Some extremely thoughtful friends held a chocolate tasting last weekend. On display were many bars with high cocoa content, in the 65-100% range, mostly single estate. After sampling extensively, I felt this was one of those rare moments in my life when I had had enough chocolate.
Recchiuti, a chocolatier from San Francisco, was one of my favourites. But then I also liked all the Ecuadorean chocolate best. And the Scharffenberger 68% was pretty good. And then there was the French 100% bar that even without any sugar was delicious: velvety and buttery.
But of course, comparisons are odious.
The list included:
- Scharffenberger Kumasi Sambirano, 68% cacao, Ghanaian Forastero beans + Madagascar Trinitario beans
- Scharffenberger Cuyagua, Venezuela
- Scharffenberger Las Islas, Caribbean (Jamaica, Trinidad, the Dominican Republic)
- Scharffenberger unsweetened, 99% cacao, unspecified blend
- Recchiuti Bittersweet, 83% cacao, Criollo beans
- Recchiuti Feve 83% with cacao nibs
- Recchiuti dark chocolate ganache, Colombia’s Chucurreno region
- Recchiuti dark chocolate ganache, Venezuela’s Sur La Lago region
- Recchiuti dark chocolate ganache, Ecuador
- Chocolatour 70% cacao, Trinitarios beans, Dominican Republic, Vintage 2005
- Blanxart Chocolate Negro, 62% cacao, made in Spain, unknown bean origin
- El Rey Gran Saman, 70% cacao, Venezuelan Carenero Superior beans
- El Rey Apamate, 73.5% cacao, Venezuelan Carenero Superior beans
- Dagoba Organic Chocolate, 73% cacao, Conacado Cooperative, Dominican Republic
- Thomas Haas dark chocolate, 79% cocoa
- Thomas Haas dark chocolate, 83% cocoa
Anmaru 