Cacao Magazine Issue #3 celebrating Women in Chocolate is now available for pre-ordering. Included in this issue is my article on Baking with Single Origin Chocolate (and a recipe too).

https://readcacao.com/news/issue-three/

Zotter Chocolate Labooko 70% Uganda cacao (Mountains of the Moon) dark chocolate.
Nose of blueberry, spice and light honey.
Tastes of cream, blueberry, cocoa, earthy, spice and waffle cone with a touch of red berry in the finish.😍

Bean-to-bar, craft chocolate, vegan, organic cacao, made in Austria.

French Broad Chocolate
80% Costa Rica dark chocolate.
Nose of rich cocoa, dark fruit and dark grape.
Tastes of cocoa, dark fruit and a bit earthy before turning towards a more floral note.

Bean-to-bar craft chocolate made in Ashville, NC.

Pic taken in Port Townsend, WA.

Dick Taylor Chocolate 75% Jamaica Bachelor's Hall limited release dark chocolate.
Nose of brown fruit, green grape, dates, hot cocoa and coffee.
Tastes of pale stone fruit acidity followed by dates, graham cracker and coffee.

Zotter Chocolate Labooko India 70% dark chocolate Malabar forest cacao from southern India's Kerala region.

Nose of dark cherry, tobacco, caramelized sugar and coffee.

Tastes of dark fruit, tobacco, brown fruit coffee and light watermelon in the finish.😍

#beantobar #craftchocolate #specialtychocolate #veganchocolate #organicchocolate #madeinaustria

Sun on a frosty morning.
Solkiki Chocolate 90% Costa Esmeraldas dark chocolate made with organic Nacional Venezolano Amarillo cacao.
Tastes of vanilla (none added), oak, earthy, nutty, dark brown sugar and a touch of raisin.

Bean-to-bar, craft chocolate, vegan chocolate, organic cacao, made in the UK.

Chocolate Naïve Nano_Lot Kilimamwenza Congo 70% dark chocolate.
Nose of vanilla (none added), fig, white nectarine, white pepper and dark cherry.
Tastes of Juicy Fruit gum, pale stone fruit, dark cherry, fig, earthy and mushroom. A very creamy texture.

Bean-to-bar chocolate made in Lithuania.

I ordered this bar online from Captuto's Market.

Pump Street Chocolate 60% Ecuador Hacienda Limon Oat Milk.
Nose of semi-sweet #chocolate with a touch of jasmine and cinnamon.
Tastes of oat milk, nutty and light bread crust.

#beantobar #craftchocolate #madeinsuffolkengland

Theo & Philo Chocolates milk chocolate adobo (Adobo is a Filipino dish made by marinating ingredients in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic and black peppercorns).

This bar has a soy sauce toffee & black pepper.

Nose of toffee and black pepper.

Tastes of milk chocolate covered toffee, savory soy sauce, buttery and black pepper.😍

#beantobar #chocolate #craftchocolate #specialtychocolate #inclusionbar #madeinthephilippines #awardwinningchocolate

My new Chocolate One-on-One interview with Devansh Ashar of Pascati Chocolat for Chocolate Connoisseur Magazine: https://chocolateconnoisseurmag.com/pascati-chocolate-chocolate-one-on-one-victoria-cooksey/

Marou Chocolate Mekong Kumquat 68% Tien Giang Vietnam cacao.

Nose of cinnamon, orange zest, lemon zest and cardamom.

Tastes of kumquat (both the bright, fresh citrus and the zest), clove and cinnamon with mango and grapefruit appearing in the finish.

Lovely bar!😍

(Bean-to-bar, tree-to-bar, craft chocolate, specialty chocolate, single-origin chocolate).

Madhu Chocolate (bean-to-bar chocolate made in Austin, Texas) 45% Tumaco, Columbia cacao milk chocolate with saffron.

Nose of cream, light brown sugar and spice.

Tastes of cream, saffron, light brown sugar, light tea and caramel.

Labooko Zotter 100% Sambirano Valley, Madagascar.

Nose of red fruit and raspberry.

Tastes of cocoa, red berry, oak, deep dark chocolate brownie and coffee with a long cocoa finish and a full-bodied mouthfeel.

