Peruvian Gold

Chulucanas 70

Not wanting to start this post on a downer...but our bodies have just made it through January and we're now talking about chocolate and 50 shades of something, blah, blah, blah. 

Many of you will understand and recognise this never ending

nightmare, that we find ourselves in. Throughout January you will have religiously attended many exhaustive, hot and sweaty sessions at the local gym and consumed vast quantities of stomach stripping detoxing 'green juices' in a never ending futile attempt to rejuvenate, replenish and miraculously turn that Christmas Pudding shaped stomach into something representing a washboard. 

Unfortunately, come February everything and everybody is plotting against us and as soon as we have shed those few pounds our bodies are thrown into the next retail battleground that is Valentine's Day. Even the government is getting in on the act deciding it is a good time to slap our lardy arses and cut benefits to the plumpy dumpies amongst us. Where can we find salvation? Could this spell the end for chocolate? Uh, no I don't think so. Not when it comes to tasting such delicious and possibly 'healthy' offerings from the likes of Willies Cacao.

Two Squares of Peruvian Gold 80g

Willie Harcourt-Cooze founder of Willies Cacao and real life Willy Wonka has not been seen on our tv screens for several years when he was last seen running naked down that Exeter country lane. There is nothing he doesn't know about chocolate and he will go to great lengths to bring us delicious and flavoursome chocolate without the necessity of adding processed sugar or other additives. 

Chulucanas 70 is described as instant gratification... how appropriate. 

Made from single origin Criollo beans this chocolate has distinctive notes of raisins and plums. For a 70% dark chocolate it melts quickly in the mouth giving up it's citrus flavours with additional plum and liquorice. This is a beautifully balanced piece of chocolate and if anybody thinks dark chocolate is bitter then you have to try this bar.  

The word Chulucanas actually comes from a town in the Piura region of Peru. The town of Chulucanas is apparently famous for its black and white pottery and ceramic characters. 

This bar is priced at £2.99 and you can buy online by following the link here.

Dark Chocolate, Banana and Stem Ginger Cake

The Leather Bottle, Pleshey. A quaint pub (with real leather bottles in the window) in the centre of this extremely attractive Essex village which boasts a castle, well part of a castle, two pubs and a church. This was our choice for a quick pint and some well earned calories after speeding round the country lanes on our bicycles. A tiny snug bar with open fire was very welcoming after spending an hour in the garden waiting for the sun to shine.  A good selction of bitters including beers from the Black Sheep Brewery, the Black Sheep bitter was very good, almost comparable to Adnams.  However, the kitchen seemed to be on a go slow as we had to wait over an hour for a toasted cheese sandwich! The owner was very apologetic. Toasted sandwiches and chips hit the spot when they finally arrived! Well worth a visit but they need to resolve the problem in the kitchen!

Ok, let's bake a cake!

This is my version of a Good Food recipe I discovered a few days ago. I was tempted to use a 100% dark chocolate from Willies Cacoa that I purchased recently but chickened out and going for a 64% dark chocolate instead.

Ingredients

100g plain chocolate - I used a 64% dark chocolate
150g unsalted butter, softened
175g gold caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175g self-raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
25g cocoa
3 large bananas, peeled and diced
2 pieces of stem ginger (60g)
A pinch of salt (optional)

Topping

25g unsalted butter
2 generous tbsp plain flour
1 level tbsp demerara sugar
2 tbsp pecans, chopped

Chocolate, Banana and Ginger Cake

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160C Fan. Butter and line the bases of a 30CM loaf tin with baking parchment. Start by making the topping, rub the butter into the flour, then mix the demerara sugar and chopped pecans. Melt the chocolate in a small glass bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir until smooth and remove from heat.
2. Cream together the softened butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the egg, beating well between each addition. Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa and fold in. Add the sliced (don't mash it) banana and stem ginger and chocolate and mix well. Christine's Top tip - Don't slice up the banana until you're ready to use it othewise it will go black.
3. Pour the mixture into the tin and add the topping gently pressing it into the top of the mixture to ensure some of it sticks.
4. Bake for about 65 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for ten minutes in the tin then turn on to a rack to allow to cool completely.

The topping provides an extra crunchy dimension with the stem ginger providing some additional zing! Overall a delicious chocolate cake, can be served warm or cold.

