François Pralus Equateur 75% cacao

Citrus flavor, with a rich, warm cocoa foundation. Some chalkiness in the aftertaste, but it does not interfere with the enjoyment. Some faint bitterness.  8.3

François Pralus Djakarta 75% cacao

Clean, bright taste, without any bitter component. Some citrus notes, and an almost buttery aftertaste. Incredibly pleasant experience.  9.5

This is the first in a series of Pralus bars that I will be tasting. I hope they are all as well put together as this one! If you would like to compare, search for Pralus on the blog search box -- I've tasted a few others and have given consistently high marks, with one exception which still rated a respectable grade. I bought these bars at the Cocoa Bella store in the San Francisco Centre.

I should also mention that this bar has an expiration date of March 8, 2012, but two months later than that, it is still holding up quite well.

Perugina Bittersweet 70% Cacao

Very bitter, strong cocoa taste.  Aftertaste is dominated by the bitter thrust, and dissolves into a chalky texture. 6.5

www.perugina.com

Mast Brothers San Martín 75% Cacao

Very aggressive flavor, very bitter and some chalkiness.  Cherry and raisin notes are present, but are overwhelmed by the sharp attack.  Some discoloration on the bar surface (there's no expiration date on the bar, but the batch number is 12220212). 6.2

The "chalky" taste note that I occasionally make seem to be correlated to how fine the added suger is integrated into the bar. The "stone ground" Taza Mexicano bar has the greatest coarseness and a strongly "chalky" mouthfeel.  This bar is much more refined, but still has noticeable sugar crystals when chewed.

This Mast Brothers bar is reminiscent of their Ocumare bar, which had a very large taste.

$12 / 2.5 oz (Mietta)

Cacao Sampaka La Joya Mexico 70% cacao

Rich, complex flavors throughout this bar.  It starts with an overture of sweetness, then rapidly shifts to a strong citrus taste.  Some echoes of cherry announce themselves and stay through the end.  The aftertaste is clean but persistent.  A wonderful experience.  9.2

The Cacao Sampaka bars come in two pieces.  The overall weight is 100 grams (3.53 onces), making each bar 50 grams.  The bars are full sized and stacked on top of each other, separated by a paper membrane.  This makes them thinner, which likely improves the experience of eating the bar.

I purchased this bar and its colleague, Cacao Sampaka Xoconusco Mexico 70% Cacao, at Fog City News on Market Street. It is one of the well-stocked chocolate stores in San Francisco that I occasionally visit. These bars caught my eye as bars I had not tasted before, so I grabbed them and headed to the checkout.  No prices were posted, but hey, it could not be more than $12, could it?  Yes, it could.  The price was $14.95 each, which I believe is the most I've paid for a bar (certainly on an absolute basis, not entirely sure on a weight basis). Given my reaction to and evaluation of these bars, they may be worth it.

Modern Marvels: Chocolate

I caught the History Channel's Modern Marvels episode on chocolate last night.  It has some nice videos on harvesting cacao beans and processing it into the final product.  Try to catch the whole episode when you can.  If you can't, this clip has some factoids about chocolate:

Three things you didn't know about chocolate

Escazu Carenero Venezuela 81% cacao

Extremely bitter, more so that I would expect for the cacao percentage, which is fairly high at 81%. The bar has some small nibs embedded, which likely adds to the bitterness. The side flavors are mostly nutty, walnut is prominent. The aftertaste is also fairly bitter, and persists for some time. The bar snaps with a dull thud, which is also surprising.  The surface of the bar has a number of minor pouring defect, little nicks on the edges of the squares.  6.1

The other chocolate store that I visited while in the Raleigh area was Escazu. I first heard of this store when we were lunching at Battistella's, a fun New Orleans restaurant in the center of the city where I had a delicious Louisiana Crawfish Étouffée. Battistella's is known for using locally sourced ingredients as much as possible, and Escazu was listed as a chocolate provider for one of their desserts (which I did not have a chance to taste).

After our visit to Videri, I thought it would be good to check out Escazu's store, which is on the north side of Raleigh.  The store is fairly small, in a mostly residential area.  The primary focus of the store is on the many chocolate confections, more so than Videri was selling.  I was interested in finding a dark chocolate bar, and this one was the only one on offer.   The other bars on sale have various additions, but this blog is focused on just the chocolate.  Their website mentions a 65% cocoa Costa Rica single-origin bar which is out of stock.  I would have liked to try it, given my reaction to the 81% Venezuela bar.

Their website is worth a visit, as they have a movie of how they make the chocolate.  I did not have time to do a "tour" like I did at Videri. Their website says that tours are available, but their processing system is not out in the open as we saw at Videri.

www.escazuchocolates.com

Videri Classic Dark 70% cacao

A very clean and sweet dark chocolate.  The sweetness appears to come from a strong citrus flavor thread that is backed by the rich cocoa flavor. The bar has a nice snap when broken. Low in bitterness, and a rapid tail off in the aftertaste.  7.8

www.viderichocolatefactory.com

See also my notes from our tour of the Videri Chocolate Factory in a prior post.

Visit to Videri Chocolate, Raleigh, North Carolina

Last weekend I traveled with my wife to North Carolina. She was attending a medical conference, and I came along because we planned to visit friends who live in the area.

When traveling, I always have my radar active looking for chocolate that I have not yet tried.  Our friends suggested that a visit to a local chocolate factory might be fun, so no radar needed!

Videri Factory Store

The factory was the Videri Chocolate Factory,  located in refurbished buildings near the Raleigh train station. Walking in the front door brought us to an open room with a counter on the right where chocolates can be purchased, and to the left is an area where many bags of raw beans are stacked and a space with tables and benches where your purchases can be enjoyed at leisure.

Towards the back is another room where the factory itself can be found.  A large bean grinder takes a prominent space in the center, and the processing room is behind a wall of glass panels.  The only activity in that area was two large blenders stirring a pot of chocolate.  After admiring the equipment for a while, Sam Videri, one of the co-owners, walked into the processing room, made some adjustment to the pots, and then came into the observation area and gave us a short tour of the processing.

Factory processing room

Bag of raw beans

He explained that the pots were making chocolate liqueur, a basic ingredient of nearly any chocolate product.  He also pointed out the other equipment in the room, including a vacuum system for separating ground bean nibs from their husks.

I asked Sam about their products.  He explained that they currently have one 70% cocoa bar which is made from a blend of beans that he selects. He liked the process of selecting just the right beans from the large bags as a bit of a zen experience, one he enjoys.  He might do a single-origin bar at some point, but for now he is producing a blended product.

He also mentioned that he has plans to add a product purchasing option to their website, which is currently is a simple splash page with links to their Facebook and Twitter pages.

Sam Videri at the counter of their factory store, and Chris Videri behnd him in the office

This photograph shows Sam at the counter with his partner and spouse, Chris Videri, in the office behind him.  It also shows the products on offer at the factory.  They offer free tastes of all of the bars, and also have a selection of chocolate confections (under the glass dome).  I had to try their chocolate covered marshmallow, which was delicious.