Trader Joe’s Chocolate Passport – Venezuela 70%
February 27, 2017
Chocolate of the week: Venezuela
Venezuela sits along the northern coast of South America. Colombia borders on the west, Guyana on the east, Brazil on the south. The islands of Trinidad and Tobago are off the northeast border.
Like many cacao growing countries, Venezuela has regional climates that produce cacao of different flavor profiles.
Venezuelan chocolate is typically earthy and grassy, intensely chocolate, full of red and blue fruity notes, and can often have top notes of mango, apricot, and peach.
Passport Venezuela - The Taste Experience
The most predominant flavor notes are chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! The deep roasted cocoa flavor is balanced with dried cherry notes and a touch of spice and wood. There is some astringency at the end.
The chocolate is slow to melt in the mouth, which is a great thing because the flavors linger a nice, long time!
I main reason I like this bar is because of the levels of chocolate notes that I detect throughout the chew. It’s hard to describe, but I can taste different “layers” of cocoa notes peel off.
The first layer is an intense “cooked” flavor, like the bean was roasted a long time. The next layer of flavor is “creamier”, like hot chocolate, with a soft texture. The last layer, right before I taste all the berry flavors, is mild but a little sharp, I would describe it as “raw”. This flavor reminds of the aroma of raw cacao nibs.
This Venezuelan bar is complex, to say the least, and that is its greatest appeal for me. This has pushed the Ecuadorian bar (reviewed last week) out of first place status into second.
The current rank from first to last is now: Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru. I can’t wait to see how our next one fits in – Ghana!
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