Chocolate and Love - Crushed Diamonds

Now that summer has almost completely lost its shine, thank goodness chocolate is once again back on the menu!  A visit to the Speciality Food Show at Olympia at the beginning of this week was well worth a visit.  It was great to see all the hundreds of small entrepreneurs eagerly promoting their wares.  Chocolate, of course, was a great attraction and a chance to see what was coming onto the market.  Unfortunately, I just missed Paul Young talking about his latest creations but a chance to chat with Richard from Chocolate and Love, the guys and girls at Zotter and Amelia from Amelia Rope to name just three made up for this.  Not enough time and too many stalls meant I couldn't get to each and every one.  I did however manage to grab a few business cards from companies I'd never heard of before.  So, be warned, I will be in touch!

Chocolate and Love: Of course I had heard of this company before having visited their stall at Chocolate Week a year or so ago but for some reason I didn't know much about them.  The business was created by Richard O'Connor and Birgitte Hovmand in early 2010.  Having travelled half the globe searching for chocolate the company literally popped onto the chocolate scene.  Buying a shop wasn't an option for these two.  So, using vacant shops to provide 'Pop Up' chocolate emporiums was a quirky and Wonkaesque way to raise their profile and a novel way to attract punters to their online business.  As more and more well known names disappear from the high street perhaps pop-up style shops are the future?  It certainly sounds more exciting than what we have now. 


Pop Up to Online means their ever growing range of products are available to everybody who owns a piece of IT gadge. Their website is a mix of online shopping, tasting advice, chocolate clubs and of course tastings which seem to be big business. At just under a £1,000 that's some serious tasting but I imagine its well worth it and everybody comes out feeling gooood! 

Crushed Diamonds: What a great name and if you become a fan of Chocolate and Love you will enjoy the names they've come up with as much as their chocolate.  "Filthy Rich", sounds good!
To quote, "Dark chocolate with cacao nibs using 100% organic and fairly traded ingredients. Top quality organic cocoa from small Fairtrade cooperatives in Peru and Dominican Republic. Premium quality cacao beans are roasted and broken into small cacao nibs, giving the bar a sensational crunchy texture".  This bar has a cocoa content of 55% which is light for a dark bar.  Nothing elaborate about the mould used just plain and simple. The bar has a lovely rich cocoa aroma as you inhale deeply.  Always smell the chocolate before you taste this accentuates the overall taste.  The slightly lower cocoa content provides it with some milk chocolate like qualities.  The smooth and slightly sweet chocolate melts quickly in the mouth to reveal the diamonds - aka cocoa nibs. I'm not usually a fan of cocoa nibs but these are just the right size and add texture.  This is a delicious bar of chocolate and I'm going to lock it away before I devour it in one sitting!


In terms of score this bar receives 9/10 not only for its great taste but because it is organic and uses fairly traded ingredients.  Not only that , Chocolate and Love has committed to supporting reforestation in Ethiopia in conjunction with WeForest.  Every time you buy a bar - we plant a tree! 
To buy this bar click here £3.20 for a 100g bar.

Psst have you heard about
this chocolate?

Posted by Richard.

Dark Chocolate with Rose - Peru 64%

Dark chocolate with rose by Thorntons. I can't believe I'm going to eat this as it sounds a little suspect to me. It must be something to do with all that sun. I'm exhausted and my thighs are all of a quiver after a workout in the garden today. Sunburn bad. Shaking thighs good as it means muscles are toning up ready for my part in Baywatch. I live in hope! Thank god I'm sitting down for a while but I might not be able to walk properly for a week.

I did a quick search on Google and found several interesting 'rose' type chocolate bars and their's me thinking this flavour had gone out of fashion. Fortnum and Masons - Rose and Violet Dark Chocolate, that's why all those protesters were there, getting a fix of rose and violet.  Paul A Young has even produced a Rose and Violet bar, see the post by Chocolate Reviews. Rococo Chocolates even have one, Dark Chocolate Floral Bar with Rose, the packaging is spectacular. And not forgetting Amelia Rope's, Pale Rose Edition 01. Are these bars really that popular though? I can feel a comparison coming on!

Apparently Rose oil has numerous health benefits and allegedly it will boost self esteem, hope and mental strength efficiently fighting depression. As you can see this is a limited edition bar celebrating 100 years of making chocolate. Thorntons are bringing back British flavours and rose is their first one. The culinary use of flowers in cooking dates back thousands of years and the Romans used mallow, rose and violet extensively in their cooking.

