Chapter Thirty-Three: Amedei Porcelana

This week's chocolate selection, Amedei, hails from Tuscany. This brand has extensive recognition worldwide, having even been named the world's greatest chocolate. We enjoyed researching this brand and were so inspired to learn that it was founded by a woman who has only recently begun her journey with chocolate, establishing Amedei in 1990. Through her continued diligence and dedication to excellence, Amedei has gone on to earn numerous awards from the Academy of Chocolate. The Porcelana bar alone is a six time winner of the Golden Bean award in the "Bean to Bar" category. Amedei's impressive reputation has cultivated a legion of admirers and is a favorite amongst food professionals.

This bar is quite unique in that only 20,000 bars are produced annually. Each bar's packaging even includes a serial number. Its cacao comes from a rare, translucent Venezuelan bean, lending to the name of the bar, Porcelana. We highly encourage you to look into translucent cacao. It's fascinating to see how something so pale and milky can produce such a dark chocolate color. Now, could it really be the world's best chocolate?

Tasting No. :31

Amedei Porcelana, Cioccolato Fondente Extra 70%

Initial Impressions:
The snap of this bar was very firm, rather difficult to break, which is quite similar to the base bar's snap. The base bar was a tad bit darker in color when compared and the Amedei is a little more red, which is interesting considering that the Amedei bar has a lower cacao content. The aroma was mildly spicy and earthy, almost musty.

Flavor Profile:

Initial – chili, spicy, cinnamon

Middle – caramel, truffle, soil

After – chili, tobbaco

Texture:

This bar was velvety smooth but not thick. It melted very easily but didn't linger with a coating in our mouths.

Overall:
Flavors jumped out at us as we tasted this bar. It was exceedingly complex and the many flavors were surprisingly prevalent in the tasting.  Although this bar was only 70%, the intensity of the chocolate hooked us. We found that this bar was so rich that it clearly made the base bar taste low grade in comparison. Naturally, we've both added this delectable bar to Gaby's favorites and Laura's favorites.

Rating: 10 /10

*Notes:

Purchased at Central Market

Price range under $19
Drink pairing suggestions: We chose to enjoy this with a glass of water to clear our palate and have all of the flavor notes come through but imagine that a full-bodied red wine would pair marvelously.

Next week, we'll be tasting a bar from Equal Exchange, a company that caught our eye with their distinct eco-friendly packaging and fair trade practices. 

For now savor: “Chocolate is cheaper than therapy and you don't need an appointment.” - Catherine Aitken