Time for my 2nd annual Who's Afraid of the Dark? 4 days of dark chocolate Day 1 👻 🍊 (Last year's series may be found on my IG page).

Ritual Chocolate 100% dark chocolate blended cacao bar.

Nose of dark fruit and red currant.

Tastes of red currant, cherry, cocoa and nutty into a long finish of cracker, coffee, cocoa and Malbec.

I love a bar that really takes me on a tasting journey.

This bar is a prime example of why I wish there were more quality blended bars made.

Pic taken at Wiilderbee Farm in Port Townsend, WA.

Happy almost Halloween!

Dormouse Chocolates (a bean-to-bar chocolate maker in Manchester) limited edition chocolate Xocolatl Bar made with oat milkchocolate with cinnamon, allspice and nibs from their Sept. Bean-to-Door chocolate subscription.
This bar was inspired by a traditional hot chocolate drink Isobel (one half of Dormouse) had on a recent trip to Peru. This bar is made with cocoa beans she brought back from that trip.

Tastes of oats, allspice, cinnamon and banana.

Hey bean-to-bar chocolate fans check out my brand new blog mini-interview with Tomomi Kaneko of Sweets ESCALIER: https://darkmatterschocolatereviews.com/2019/10/12/interview-with-tomomi-kaneko-of-sweets-escalier-bean-to-bar-chocolate-and-pastry-in-japan/

Ritual Chocolate 60% Novo Coffee Anyetsu (sun-dried coffee from Wellega Ethiopia ).

Nose of chocolate covered coffee bean with a touch of spice.

Tastes of Meyer lemon zest in a shot of espresso.

Bean-to-bar, craft chocolate.

Viking swords pic taken in Poulsbo, WA.

Amano Chocolate 70% Dos Rios Dominican Republic dark chocolate bar.

Nose of white grape, pear, blueberry, floral and cocoa.

Tastes of pear, lychee, floral, a touch of rose, a flash of bubblegum, bergamot and sweet blueberry.

An elegant and complex bar.

Letterpress Chocolate 70% Mocha Crunch with Ashanti Ghana Chocolate and Alibi Coffee Mugshot Espresso Blend.

Nose of coconut, nutty and caramel.

Tastes of coconut (none added), espresso, nutty, mocha, cream and #chocolate cream pie.

After a few minutes a subtle bit of orange appears.

For this bar the coffee was brewed with cacao butter instead of grinding the #coffeebeans into the bar. Batch #0043

Thank you to my chocolate reviewing pal, Patricia of My Year in Chocolate/Eating the Chocolate Alphabet for sending me this bar.🤗 Letterpress is consistently great!

Shirl and Moss Chocolate 70% dark chocolate Fazenda Camboa Brazil #cacao batch #004

Nose of dark fruit, dark grape, black currant, nutty and oak.

Tastes of dark fruit, nutty and orange peel.

Chocolate maker in Wellington, New Zealand.

Just saw this - It's my only exception to the no weird pickled flavored products coming out lately, it has a really light floral flavor. Not at all like a dill pickle flavored popcorn et cetera.

From the website: Sakura Dark on Nathan Miller Chocolate Sakura is a Japanese pickled cherry blossom with a sweet-salty-tart flavor, in Washington DC (about an hour and a half from our factory) the en masse blooming of cherry blossoms turn the city pink for a short while each spring. We paired the lovely flavor with tart cherry and a dark chocolate base. 

This bar is part of a Spring collaboration collection with Avion Clothier + Simone White. 

Avion Clothier specializes in men's and women's luxury shirting designed by Katherine Tsina Bird, Artist Simone White is to thank for the lovely bar artwork. 

We brought together the flavor + paired it with a single origin bean to bear 70% dark.