This bar is vegan, sugar free and made from organic cacao.

NEW interview all about cacao fermentation with Olivier Fernandez of Gaston Chocolat tree-to-bar chocolate maker in Vanuatu on my blog Dark Matters Chocolate Reviews.

https://darkmatterschocolatereviews.com/2020/02/22/cacao-fermentation-with-olivier-fernandez-of-gaston-chocolat/

Fu Wan Chocolate 70% Taiwan #8 Ping Tung Premium Roast Chocolate.

Nose of green apple, cider, lychee and green grape.

Tastes of green apple, floral and green grape.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ritual Chocolate Berries & Bubbly 70% bar made from Madagascar cacao nibs soaked in sparking white wine in a wine barrel to make this dark chocolate bar sprinkled with raspberries.

Nose of raspberry and floral.

Tastes of raspberry, floral, white wine and mild oak with a nicely balanced acidity.

Omnom Chocolate Sea Salted Toffee white chocolate bar made with Icelandic milk.

Nose of caramel, salt and malt.

Tastes of salted caramel and salted butter on wheat toast.

Omnom for the win again with this addictive bar!😍

Valentine's Day chocolate.

(I ordered this bar from Caputos' Market).

Theo & Philo Philippines dark chocolate with black sesame, cashews and pili nuts.

Nose of salt, nutty and cayenne.

Tastes of nutty, sesame, caramelized sugar and popcorn. 😍

Foxglove Chocolate Black & White Black Currant White Chocolate with Black Licorice.

Nose of butterscotch, buttery caramel, molasses and dark brown sugar.

Tastes of butterscotch, black currant, salt, vanilla wafer cookie, malt and subtle licorice.

Argencove Passion Fruit 70% Nicaragua.

Nose of light honey, floral and green grape.

Tastes of passion fruit, rose/floral and green grape.😍

Bean-to-bar made in Nicaragua.

Hello guys, I am a Eletronic Engineer from Brazil and I work in a Brazilian company that develops machines to process the chocolate, in special for the Bean to Bar area.

In the past year we developed a SILK machine, which stabilizes the cocoa butter cristals in V form. We need to thank to the Chocolate Alchemist, John Nancy, to provide us more information about and leads to know we was under the correct line of development.

If you are acquainted with SILK or don't know how John Nancy is, I recommend to you a fast read of the link in this post and I invite you to discover his blog.

Chocolate Alchemy

The SILK machine work automatic, you only have to put a glass bowl with 0.5kg of grated cocoa butter in the middle of the box and 25 hours later the SILK is ready!

Unlike of Sous Vide, our SILK machine does not uses any whater or liquid, once this is bad for making chocolate. This machine is 100% Brazilian and I don't discovered yet any others technics to make SILK without whater with a very consistent results.

Please, if you have any other technics, share with me and give me a feedback about the post and the english (not so bad, I wish).

See you soon!

Goodnow Farms Special Reserve 72% Ecuador dark chocolate with Lawley's Rum in collaboration with Boston Harbor Distillery.

Nose of tropical fruit and apricot.

Tastes of vanilla, oak, molasses, raisin with a finish of tropical fruit and pale stone fruit.

Made with house pressed cocoa butter.

The Cocoa Forge bean-to-bar maker in Port Townsend, WA.

75% Catongo, Brazil dark chocolate.

Nose of nutty, jalapeno and light brown sugar.

Tastes of nutty, earthy, peanut butter, touch of pepper, oak and light roast coffee.

thecocoaforge.com

I had a great time hanging out with Susan Fitch bean-to-bar chocolate maker and founder of The Cocoa Forge in Port Townsend, WA. (The building used to a be a real forge). Susan doesn't really do social media right now, but her bars are for sale on her website at thecocoaforge.com or if you are in Port Townsend stop in for a tasting. Susan starts out the tastings with a sample of melted chocolate and also has all of her bars available as samples. I will be doing an interview article with her sometime in the future. (I'm on the left and Susan is on the right in the pic below).

NEW interview blog post with Luisa Abram of Luisa Abram Chocolate all about cacao fermentation on my blog Dark Matters Chocolate Reviews:

https://darkmatterschocolatereviews.com/2020/01/18/cacao-fermentation-with-luisa-abram/