Organoleptic

Organoleptic - this is the word of the day. I could not believe this was an actual word, but indeed it is. I had never heard it before. It is not a kind of chocolate I am sorry to say. It simply means involving the sense organs. It is written on the back of my Slitti chocolate bar, that yes, I am still savouring. This is how it is used: "This product is intended to meet the requirements of the most demanding and careful connoisseur who wants to perceive from chocolate all the organoleptic sensations that this wonderful fruit can give". Wow. Next time your kid needs a new vocabulary word for English class give him/her "organoleptic". It would be interesting to see if the teacher knows what it means!
Now that I have my handy little Amazon hook-up, I went right on over to their organoleptic department. Sure enough their are several books with the word in their title and they do have something to do with taste sensations, but they are extremely scientific in nature, sort of like people's doctoral dissertations! So it is possible that organoleptic is a bit over-the-top as a chocolate descriptive, but it would make a great name for a new chocolate bar: Organoleptic 75%.

Monetizing a Blog

Well, at long last I have finally sold out - sort of. I still refuse to allow advertising on my blog, which I really do not like! I don't like the lack of control for what will actually be advertised on my site about high quality chocolate. I couldn't tolerate trying to promote a really well made artisanal bar only to have Hershey's go and plaster a big ol' advertisement in my margins! Not that I have anything against Hershey's, I just don't want them using my blog space.
So today I signed up with Amazon Associates so that when I am reviewing a particular bar, I can actually create a link in the body of my text so that you can head on over and purchase said bar! Full disclosure: I stand to receive a 15% commission from any sales linked to my blog. That is not, however, my sole motivation. After all, I do not expect to pay the mortgage on chocolate-bar commissions! My true belief is that if you have a chocolate shop in your vicinity you should always buy there first. If they don't carry what you are looking for, ask them if they will. If they are not interested, hit the internet. Amazon is well known and trusted, and a great place to shop for special deals, so it's a good place to start when you cannot find what you want locally. I also like that you can get a nice photo of the bar I'm reviewing. The blog format I'm using is somewhat limited in what and where I can post links and photos; the Amazon connection allows you a quick link to a photo, info and price on the product I am reviewing.
As luck would have it, my first attempt was a link over to Amazon for the Slitti 82% bar. Sure enough it worked beautifully with one exception: they are out of stock! However, I did get to see a great many other Slitti products, like 60% with Jasmine Green Tea! Wow! I've never seen that before. So while a first attempt at instant access was not exactly successful, it was not necessarily in vain. Use these links from now on to see what other types of chocolates are available from a certain company and either order what looks good or ask your local retailer to stock some of them. I hope you enjoy chocolate hunting as much as I do!

Taking it Down a Notch - Slitti 82%

I don't mean taking the quality down a notch, simply the cacao percentage. Slitti is Italian. It is also wicked expensive - $10 per bar! This is not a gobble-up bar but rather a one-square-after-dinner bar. Or a nice gift for a special friend. Mine came to me as a gift from my loving husband. It is "dark" in flavor, but not too dark, just slightly earthy and gently sweet. The texture is fine but not superb. It is just slightly chalky , but not at all unpleasant. "Chalky" is not an uncommon texture for chocolate over 80%. It is difficult to create a smooth, buttery texture in high percentages without adding too much cocoa butter which has the disadvantages of either diluting flavor or creating an end-product that is rather waxy. So some chocolatiers refuse to add cocoa butter. If you like your chocolate ultra-smooth, you may not like Slitti, but if high-quality cacao at high percentages is your goal, this one is worth a try. Now here comes the really cool part: if you click the following, Slitti Gran Cacao - Italian Dark Chocolate Bar - 82% Cacao you can access this product on Amazon! Neat, huh? Okay, you can probably do that on tons of other blogs and sites you visit, but for me it's a first for my blog! The best part is that even if 82% seems higher than you want to go, you can access all the other Slitti products like 60% and milk chocolate, too! Have fun!

Insanely Strong Chocolate, Part 2: Vintage Plantations 90%

Vintage Plantations makes nice chocolate. I think. I've only had their 90% bar so I can't really speak for all their other "normal" bars. But if they can make 90% this good, the others have to be equally lovely. This is dark and rich with just a hint of sweetness. It comes from cacao grown in Ecuador. It is remarkably different from the Bonnat 100% with its butter and honey taste. This is more like a really good dark-roast coffee that just makes you go, "Mmmmmmmm". One square is really all you need after your evening meal to make everything feel alright.

