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: 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. 

Amano's new Dos Rios bar is the product of a chance encounter and behind-the-scenes matchmaking.  A friend in the industry came across a uniquely flavorful cacao while traveling in the Dominican Republic and immediately alerted Pollard, who adjusted his processing techniques to maximize the cacao's inherent flavors.  The result is a strongly perfumed 70% chocolate with pronounced notes of bergamot, rose, and orange blossom, and a long floral finish.  It's hard to believe that none of these flavors were added! 

Dos Rios is probably unlike anything you've tasted before.  Stop by for a sample of this exciting new chocolate on Saturday, February 27th.

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.

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.

Bar of the Week: Republica del Cacao Esmeraldas

This week we are featuring Republica del Cacao's Esmereldas bar, a 75% dark chocolate made from Ecuadorian Arriba beans.  Some consider Arriba Nacional to be an independent species of cacao, a fourth type separate from the "big three" of Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario.  True or not, Arriba makes for a fine and distinctively aromatic chocolate.  Legend has it that the name originated when a 19th century Swiss explorer smelled chocolate while traveling down the Guayas River; he asked some locals where the scent came from and was told, “De río arriba”--“From up the river”.

The Esmeraldas bar has a marked but balanced bitterness, with, "a light lemon-peel flavor and roasted notes."  Join us for a taste on Saturday, January 16th.

Bar of the Week: Valrhona's Tainori

New Year, new bar of the week:  ring in the changes with Valrhona's Tainori.  A 64% dark chocolate made from cacao grown in the Dominican Republic, Tainori's flavor profile is sunny and warm. While we're not quite sure what Valrhona's tasting notes mean by "yellow fruits" (banana? lemon? carambola?), we're totally on board with the rest of Tainori's delicious notes:  nuts, cocoa, and fresh-baked baguettes. 

Come by on Saturday, January 8th, for a taste of Valrhona's Tainori.