Bar of the Week - Dole's Waialua Estate

70% Dark Chocolate

Origin:  Hawai'i

Calling all locavore chocophiles!  If you're looking for chocolate grown close to home, Waialua Estate is it.  Dole grows the pesticide-free beans on its estate in O'ahu and Guittard transforms them into artisan bars. 

While the packaging is, well, a little touristy (a hula girl?? really, Dole??), the chocolate inside is no mere novelty.  Each small box contains 5 smooth, creamy mini-bars that burst with bright, fruity notes of raspberry, cherry and raisin. 

Stop by on Saturday to enjoy a sample of a world-class chocolate that's grown and made in America!

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Bar of the Week: Domori Ilblend

An exceptional blend bar from a company betterknown for single-origin chocolate, Domori's Ilblend is anything but middle-of-the-road.  Six types of premium beans combine for an exciting balance of carmelized undertones and bright notes of sour fruit. 

Join us on Saturday for a taste of Domori's Ilblend!

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Bar of the Week: Amedei Blond

We're celebrating the launch of Amedei's pretty new packaging by featuring the Tosacano Blond inclusion bar.  It's a smooth, bittersweet blend of 63% dark chocolate, studded with tiny pieces of sweet/tart dried apricots and peaches--like little flashes of sunshine on a cloudy day. 

Stop by and enjoy a sample of Amedei Blond with us on Saturday.

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Bar of the Week: Pacari's Manabi

Our "Ecuador Month" continues with the Manabi bar from Quito-based Pacari Chocolate.  Pacari is a family-owned company that partners with small farms to produce certified organic and kosher chocolate using Arriba Nacional cacao.   The Manabi bar is 65% dark chocolate with assertive notes of nuts and citrus and a long finish. 

We'll be offering samples of Pacari's Manabi on Saturday, May 15th.

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Bar of the Week: Valrhona's Alpaco

On Saturday, May 23, we'll be offering samples of Valrhona's Alpaco, a 66% dark chocolate made from Ecuadorian Arriba cacao.  Expect delicate notes of jasmine and orange blossom grounded by a "stately" chocolate base.

Our house-made Ecuadorian truffle is also made using Valrhona Alpaco, and, for the month of May, we're offering Alpaco drinking chocolate.

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Bar of the Week: Coppeneur's Hacienda Iara

Our final bar of the week for "Ecuador Month" comes from German micro-batch maker Coppeneur.  The beans for the Hacienda Iara bars grow on an organic plantation that specializes in Ecuadorian Arriba Nacional cacao.  The bar is 72% dark chocolate and contains only cacao, sugar, and cocoa butter, setting the stage for intense flavors of fruit, tropical flowers, and roasted nuts. Join us on Saturday, May 29th, to try Coppeneur's Hacienda Iara.

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Bar of the Week: Republica del Cacao's El Oro

Our "Ecuador Month" continues with the El Oro bar from Republica del Cacao.  Among biodiverse Ecuador's many treasures is the Arriba cacao bean, a strain noted (and named) for its remarkable aroma.  Begun in 2004, Republica del Cacao aims to preserve and develop the Arriba bean and Ecuador's historic cacao industry.

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Bar of the Week: Amedei Blond

We're celebrating the launch of Amedei's pretty new packaging by featuring the Tosacano Blond inclusion bar.  It's a smooth, bittersweet blend of 63% dark chocolate, studded with tiny pieces of sweet/tart dried apricots and peaches--like little flashes of sunshine on a cloudy day.

 

Stop by and enjoy a sample of Amedei Blond with us on Saturday.

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Bar of the Week: Askinosie's San Jose Del Tambo

We're kicking off Ecuador Month with Askinosie's San Jose Del Tambo bar, a 70% dark chocolate made from Ecuadorian Ariba beans.

Missouri-based Shawn Askinosie is a former criminal defense lawyer with a unique and uncompromising approach to making chocolate.  He eschews vanilla and emulsifiers, using organic cane sugar, goat milk, and cocoa butter pressed from the same cacao that goes into each bar.

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Bar of the Week: Michel Cluizel's Concepcion

 

This week we're wrapping up "Venezuela Month" with the Concepcion bar from Michel Cluizel.   

This "single estate" bar is made entirely from Caranero beans grown on the Concepcion plantation east of Caracas, where cacao has been processed the same way since 1902.  It's a 66% dark chocolate with a rich and complex flavor.  Cluizel's write-up describes top notes of "vanilla, honey spice cake, and caramel" with undertones of "mixed dried and black fruits".

Stop by on April 24th to taste Cluizel's Concepcion, and please keep in mind that even though Venezuela Month is ended, we'll continue to have plenty of great Venezuelan chocolates in stock!

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Bar of the Week: Domori's Porcelana

Our Venezuela Month continues with Domori's Porcelana bar, which many tasters consider to be the brand's best offering.  Porcelana is a rare heirloom variety of criollo that produces distinctive white pods and a delicately complex flavor.  Domori's label describes "notes of bread, butter and preserve" while a common thread among reviews is a simple but utterly satisfying sweetness that calls to mind strawberries, caramel, or honey.  The flavors are supported by Domori's characteristically creamy texture. 

Come by on Saturday, April 17th for a taste of Domori's Porcelana.

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Bar of the Week: Amedei's Chuao

Throughout the month of April, we'll be highlighting chocolate made from Venezuelan cacao.  This week we're featuring the Chuao bar from Amedei, a 70% dark chocolate with an intense flavor and a fascinating backstory.

