This is another bar we got from the Choc Stock festival from Be Happy. This bar didn't come with the box wrapper and we had forgotten what it was. We think it is a coconut based caramilised milk chocolate.
It was very smooth and buttery with coconut being the dominant flavor. There was also notes of maple and golden syrup. We also got a slight black jellybean flavor. Quite puddingish.
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This might be our new favourite olive oil bar. We will have to try and get the Flint olive oil bar when its back in stock to make a fresh comparision, but this Waiheke Olive Oil bar is good.
65% Fazenda Camboa Brazil cacao. Allpress extra virgin olive oil, from olives grown on Waiheke Island. The chocolate was smooth with flavor notes of coffee and walnut. The olive oil flavor notes came through quite fresh, fruity and raw tasting. So Yum! We had to do a bit of research on Jaguar Cacao. This bar contains 44% Theobroma Bicolour, (Jaguar Cacao) and 24% Cacao content. Theobrama Bicolour is closely related to the Cacao tree where the cacao beans to make chocolate usually come from. The Theobrama Bicolour has larger and thicker pods and supposedly smell quite floral. The seeds contain high levels of protein, fibre, omega 9 and they also contain caffiene.
Other ingredients in this bar were dried apple, apple powder, cinnamon and vanilla pod. We didn't read the ingredient list when we first tried it and were surprised by the mildness of it. We thought it was a really milky chocolate. We commented on how buttery it was. When we researched Jaguar Cacao, it made more sense, the Jaguar Cacao is milder. The spice flavour is there with a very mild apple note too. I don't think we are a fan of the Cacao Cousin, but it made an interesting tasting. Another bar picked up from the Wellington Choc Stock Festival: Baron Hasselhoff's Butter Boom!
52.5% Milk Chocolate. Cacao from Papua New Guinea. Other ingredients include brown butter, cinnamon and vanilla. This is a nice melty, buttery chocolate. You can taste the vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon. The balance of flavours are nice, the cinnamon didn't over power the taste of the chocolate. Joni thought she could taste apples, but maybe it was just a mind connection with the cinnamon. This was a pleasant bar. The Hogarth Monsoon bar is a 66% dark chocolate bar with beans from Hacienda Victoria, Ecuador.
The ingredients include candied ginger, chili, lime oil, and lemongrass oil. This has a firm texture and snap. The first notes you taste are a sweetness with lime peel and cocoa flavours, then the ginger and chili kicks in growing stronger and stronger until it gives you a good slap in the mouth. The flavours are nice. We were pleasantly surprised by the lime oil as we haven't really enjoyed citrus oils in chocolate, but this added a nice lime marmalade type tang. Joni loved the heat slap at the end, but Joey wasn't so much a fan of the chili hit. This was a fun tasting. At the Choc Stock festival we visited Jonty the Lucid Chocolatier to see what is on offer at the moment. We picked up a bar and got a selection of his bon bons. We have previously got a sample of his trial stage bonbons and confectionary, so we were excited to see the final product on offer. Our most favourite bonbons were the Port and Tonka Infused caramels. Yummy and melt in the mouth.
From our previous samples, the Almond dragees were nice, but our overall, must try FAVOURITE is the Vanilla Chocolate Caramels!! Gorgeous flavour and texture, and we love the finger size. AO Cacao is another new chocolate maker to us. We bought a range of their bars from the Wellington Choc Stock festival to try. AO Cacao is created by Thomas Netana Wright, a pastry chef, chocolatier and chocolate maker. The inspiration and approach to chocolate making is quoted on their website: "Respect the history of cacao, Respect the People, Be Transparent and Be a good ancestor." Their cacao is sourced from Tuana'i, Samoa The first bar we tried is the Everything Gianduja 43% milk chocolate. It has won a gold medal at the Food Producer Awards 2024. When we first read Gianduja, we thought of the hazelnut filling. This bar instead refers to the hazelnut and macadamias being the plant based milk for the milk chocolate.
We thought the chocolate was nice and creamy. It is a mild chocolate with our tasting notes of vanilla, burning wood and musk. A pleasant bar. Coromandel Chocolate is a chocolate maker that is new to us, so we were excited to pick up a few bars from them at the Choc Stock festival.
