. The 80% pure dark chocolate tasted more or less the same but a bit less sweet. So it was the style. I tried to read a bit more on this, they said it was the original Central American taste of chocolate, before the intervention of the European.
I got used to the taste after several tastings. I couldn’t say I was fond of it, but I’m glad that I have tried the “real” Maya chocolate. Very unique.
Took a bit of a break from chocolate earlier in the year.
I wonder if the way they make the Diego bars are similar to how SOMA makes their Old School bar (both Milk and Dark)? Namely just cacao nibs, milk, and sugar. No butter. The SOMA Milk Old School bar is absolutely amazing. Easily my favorite bar for the year. Their Dark Old School bar doesn’t come close. Rich and crunchy
Good bar from Arete, a local-to-me producer based out of Milpitas, California. Milpitas has some fine Indian, Chinese and Vietnamese food, and now fine chocolate too.
Marou bar using Vietnamese beans, and or this specific bar, beans from the Tiền Giang province in southern Vietnam. My second bar from these guys (made by a couple of French guys in Vietnam). Rich, dark, warm. Enjoyable.
Funny, I just bought 6 bars of Marou in Ho Chi Minh City for $25 USD. I didn’t eat them yet, will report back.
Wow. $4 USD per bar! Its like $9 here. That’s a fantastic deal. If I see that I probably can’t resist and grab like dozens of them.
$4 a bar here usually buys pretty mediocre quality chocolate.