Writing in Food&Wine, Pete Wells tells the story of how this bar brought fame to a small Italian firm run by brother and sister, Alessio and Cecilia Tessieri. Following in their parents' footsteps, the Tessieri siblings began as confectioners, using pre-made chocolate couverture rather than raw cacao.  Their focus shifted after a visit to the French choclate maker Valrhona, where the Tessieris were denied access to the company's best products on the grounds that, "...Italy wasn't evolved enough to appreciate such extraordinary chocolate." 

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Bar of the Week: Coppeneur's Habanero and Lavender

Maybe you're just now recovering from sampling the "Do Not Eat This Chocolate" bar two weeks ago, or perhaps your hunger for spicy chocolate is still raging.  Either way, consider stopping in for a taste of the Habanero and Lavender inclusion bar from German chocolate maker, Coppeneur. 

The base of this bar is a 72% dark chocolate made with single-origin Trinitario beans from Trinidad.  The interplay of the ingredients gives it an amazing aroma, the earthiness of the chocolate mingling with the warmth of the peppers and the cool, soothing scent of lavender.  And the taste?  More levels than a Ballard condo!  The chocolate itself is complex and has time to unfold before the lavender blooms and, finally, fades into the habanero kick.

Intrigued?  Come by on Saturday, March 27th, to try Coppeneur's Habanero and Lavender.

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Bar of the Week: Olive and Sinclair's 75% Dark

We're very excited to introduce you to Olive and Sinclair, a new bean-to-bar maker based in Nashville, TN.  A video on their blog gives a great idea of both the hard work and the magic that O&S's two young chocolate-makers put into their "Southern Artisan" chocolate.  Stone-grinding leaves their products with an appealingly rustic texture, while brown sugar lends a deep, lingering sweetness.

Their 75% bar is what they call "dual origin"--that is, it combines from Ghana and the Dominican Republic.  Join us on Saturday, March 20th, for a taste of Olive and Sinclair's 75%!

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Bar of the Week: Lillie Belle's "Do Not Eat This Chocolate"" Bar

The new bar from Oregon chocolatier Lille Belle Farms starts out as a normal-enough blend of organic milk and dark chocolates.  Then come the spices.  These include aji amarillos, arbole, and the legendary ghost chili--all administered with a heavy hand.  The final product has more than enough attitude to justify the "death metal" wrapper.

From the label:  "There is no reason for this bar to exist except that there is a large population of people who enjoy the searing heat of chile's in their chocolate and like it so over the top that they hurt.  Fine.  We can do that."

This is not a chocolate for delicate palates or ambivalent opinions.  Reactions so far have ranged from "wow!" to "ow!".  What will you think?  Join us on Saturday for a sample of Lillie Belle's "Do Not Eat This Chocolate" Bar.  We'll have water handy.

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Bar of the Week: Patric's Rio Caribe Superior

The title of this post should really be "Bar of the Patric Week":  all week long we'll be celebrating and sampling chocolates from Patric, the Missouri-based maker of bean-to-bar artisinal chocolate.  Owner Alan McClure produces on a micro-batch basis, only 50 carefully controlled pounds at a time. Many of our customers already know and love his range of single-origin bars of fruity Madagascar cacao.

Our Saturday sampling will highlight Patric's Rio Caribe Superior, a 70% dark chocolate made with single-estate cacao from Venezuela's Paria Peninsula. The succinct list of ingredients (cocoa beans and cane sugar) allows the chocolate's inherent flavor to shine.  Expect notes of cream, flowers, roasted nuts, and coffee.

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Bar of the Week: Amano&'s Dos Rios

From his base in the mountains outside Salt Lake City, Art Pollard of Amano Artisan Chocolate seeks out the cacao world's most eccentric and flamboyant beans, transforming them into chocolate that showcases their strong personalities. 

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Bar of the Week: Pralus Colombie

A 75% dark chocolate of single-origin Trinitario beans, Pralus' Colombie combines the nutty and coffee notes common to the region's chocolates with Pralus' typical heavy roast and creamy texture.  Seventypercent.com praises the bar's complex interplay of fruit and cream, calling it "definitely one of the must-tries of the Pralus line".  If you'd like to try Pralus' Colombie, be sure to stop by on Saturday, February 13th for a sample.

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Bar of the Week: Coppeneur's Ocumare

A 72% dark chocolate of Venezuelan criollo beans from Coppeneur, a relatively new and somewhat controversial German maker.  While the bar was reformulated after an earlier version proved unpopular, Ocumare continues to generate strongly diverging opinions among reviewers.  Rants note its marked acidity; raves hail its complex aroma, substantial texture, and buttery, fruity, and flowery notes 

This is exactly the kind of chocolate that sampling events were made for!  Join us on Saturday, February 6 for a taste of Coppeneur's Ocumare--and let us know which side of the debate you find yourself on.

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Bar of the Week: Pralus Indonesie

The humid conditions in much of Southeast Asia can make drying cacao a challenge.  Unlike farmers in other areas, who can just spread their beans out and let the sun do the rest, those in Southeast Asia often have to resort to using drying fires to keep their cacao from rotting.  Overriding both bean type and terrior, this process can lend Asian beans an assertive smokiness for which they are almost notorious.  To quote 70percent.com:

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