We have only tried one bar Shirl + Moss before, and when we saw they had a chocolate bar from our favourite single origin region, we had to explore more. Shirl + Moss is based in Wellington and are passionate about family, community and sustainable foods. To make their chocolate they hand sort, roast, crack, winnow and stone grind their cacao beans for up to 80 hours. They then age their chocolate before tempering. Is this another one we missed on our Wellington Chocolate Tour!? KILOMBERO VALLEY, TANZANIA 70% Our favourite single origin region! Tanzania. This bar just won gold at the NZ Chocolate Awards 2022. It is fruity, sweet and chocolatey, and the tastes come and go. We get flavour notes of apricots, redcurrant, red wine, and pear. It reminds us of a chocolatey trifle and we like it very much. TOASTED MILK FAZENDA CAMBOA, BRAZIL 50% We do really like our dark milk chocolates and this one was really nice too. There is notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and cream and some oat milk flavours, even though it uses NZ dairy milk powder. This reminds us of apple crumble.
A fruity duo that were really nice. We liked both very much. We also like the textured packaging and chocolate. YUM!
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While popping into Capers Cafe in Rotorua, they introduced us to a chocolate bar from a Hamilton business, AraBello. This is The Original Peanut Marble bar 2 pack. It has just won a gold medal in the NZ Artisan awards 2022.
It is marbled white and dark chocolate with a peanut butter type filling. It looks very pretty and we loved the packaging. The texture is slightly crunchy and the taste is salty peanut butter with sweet white chocolate notes. There is also hints of dark chocolate taste. It is very nice. Joni loves whisky and espicially when it is combined with chocolate!
Foundry chocolate make some of our favourite single origins and Peru is our favourite area for cacao beans. Foundry made this special release chocolate bar. Single origin cacao from Ucayali River Peru cacao beans, with the nibs soaked in Thomson South Island Peat Whisky. The whisky is not an overly strong hit, but is still a prominent flavour note. It is sweetish and gives out flavours of malt, prune and wood. It is very nice. This chocolate does take you on a mind journey of whiskey barrels and wine cellars. If Middle Earth had a chocolate bar, this would be it. A new whiskey chocolate favourite for us. We absolutely loved the single origin 70% Foundry Chocolate with beans sourced from Tanzania, so we were very excited to try the drinking chocolate version. The fragrance is amazing. The drinking chocolate is chocolate shavings from the actual single origin Tanzania chocolate. It has all the same amazing flavours and is like drinking a chocolate enriched mulled wine....... okay confession. We made a drink with it once. Since then we just have been spooning it straight into our mouths. So Yum!
This won a Gold medal in the NZ Chocolate Awards 2022. We missed out on the first run of the Wellington Chocolate Factory Oat Milk Bar, so we grabbed it when it came up for sale again. This bar was a bronze medal winner at the NZ Chocolate Awards 2022.
We were pleasantly surprised with the texture of this oat bar. We have found oat bars to be usually thicker or slightly gluggier, but this bar had a nice easy to eat texture. You can taste the oat and a slight fruitiness to the chocolate. It is on the sweet side, but overall this bar was pleasant. Lucid Chocolatier is the business name of chocolate maker Johnty Tatham. He is based in the Wairarapa and uses Peruvian beans in his fine craft, bean to bar chocolate. He has just won the Supreme Chocolate Award at the NZ Chocolate Awards 2022. We grabbed a whole chocolate stash of Lucid Chocolate to try. ORIGINAL MILK 42% Silver award winner at the NZ Chocolate Awards 2022 Beans, SISA, Peru This milk chocolate is caramelly with a hint of spice. There is also a berry underlying flavour. It reminds us of a creme brulee with berries on top. We really enjoyed this bar and we compared it to our favourite milk chocolate made by Ocho. We couldn't decide which we preferred best. They both tasted very different. Ocho milk chocolate had dark chocolate flavours, like having a strong cuppa with just a dip of milk. Lucid 42% is more milk and caramel. We decided to put both in our favourites page, as they were so different and it would depend on our mood on the day which we would prefer. PIURA WHITE 70% Bronze medal winner at the NZ Chocolate Awards 2022 The Piura White Cacao bean is very interesting. It is a white cacao bean that was nearly extinct and has been brought back, though still rare. White cacao makes up 0.1% of cacao harvested in the world. It is suppose to be less bitter than brown cacao beans. We weren't sure what to expect.... what colour was the chocolate going to be? It was a lovely red brown colour, that makes you think yummy chocolate. The flavour notes we got were of prunes and malt with a bit of hay in the background. Piura cacao is grown in a desert like climate, and this chocolate does give you a dry summer vibe to your tastebuds. BLONDE WHITE CHOCOLATE 34% Gold medal winner at the NZ Chocolate Awards 2022 Beans are single origin, San Martin, Peru The colour is lovely and golden. The flavours are mild and milky. There is tastes of condensed milk, caramel, cinnamon, golden syrup and a slight smokiness. There is also a fruity aftertaste. It is a pleasant bar. COCONUT AND LIME 48% Bronze medal winner at the NZ Chocolate Awards 2022 Beans are single origin, Chuncho, Peru The texture of the chocolate is smooth. It tastes of coconut with a fruity chocolate that has notes of lavender and lime. The lime shows up stronger in the aftertaste. This was a really nice flavour combo and we enjoyed it. SOURDOUGH AND BROWN BUTTER 48% Gold medal winner at the NZ Chocolate awards 2022 Milk Chocolate with brown butter and sourdough breadcrumbs Beans, Maranon, Amazonas, Cajamarca, Peru The chocolate is lovely and creamy. There are flavour notes of toffee, caramel, malt, sultana, bread bun. It reminds us of eating a Sally Lunn, and we like it a lot. TONKA 48% Silver Medal winner at the NZ Chocolate Awards 2022 Milk Chocolate with Tonka beans Cacao beans, Amazonas, Peru. Tonka beans are actually part of the pea family, but have a bean shape. A little goes a long way in fragrance and flavour. This pairing of Tonka beans with the 48% milk chocolate was gorgeous! Tasting notes of vanilla and custard topped with jasmine florals. This is now our favourite milk inclusion bar! MARANON 70% Gold medal winner at the NZ Chocolate Awards Bean, single origin, Maranon, Peru This is very flavoursome. We had tasting notes of wood, earth and molasses and ended with this fruity grape note. It reminded us of Grape sherbet in flavours. A yummy and different tasting bar. CHUNCHO 72% Silver medal winner at the NZ Chocolate Awards 2022 Beans, single origin, Chuncho, Peru Lovely dark chocolate fragrance as you open the packet. Nice smooth texture. The chocolate is tangy in flavour, almost peppery. There are flavour notes of wood, plum and blossom. We are calling this our spicy plum tree chocolate. PORT 68% Supreme Winner at the NZ Chocolate Awards 2022. Port infused dark chocolate Beans, Maranon, Amazonas, Cajamarca, Peru The port really enhances the fruitiness of this dark chocolate. There is a sweetness to it, and you get notes of red berries and raisins. It is not an alchohic punch, but an intense fruitiness to it. It is very nice and is added to our favourites list.
FINAL THOUGHTS Peru has been our favourite single origin chocolate source. It was so nice to explore the different cacao beans and flavours from this area. Lucid Chocolatier did a great job of showcasing the variety of flavours in chocolate that was always smooth and creamy, even if it wasn't a milk chocolate. The flavour inclusions were great matches with the chocolate chosen. We LOVED this tasting! |
Chocolate gazette ReviewsWelcome to the reviews and comparisons of all things chocolate we have discovered by The Chocolate Gazette, Archives
August 2024
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