Insanely Strong Chocolate - Bonnat 100%

That's right, 100% cacao. Some people mistakenly assume that 100% cacao bars must be the same as baking chocolate. A really good 100% bar is no baking chocolate bar. If a chocolatier is going to make such a bar, he is going to use only the finest chocolate at his disposal, because there is nothing to hide behind in 100% - no sugar, no vanilla. Chocolat Bonnat is French, and they make many 70% bars of different origins. So why am I choosing 100%? Well, full disclosure here: I'm doing Atkins right now. That's right, little Miss Chocoholic is trying to lose a few pounds. Truth be told, I'm going to Paris in May for a week and have a long list of chocolate shops to visit when I get there. So I thought I'd reduce the carbs now to make room for the ones on the horizon. The other reason is that I've been increasingly conscious of my sugar consumption for about three years now and that is originally how I got into the higher percentages - the higher the cacao percentage the lower the sugar content. When you start weaning yourself off sugar, what used to seem bitter (70%) suddenly becomes way too sweet. That said, I accidently ate an entire 100g. 70% Cluizel bar that was supposed to be for my friend Tom. I thought it seemed awfully sweet but just thought I'd had too many 99% bars and so wasn't used to the sweetness of 85%. When I got to the post office to mail Tom his chocolate, lo and behold, there was the 85% bar! Oops. Tom doesn't like 85%, so I had to eat it. And now I'm on Atkins. Sigh.
Anyway, I digress. Bonnat 100% starts off and remains unbelievably buttery with a touch of honey. I'm not kidding! I know that sounds all choco-snobby but it really does remind me of butter and honey, even though it is not sweet. I was actually so surprised I had to eat another piece, just to make sure I was not losing my mind like Montezuma. This is truly divine and I will reach for it again and again (got that, Mike?). I did not really expect to like this so much and figured it would go into the melting pan with something else for a big batch of choco-bombs, but I could get used to eating this straight up. A definite winner in the dangerously-high-percentages category!

Taza Stone Ground Organic Chocolate - 80%

Taza is a little company in Somerville, MA that makes its own chocolate the old-fashioned way. Stone ground chocolate is a little gritty, but can be enjoyable to chew on if you like the texture. This particular bar of 80% surprised me because I expected a dark-roasted kind of flavor but instead got something really bright and fruity. By that I mean it has a slight tartness to it. The gritty texture is the product of stone-grinding the roasted cacao beans, but it feels like you are eating granulated sugar. I've had this chocolate once before a long time ago and I think I had the same reaction: I like the idea of stone ground chocolate very much, but the reality disappoints. I don't think I like bright, fruity chocolates (although if you've never tried one, try this and you will see what I mean)and I don't know whether that is the result of the type of beans they use or the particular way they roast them. The granulated texture keeps making me think I'm eating raw sugar, which is a bit unsettling. The good thing about Taza, though, is that they are a small, New England company, their products are becoming more and more available, and they sell chocolate-covered cacao nibs! If you've never had nibs, you really must seek these out. They are just cracked pieces of cacao bean covered in chocolate, which adds a bit of sweetness to the otherwise bitter nibs.
If you like chocolate with a lot of texture, try Taza.

Lake Champlain 5 Star Bar - Fruit & Nut

This is a lovely little treasure. Lake Champlain Chocolate is from Burlington, Vermont and they make a decent chocolate bar. Their 5 Star Bars are these 1.9 g. little nuggets of milk and dark chocolate with goodies folded in. The Fruit & Nut bar has "praline, pecans, cherries and dark chocolate". They look like mini chocolate bars but they are three times as thick! They make a great treat when you want your chocolate but are too afraid to buy a large bar for fear of eating it all, like my last Green & Black's fiasco. The down side is they cost about $2.69, which is reasonable for a large bar but a bit appalling for such a little bar. It is thick, but it's not that thick! However, it is a price worth paying for a small treat that will satisfy you without overindulging.
They are sweet and nutty, with a dominant hazlenut taste and some dried cherries and pecans in the background. The nuts and cherries are folded into a soft, almost-but-not-quite truffle-like center and the whole thing is covered in dark chocolate. If you don't like hazlenuts (filberts), stay away from these.
I used to buy these once a week, several years back, when I wanted a treat and had more self-discipline with chocolate than I have now. I think that is when I originally got hooked on the dried cherry and chocolate combo that resulted in the above mentioned fiasco (See Green & Black's Cherry).
They do come in several other flavors, like peanut butter and caramel, so if you're not wild about cherries and hazlenuts, try one of the others. They are a great size to slip into your purse for a long trip when you know you will need something somewhere along the way to lift your spirit!
Living in Vermont, these are easy for me to find. Outside of Vermont, you will most likely only encounter these in a chocolate shop or gourmet food shop. It is not that the quality of the chocolate is that good, it is just that these days anything made in Vermont has made the luxury items list and can only be found in specialty stores! Go figure! It is, however, better than a Hershey bar, so if you find one, buy it.