From our occasional blogger and chocolate enthusiast, Bethany Waller.
Ecuador Camino Verde – 70% Bean to Bar.
Upon first nibble, this Camino Verde bites back. This bar fills my mouth from the tip of tongue to the throat with the malty overflow of black tea amber just on the brink of being over steeped – then cut to dry with ice and sunshine. The fudgey sweetness melts over my mouth after the piquant black tea, but only for moments. The chocolate dissipates and leaves a slight puckering to my tongue. The flavor of raw almonds with their husky skins lingers inside my cheeks, evaporating to a sweet chocolate memory.
This Camino Verde piqued my curiosity – I will bite back into this bar time and again.
Brazilian Santos Coffee – Bean to Bar 67%
Rare is the talent that is able to balance the earth of coffee with a dark chocolate – but Crow & Moss has created perfect equanimity in this inclusion bar.
I tear open this package and inhale. The aroma reminisces of a cozy coffee house with fresh pain au chocolat whose scent seeps into the air and buries into wall and chair.
The chocolate bar hides tiny pieces of crushed Brazilian coffee beans just beneath the surface. Upon first taste, the beans linger with their acidity on my tongue whilst the chocolate diffuses into a creamy pool. I bite into the mini beans, and their crunch releases sunshine brightened fruit, enlivening the earthy fudge of the Honduran chocolate with glow. The two – coffee and chocolate, some of our most cherished essentials – kiss one another in this perfect yin to yang pair.
Earl Grey Tea 67%
Bright colors spill across the brown paper package.
I breathe in over the cream of this Honduran chocolate inclusion bar. The malty roast of black tea simmers to the surface as the chocolate softens. Earl Grey seeps over my tongue and curls to the roof of my mouth like the steam that roils off a teacup of this royal brew. The oil of Bergamot bursts its citrus aroma from the vanilla embrace of this chocolate, diffusing over the breath of mouth and landscape of tongue. The aroma of jasmine – long steeped in the bar – floats a final note in the air.
This bar enamored me. Perfect.