For me any dark chocolate from Peru is good and a 64% provides just enough bitterness without being too strong. A slightly bitter cocoa is the first aroma coming from this bar with a minimal floral hint is wafting about in the background. The crystallised rose petals are crushed and spread throughout the bar. But you wouldn't know it. For all I know they could have been lumps of sugar. Had I tasted this bar blind I wouldn't have known it was crystallised rose they had been using. Which is disappointing.


The dark chocolate is fairly reasonable but the fragrance of the rose is not coming through and therefore this only scores 5/10. Shame. Three bars for £5.00, good value.

Giant Dark Chocolate Buttons - Chocadores

Chocadores again! They kindly sent two samples of their buttons and I have been given the task of tasting these dark offerings from Peru. Hardly a task but you have to big it up! The other half is out and about so it's time to taste some chocolate.


The Packaging: Please note that the picture I've provided does not show the actual amount of buttons in the pack. Just in case there is any confusion. Chocadores provide these giant buttons in 150g packs and also in Kilner jars holding 300g of chocolate. These buttons are described as being a mix of Criollo and Trinitario beans from Peru and interestingly described as, "a Rainforest Alliance product". There is no Rainforest Alliance logo so I can only assume that this item has not been certified just yet, which is slightly confusing. If you want to find out about the Rainforest Alliance click here.

The Chocolate: This is a 64% dark chocolate from Peru and I have to say that I'm absolutely blown away by anything from Peru so my review may be a little bit biased. But I'll try to stay objective at all times. As soon as you open the packet there are very distinct tobacco and woody aromas coming from these delightful buttons. Like wine aged in oak casks there is that distinct flavour that permeates these wines. You either love them or hate them. Well in this instance I love the flavours coming through. An initial fruitiness that comes through is followed by a small hint of liquorice. The chocolate quickly melts on your tongue keeping your palette fluid and there is only slight dryness at the end. The flavour lasts for ages and just goes on and on. Fantastic!

Buttons unbuttoned!

These buttons are delicious and I have no problem awarding them 9/10 for flavour. I think we need some clarity around the Rainforest Alliance claim though. Priced at £3.75 for 150g plus P&P you can still order these delicious buttons, as their last postal deadline is Tuesday 21st December, 3pm. 


To buy click here


Posted by Richard....

GO*DO - Organic Dark Chocolate 60% - Espresso Coffee

Well we're on a roll so let's look at another dark organic chocolate bar this time flavoured with coffee. At this rate I will be on the ceiling all night! 


This bar is from a company called 'GO*DO' and they originate from Italy. I found them at the Chocolate Unwrapped event a few weeks ago and they were an extremely cheerful bunch of people who came across as being passionate about their chocolate. In Italian 'Go*Do' means a moment of pure pleasure. Well their website certainly suggests that you're about to eat some of the very best chocolate in the world. Not only is it organic but it is sustainable. Their cocoa is sourced from small farmers in the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Peru, where the risk of deforestation is high. Apparently crops are managed according to the strict rules of organic farming. I'm not sure who actually does the managing as it's not very clear on their site.


The Packaging: They've done a good job with the packaging of this bar and like their stallholders at Chocolate Unwrapped they like to show off their fun side. On a serious note all the technical information about the bar is available and each bar carries the Certificate of conformity to the EU organic Regulations which defines Organic Agriculture and the foods derived from organic farming. Try saying that when you've had a few too many beers. The outer wrapper is fairly thick which protects the bar from the usual retail hazards that might befall it!

The Chocolate: Well no surprises when you open this bar up the espresso flavour envelopes you totally. The coffee used to produce this bar comes from pure Arabic coffee from Central America. The surface of the bar is covered in small pin prick holes which is becoming a trend. When you break open the bar there is a honeycomb texture and roughness from the organic coffee nibs that have been blended into the chocolate. If I had tasted this bar with my eyes shut I'd think I was eating sand as it is extremely crunchy and reminds me of sandwiches on the beach. 

Overall I'm not a fan of this chocolate due to the crunchy coffee nibs which leaves your mouth with lots of bits which you'll be crunching until dinner! I give this bar 7/10 for packaging and presentation but only 4/10 for texture, flavour and taste. Fortunately I have more bars from these guys to try, fingers crossed. I paid 70p for a 35g bar but it was on special offer however most retailers will sell this bar for 99p. 


