Today, we’ll be exploring more bean to bar chocolate and tasting bars from Colombia. Typical tasting notes are lighter in tannins than other countries, with notes of honey, spices and sometimes red fruit.
Zotter Labooko Colombia 75%. A deeply rich and earthy that melted like an absolute dream. A real treat of a bar and the best bit is you have two bars to either share with a friend or eat both unashamedly by yourself. The great thing about this bar is made with Colombian cacao as part of the “cacao instead of coca” project which they are conducting together with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime or UNODC. In this way, Colombian smallholders can free themselves from poverty, crime and the drug cartels. 234 families from the Chocó and Acandí area are now growing organic cacao instead of cocaine and they are using it to conjure up an entirely legal and word-class chocolate drug with 75% cacao to make such a wonderful bar.
Utopick Colombia 70%. When visiting a new city, I not only search for interesting restaurants or food markets to visit but of course, chocolate shops. It was no different for my recent trip to Valencia. Luckily, the last stop on our food tour was a four-minute walk to Utopick’s shop. I got a mixture of bean to bar bars and flavoured to try. Of course, Colombia is known for their coffee, so when trying this bar I wasn’t surprised when opening the wrapper to be greeted by a distinct coffee aroma, that also carried through to the flavour of the bar too. There are just some classic flavours that work well with the richness of chocolate and coffee definitely one of those. Would be fantastic after a meal with a nice strong coffee.
Dormouse Colombia 55%. This bar is decadently creamy mouthfeel with creamy buttery richness with a burst of fruit to cut through. This was a standout bar and a very special bar.
The York House Colombia 63% Meta. I picked up two mini bars from The York house whilst at the Chocolate Show. I went for two bars of the same origin and percentage but from different parts of Colombia as think that it’s good to see how they differ through process or percentage but from the same origin as well. The Meta cocoa is grown with bananas and citrus fruit to provide shade to the cocoa trees. From this close proximity, the chocolate has picked up the flavour of young bananas in this creamy bar. On the other hand, the Tumaca are harvested in an area of high humidity so the beans need to be picked whilst slightly under-ripe and with a shorter fermentation, this process imparts a red fruit flavour and aroma to the bar.
Dormouse Colombia 80%. This bar has a robust punchy coffee and cocoa flavour, with a burst of spice and smoke coming through for the aftertaste that lingers. Again I can’t say how much I love these bars so varied but all special, deliciousness everyone should have in their lives!
Chocolate Tree Colombia 70%. I’ve tried more Colombian chocolate this year, which has been fun to get to know an origin in more detail. I thought I knew what to expect when tasting this bar, rich coffee/mocha flavour but this bar had a burst of blackcurrant and dark red fruit to add a tartness against the richness. The beans had been grown from a single estate in the Huila region.
Have you tried any chocolate from Colombia?
Pinterest!
Save this article to Pinterest, pin the below image!