Coromandel Chocolate is a family owned business in Whangamata, New Zealand. They make their chocolate from beans sourced from Malekula in Vanuatu Archipelago. They use earth conscious packaging and ethical ingredients. The first bar to taste: A milk chocolate, Toasted Coconut Rough with Passionfruit. Joni is a coconut rough fan, Joey is not, so you will get both sides with this one. This is certainly a coconut rough with lots of coconut. Sugar is the 2nd listed ingredient, but it is suprisingly only slightly sweet. It is tangy. The passionfruit gives a tangy dried fruit flavour with just a hint of passionfruit taste. We like that the passionfruit is not a strong flavour. Sometimes passionfruit in chocolate can be a bit overpowering and sickly, but here it is a nice and gives the coconut rough an added yumminess.... if you like coconut rough. The chocolate flavours are a very mild backdrop. If you like coconut rough, then this is nice. If you are not a coconut rough fan, this won't change your mind. This is a bar was one of the one we bought from Baron Hasselhoff's when we attended the Wellington ChocStock Festival. The Cheese Bar is 60% Vanuatu Origin Cacao milk chocolate. It is blended with an award winning aged danbo cheese from Hohepa Cheese. Here is a link to the cheese: Hohepa Danbo Cheese
They say on the cheese website that Danbo is similar to Dutch Gouda. When we sampled it at ChocStock, we could immediately taste the cheese as well as the chocolate. We opened the chocolate bar after lunch with the Wellington Gazetters. Because part of our lunch was a cheese, some of us found it nullified the taste of the cheese in the chocolate. Peter tasted it as an aftertaste. Johanan tasted it straight away, but the rest of us could only taste the cheese in the chocolate after we drank some water and cleansed our palates. This is a clever blending of flavours. The slightly yeasty, sour tang of cheese and chocolate flavours go so well together. There is a sweetness that is just right, and even though it is a milk chocolate, the chocolate comes through quite strong. We really enjoyed this one. 4 new bars from the Baron's is tastebud happy days! First a duo from Papua New Guinea. PAPUA NEW GUINEA70% DARK Single Origin from the Manabu Plantation We tasted a chocolate that had a slight peppery wood flavour to it. There was also some notes of vanilla and a sweet tanginess. There was also some milkiness to it, even though this was not a milk bar. This bar was very nice. PAPUA NEW GUINEA DARK MILK 60% Single origin from the Manabu Plantation. This bar had the same lit match, wood pepper flavours and had more fruitiness, raisin, wine flavours coming through than the dark. Really, really yum! The tasting notes from the Baron on the Papua New Guinea single origins are: honey caramel, dark cherry and cinnamon butter. COCONUT, BLACK PEPPER AND NIB DARK CHOCOLATE 69% This bar has cacao from the Anamalai Estate in India. The nibs are from Chiapas, Mexico. We loved the texture of the nibs in this chocolate. We got flavour notes of pepper, coconut, cherry, apricot, maple syrup and red wine. This was our favourite of the 4! JAGUAR VS CHIAPAS CACAO This bar has 2 types of Mexican cacao in one bar. There is the Theobroma Bicolour, (Jaguar Cacao), from Oaxaca Mexico and the Theobroma Cacao from Chiapas Mexico. We are presuming the light coloured is the Jaguar cacao. There is no milk in this bar, but this light chocolate has a mild buttery, creaminess to it. It's flavours reminded us of plum pudding and vanilla custard.
The darker side, (Chiapas) is more intense in flavour and we got notes of cherry, plum and strawberry jam. We liked the darker side the best. This foursome was so good! They are really fun tasting experience combo. We really enjoyed comparing the dark and the dark milk of the Papua New Guinea single origins and they are up there with our favourite Papua New Guinea bars. The flavours of the Coconut and Black Pepper chocolate makes our mouths water thinking about it. And what a fun way to finish off the tasting, comparing the two Theobrama bean types. Still huge fans of the Baron!! |
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July 2024
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