In the meantime this is the link to their website, GO*DO

Duffy's Star of Peru 70%

Duffy's or Red Star Chocolates Ltd is all about single origin chocolate bars from around the world. 25 years ago Duffy Sheardown was involved in the heart thumping and adrenalin fueled sport of Motor Racing now he's turned his hand to chocolate making. You might imagine this would be a less stressful way of life but from the little I know about chocolate making it certainly isn't relaxing. Especially if you are one of the few people that like to be involved in nearly every single stage of chocolate production. Based in the seaside town of Cleethorpes Duffy sets about producing his single origin chocolate bars from cleaning the beans through roasting, grinding, conching to tempering. I understand that apart from Willie Harcourt-Cooze he is the second person in the UK to produce single origin chocolate from bean to bar.

Duffy certainly has high standards and he goes a long way to ensure that his cocoa beans and sugar are ethically sourced. Unfortunately, due to some Fairtrade technicality he can't call state that his sugar is Fairtrade. However, on his packaging all his ingredients state that they are Fairly traded and Organic. In the longterm Duffy is looking to share his profits with the very farmers that provide him with his cocoa. But first he has to make a profit! 

The Packaging: Duffy seems to have a knack not only for all things chocolate but also his packaging. This particular item is presented clearly and with no fuss. The information on the back tells you exactly what you want to know with simple tasting notes provide sufficient information as to what you might expect. Other producers take note! 

The Chocolate: I have to admit that I've not eaten anything this morning so I'm champing at the bit for a piece of this chocolate! The bar is wrapped in a seductive red foil and as soon as you open it you are hit by a delicious waft of blackcurrant and heady cocoa. The aromas are so rich and I haven't even eaten a piece. There is no decoration on the bar and 'no fuss' approach flows through this chocolate. It has a great shine and superb snap. The spice flavours coming through are not overpowering but I can't pick out the hazelnut, I must try harder. There is a slight dryness to my tongue and roof of my mouth. Don't get me wrong this is not unpleasant. At the end there is a definite hint of blackcurrant. 

This is an excellent chocolate not only in terms of flavour and presentation but also in price. £3.50 for an 80g handmade bar is not unreasonable. I have two more bars to sample and when these are gone I'll definitely be back for more. Overall I give this bar 9/10.


To purchase Duffy's Star of Peru 70% visit his shop

Labooko 2 Milk Chocolates

I seem to be going through a Zotter phase and have another intriguing creation from the boys and girls in Austria to taste.

Packaging: 

Once again their packaging is just so innovative and thorough. They obviously spend a lot of time and money on design and marketing. The images and information used are always eye catching and informative. In fact the Zotter organization has it's own art director Andreas h. Gratze. With the environment in mind they have cleverly used environmentally friendly paper and colours to produce this packaging.


The purpose of the Labooko series according to Zotter is to provide an opportunity to compare chocolate personalities. Apparently the cocoa for these bars is obtained from cooperatives in Latin and Central America such as Uncrisproca or El Naranjillo or a particular region such as Satipo and Pagoo or Talamanca. 




Chocolate 1: The first bar is the milk chocolate bar from Nicaragua which has a 60% cocoa content plus it also includes full cream milk powder. I found it very strange to be tasting a 60% milk chocolate which looked dark. In fact it was so disconcerting that I did a blind tasting on a friend and they immediately spotted that it was a very creamy, rich in cocoa, milk chocolate. I was very impressed by this chocolate once I'd got my head round the dark looking milk chocolate bar. I want more!

Nicaragua 60

Ingredients: cocoa mass, raw cane sugar, full cream milk powder, cocoa butter, salt and vanilla. There is a rich cocoa smell coming from the bar as the gold foil wrapper is removed. 

Chocolate 2: This bar is from an area of Peru where farmers earn more from their illegal cultivation of cocaine than usually from cocoa. Zotter points out that he pays the farmers well above the normal organic and Fairtrade surcharges to obtain these quality beans. The milk is also organic and comes from the Tyrolean mountains.

Peru 40%

This is another delicious bar of milk chocolate with a strong hint of caramel at the beginning. It is velvety smooth in texture and sweet but not sickly.

Ingredients: raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, full cream milk powder, cocoa mass, whole cane sugar, salt and vanilla.

£3.25 for 2 x 35g bars of chocolate is expensive but yet again this is delicious chocolate. Overall I give these bars 9/10 mostly for their great taste and the effort that goes into making these bars.