Mast Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt Chocolate
February 12, 2018
Some gifts are better than others. For me, the best gifts I receive are consumable; chocolate, wine, chocolate. Actually, it doesn’t even have to be food. Could be anti-wrinkle, anti-aging, antioxidant facial serum. Just saying!
Hands down, the best gift to receive (and give!) is chocolate. Recently, my brother gave me a gift of some chocolate bars from Mast Brothers. He knows what I like!
Mast chocolate company was founded by brothers Rick and Michael Mast and is situated in New York City (Brooklyn). According to their website, https://mastbrothers.com, “…Mast has been at the forefront of a food movement in favor of simple ingredients, sustainable sourcing, traditional processing and beautiful design.” They craft their chocolate from beans sourced from Tanzania, Peru, Madagascar, and Dominican Republic.
Chocolate Tasting Mast Chocolate
I have two chocolate bars that I’m tasting today; Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt Chocolate. They are both 73% cacao. Their only ingredients are cacao and cane sugar and, obviously, one has added sea salt (see the image below which highlights the large salt pieces). Interesting to note: the Mast website declares the ingredients of these bars as Organic cacao and organic cane sugar, but the label on the bar itself doesn’t say anything about organic ingredients.
The aromas are similar for both bars; notes of wood, tobacco, jute, and spice. The chocolate is slow to melt and feels a little heavy in the mouth. The texture is nice – not super smooth but not course by any means.
The flavors are well balanced, nicely nutty and very fruity. I taste lightly roasted cocoa notes, dried berries and blueberry, nuts and spice. There’s a hint of lemon at the finish. Overall, very pleasing and tasty! Of course, the sea salt version is bolstered by a saltiness that pops the chocolatey flavors with each bite.
I enjoyed these bars. Which reminds me, there is down side to getting a gift of chocolate. It disappears way too fast.
FYI, you can buy these chocolate bars through at Mast retail partners which include Whole Foods, Wegmans, Dean and Deluca, and Fresh Market. $6.00 for 2.5 oz. bar is a typical price. You can get a case of 12 bars at the Mast Brothers website for $72.00.
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Hi Bryn, you mention that you tried two flavors: dark chocolate and sea salt. You also indicated that you tasted a “nutty flavor” and “nuts” in the dark chocolate. The ingredients do not mention anything about nuts (I.e. a major food allergen) in the product. Are there actually nuts in the product, or is it solely a reminiscing taste?
The flavor notes I refer to (“nutty”) are part of the chocolate’s natural terroir – in other words, characteristics of taste and flavor created from the environment in which it is grown. There were no nuts in that chocolate bar.
Thank you for the clarification!