Cadbury Chocolate: Chocolate Products

Showing posts with label Chocolate Products. Show all posts

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.

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.

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!

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.

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."

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.

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%!

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.

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.

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:

Patric Chocolate Nib-Chip Cookies

What is delicious, buttery, chewy and chocolatey all at once?

That's right, Patric Chocolate Nib-Chip Cookies.

Here is the recipe that will become a staple in your home:

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
½ lb unsalted butter (two sticks)
1 cup dark brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar
1 tsp real vanilla extract
1 egg
¾ cup Patric Chocolate’s Roasted Cacao Nibs

Procedure:

1) Preheat oven to 375 F. Adjust oven
rack to middle position.

2) Combine flour, salt and baking
soda in bowl.

3) In a mixer cream the butter and mix in sugars.

4) Add the vanilla and egg to the
butter mixture and beat to combine.

5) Beat the flour mixture into the
butter mixture until just combined.

6) Stir in the Patric Chocolate Cacao
Nibs.

7) Refrigerate dough until cool and
stiff.

8) Drop by rounded teaspoons onto
a good quality baking sheet (thin black baking sheets are not good options).

9) Bake for about 10 minutes and remove from oven. After several
minutes remove to a rack to cool.

Cadbury Chocolate

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

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

Bar of the Week: Michel Cluizel's Concepcion