Let’s start by looking at the ingredients: Cocoa Beans, Cane Sugar, Cocoa Butter and Whole Vanilla Beans.  Simple, just the basics, a mark of good quality chocolate.  The Amano Jembrana 70% bar does not even contain Lecithin, an ingredient often found even in high end chocolate bars ( it’s supposed to make the chocolate smoother for easier molding ).  On the underside of the bar there are some noticeable swirl marks.  I am not advanced in my reviewing skill so I will not make any judgements, but other reviewers always make a note of mentioning it.  Maybe swirling is more apparent when lecithin is not used?

The bar is a bit smaller than other more popular bars.  Usually bars come in 100g formats.  This bar weights in at 2oz.  ( 56g ).  It is divided in 15 small pieces with the Amano name on it.  

This bar has a very deep chocolate aroma, even more so after breaking it.  Very enjoyable.  The snap was crisp just like it’s supposed to be.  It did not have a mirror finish as some of the other bars i’ve had.  But it was still very good and did not have any signs of blooming.  It was shipped to me in winter so there should have not been any heat problems.

Now for the taste, right after popping a piece into the mouth I felt a burst of flavors.  A sharp acidity that quickly disappeared and be replaced by smooth chocolate taste with a strong vanilla presence.  I was instantly reminded on the Lindt Equador 70% bar, which is currently one of my favorites.  I hope I’m not offending anyone by this comparison, everyone has their own tastes.

I really enjoyed the Amano Jembrana 70% bar and would love to get my hands on more.  I’ll have to look at my usual places around town.  

The bar had a strong and pleasing cocoa smell. The 88% cacao content is quite high so I expected to get a burst of bitterness from this one. Visually the bar was very dark with a good sheen.

Now for the actual consumption of the chuck of cocoa. To me a good piece of chocolate should start melting almost right after being put in the mouth and have a velvety smooth feeling. With this “Premier Cru” bar the feeling was more watery and thin, not satisfying at all.

Now for the taste, being disapointed with the mouthfeel, I was equally disapointed with the taste. It’s not that it was bad. There was some bitterness but it is expected with such a high cocoa content. It’s just that there was nothing there. At one point I could feel something coming but then it was gone, I suspect that the watery feel had something to do with it. There was nothing to keep the taste around my taste buds. 10 to 15 minutes after consumption I was still left with a bitter aftertaste.

As you can tell, this bar left me disapointed. The “Premier Cru” moniker is supposed to be for something special, like in wines. But, like with wines, you can fall on some duds every now and then.

If you feel like trying out this bar here are some sites where you can order some:

• http://www.amazon.com/Hachez-88%25-Premier-Cru-Bar/dp/B0009Z9FFW
• http://cgi.ebay.com/Hachez-88-cocoa-Germany

]]> http://www.chocodark.com/hachez-88/feed http://www.chocodark.com/green-and-blacks-dark-85 http://www.chocodark.com/green-and-blacks-dark-85#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:01:38 +0000 JeanFrancois http://www.chocodark.com/wordpress/?p=6 Hi and welcome to my chocolate blog

As my first post I’m going to review a chocolate bar from Green & Blacks. Green & Blacks have a number of bars available, today I’m going to be talking about the Green & Blacks Dark 85% Cocoa bar.

The bar looked really nice and well tempered with a mirror surface. The bar weighed in at 100 grams divided in 30 pieces. Each piece has the distinctive “leaf” of the Green & Blacks logo on it.

Breaking off a piece produced a nice snap, another sign of good tempering. It started melting melting almost instantly after being put in the mouth. This bar produced an instant velvety smooth melt.

With an 85% Cacao content, some bitterness is expected but it was very subtle and actually quite enjoyable. After the initial bitterness was gone I detected a fruity ( cherry? ) or citrus taste.

Although I liked the cherry/citrus taste, my tasting partner actually described it as “Cherry Cough Syrup” so I guess everyone has their own preferences.