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 Thirty One: White Christmas Part Two

With the holidays upon us we wanted to try something a little different. We will be tasting white chocolate bars from brands we know and love and new ones we are just discovering. We’re so glad you could make it!

We know what you may be thinking: white chocolate isn’t really chocolate! However, did you know that cocoa butter is a by-product of the chocolate making process? So while the cacao bean or solid is not included in the white chocolate itself, it technically does have cacao in it. :P Here’s another fun fact: the cocoa butter is what smells like chocolate, not the cacao beans! We hope you enjoy our little segue from dark chocolate bars as much as we did. Our tasting method will be a bit different for the white chocolate reviews. As we have no base bar, there will be no comparison. Instead we will be focusing on the color, texture, flavor profile, and aroma individually.

Finding a white chocolate in brands that we have previously tasted has proven to be quite the undertaking! We finally settled on this bar from a brand that we have yet to sample. We look forward to tasting their dark chocolate offerings in the future. This particular bar is from Venezuelan cacao and though it is not fair trade certified, their website does have this to say about their beans:

“I think I can confidently say that my form of direct trade goes beyond certified fair trade. Being both a cacao farmer and a chocolate manufacturer naturally means that I put the ethical sourcing of my beans at the heart of the way I make chocolate. I source all my beans directly from the farmers. I visit the farms and get to know the farmers, the challenges they face and the production methods they use. All the farmers I source my cacao from receive incomes well above average and well above the fair trade minimums because I use only premium beans. The world has two types of cacao. 85% of the world’s beans are the standard beans on which the Stock Exchange price is based – fair trade simply guarantees a fixed $ amount per tonne amount more than this price. The other 15% is made up of the Criollo, Trinitario, and Porecelana type premium beans that I buy – these command some 50% to 200% more than the terminal market price for standard beans.”

It’s a captivating philosophy to say the least. Let’s get to tasting.

Tasting No. :29

Willie’s Cacao El Blanco

Initial Impressions:

The snap of this bar was firm, as was the bite. It was a brown-toned color, and smelled faintly like eggnog.

Flavor Profile:

Initial – fruity

Middle – goat’s milk

After – caramel

Texture:

The texture was buttery smooth and thick, much thicker than the Milkboy.

Overall:

Surprisingly, this bar was not sweet, with the sweetness developing as we ate more of it. Willie’s Cacao attributes the lack of sweetness and depth of flavor to using 20% less sugar than other brands by incorporating natural cacao butter. With the rich, burnt caramel notes, it evoked childhood memories of spoonfuls of cajeta (a Mexican confection of caramelized goat’s milk – popular in parts of Texas). It was also reminiscent of custard or eggnog. We both found this bar to be scrumptious, thus it made it on to Gaby’s Favorites and Laura’s Favorites lists.

Rating: 9/10

*Notes:

Purchased at Central Market

Price range: Under $4

We will be taking a break until mid-January so that we can enjoy the holidays with our families. We hope that you enjoy yours and stay tuned for another post!

For now savor: “I want to stay curled and cosied and chocolated…forever in my mother’s arms.” – Sanober Khan, Turquoise Silence

Remember, fairly traded chocolate is a responsible way to support farmers by ensuring that the chocolate that you consume has been bought for a fair price. By choosing to purchase fair trade chocolate, you can honor the cocoa tree growers and support their way of life which in turn leads to better chocolate.