Chapter Thirty-Nine: Dude, Sweet Chocolate

It's good to be back! We needed a bit of a breather since Laura has just come back from China and Gaby's been keeping busy in Texas. For the month of March we will feature bars that Gaby bought while visiting Dallas, Texas. These are local, artisanal chocolatiers with a cult following. We're excited to share what she has found with you! 

For our first post back, we will be tasting two chocolate offerings from Dude, Sweet Chocolate, one of which is a toffee fudge concoction. Dude, Sweet got its start in a dive bar in South Dallas in 2008. Since then, Chef Katherine Clapner ran with the idea and established Dude, Sweet as a leader in the Texas chocolate market. With a focus on the taste of the chocolate and a decision to keep bells and whistles minimal, Chef Clapner has excelled in creating unique sweet and savory offerings, as we will explore below.

Tasting No.: 37Dude, Sweet Chocolate: Holiday in Cambodia Chocolate BarDude, Sweet Chocolate: Fungus Amongus Soft Butter Toffee

Initial Impressions: 

The Holiday in Cambodia chocolate bar is a beautiful bar to look at; smooth and dark brown with a soft snap, which reveals the inner texture of whole black sesame seeds. The aroma is sweetly acidic and earthy, reminiscent of chocolate covered cherries. The bite is firm, leading into a surprisingly savory and delicious complexity.

The toffee fudge is soft and its appearance has many evident chunks of pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and porcini mushroom chunks. Its main chocolate ingredient is Valrhona cocoa. The aroma is rich, and almost like a gamey meat, with notes of soil and musk. There is no snap, we cut it and the outside was firm while the inside sliced easily. It melts easily once it hits the tongue. 


Chocolate Bar                                                              Chocolate Toffee

Flavor Profile:                                                             Flavor Profile:

Initial – soil, smoke                                                       Initial – sweet, maple

Middle – nutty, slight sweetness                                   Middle – toffee

After – earthy, sesame                                                 After – earthy


Texture:
The bar melts easily but is still chewy with crunchy bits of black sesame seeds rounding out the tasting, a fascinating texture that kept us wanting more.

Of course, the fudge smooth, with a pepita every once in a while that adds a surprise crunch.

Here you can see the delicious texture of the chocolate bar

Overall:
The chocolate bar was most definitely a savory bar with only a slight sweetness.  It was incredibly satiating and Laura and Gaby have both added it to their list of favorites.

The toffee fudge was cloyingly sweet, but it is a toffee fudge! We would have enjoyed it more with a strong espresso while tasting only the smallest piece. Because we don't normally try toffee fudge, we did not feel that we should rate this chocolate.

Bar Rating: 10/10
Toffee Rating: N/A

*Notes:

Purchased at Dude, Sweet Chocolate

Price range: Under $7

Next week, we'll introduce you to another Dallas local chocolatier from Gaby's trip. Join us!

For now savor: "The greatest tragedies were written by the Greeks and Shakespeare...neither knew chocolate." - Sandra Boynton

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

Chapter Twenty-Seven: A Taste of the Dominican Republic

We are taking a break from our normal chocolate bar tasting (Don't worry! We are still consuming chocolate bars) and tasting hot chocolate for the month of November. If you missed our first post about hot chocolate, we suggest reading it to understand our tasting methods, ingredients, and tools. You can find Chapter 26 here.

This week, we are excited to taste a single origin bar from the Dominican Republic which was a gift from Laura's sister Christine and her husband Thomas. This cacao came in a large brick from which we had to chop a chunk off and then chop into small pieces.  We love that this bar was purchased directly from the farmer that grew the cacao trees. We also were excited to discover the cacao nibs which provided a bit of "crunch" to our tasting.

Tasting No. :25

100% Whole Cacao from the Dominican Republic

Left: Guittard Base Cocoa Right: Dominican Republic Cocoa

Guittard Base Cocoa

Initial Impressions:

The base cocoa powder was a dark red while the Dominican cocoa was a deep rich brown with golden bits. It smelled of earth and truffles, almost mold while the base cocoa was spicy and earthy with notes of cinnamon. This cocoa was nutty, and earthy with deep, rich tastes to which the crunch of the nibs served to provide us with a complex chocolate experience.  

Texture:

In comparison to the base cocoa which was thick and smooth, the Dominican cocoa was even thicker and each sip was flecked with crunchy cacao nibs.

For a bit of fun, we made ourselves a second cup and added whipped cream made with:

Whipping cream (hand whipped!)

Vanilla bean paste (we used Neilsen-Massey)

After a few sips, we added a sprinkle of cinnamon to the top for an added depth. Both cocoas responded very well to this addition, but the Dominican cacao almost seemed completed by it.

Overall:

We were happy to have the molinillo to mix this cocoa as this is the sort of solid cocoa that it is meant to mix.  This cocoa was so deeply earthy and seemed to speak to our souls with every sip; this must be similar to the chocolate that the ancient Aztecs used to drink in ceremonies of old.

Rating: 10 /10

*Notes:

Gift from Christine and Thomas, we don't know the price or where to find a product such as this.

Next week, we'll be trying a cocoa from Taza.  This brand has been a bit of a mixed bag for us, but we both loved their 70% dark chocolate bar, so we are anxiously anticipating tasting their cocoa.  Join us!

For now savor: "My goal in life is to skid breathlessly up to my grave, with a large chocolate bar, half eaten, in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other, yelling 'Damn, but it was a good life!'" - Anonymous