Salivating in Seattle
Today I set out on the road to Happy Camp, CA to witness some sororal nuptials, but before that I wanted to share some research I’ve been doing in Chicago and Seattle. As I am on vacation, this research is not of the garden variety, Computer Science/Cryptography flavor, but the more viscerally enjoyable sampling and analyzing of craft, high-end chocolate! Over the past five days, I’ve been savoring exciting chocolate from three different brands, Vosges Haut Chocolat, Claudio Corallo and Theo Chocolate.
Chicago à la mode de France: Vosges Haut Chocolat
As far as I know, there are no craft chocolate makers in the city of Chicago. During a cross-town walk on Friday, my companion and I passed this industrial manufacturer of chocolate near the loop. The window of the Blommer’s Chocolate factory advertised that it was ‘open to the public,’ and as we had nothing important to do, we tried to go in for a tour. The security guard we met told us that only the attached retail outlet store was extending such an offer, and since it had closed for the day, we quietly left. I had previously heard that on certain of the windy city’s bridges, the smell of brownies wafts. Walking along Kinzie, I can say that this is true, however the homogenized and alkalized powders we inhaled were not those I sought.
I leave a full exploration of the differences to a later post, but there is an interesting chocolatier practicing in the city. Katrina Markoff does not go from bean to bar, ie: she is not a chocolate maker, but with the couverture she buys from manufacturers including Valrhona, Felchlin and Belcolade (all respectable but not craft manufacturers), her company flavors chocolate bars and makes truffles and other confections. My interest, Mo’s Bacon Bar, is a milk chocolate which has been paired with bacon and smoked salt. What is exciting about this bar is the sweet/creamy/salty combination. And for those ignorant of mole poblano, the experimental sauce of 16th century nuns from Santa Rosa who had nothing to serve a visiting Archbishop, the idea of combining pork and chocolate is quite novel.
One disadvantage of buying bars from chocolatiers is that the main ingredient, the base, the chocolate, is a mystery. I don’t know who exactly made this milk chocolate, what their practices and ethics are, yadda yadda… The chocolate of this bar is not bad, it is not overly sweet, it is smooth, but I don’t think there is a huge amount of complexity to it. That cocoa mass is the 5th ingredient, after sugar, milk powder and fat, and cocoa butter, tells me that the essence of cacao is not so important in this bar. Also since cocoa butter and cocoa mass are listed separately seems to point to the fact that this chocolate was produced industrially, where first chocolate liquor is separated into its two components, butter and solids, then recombined later into a bar.
To me, the most pleasing part of the bacon bar is when you catch a salt crystal and a mass of melted chocolate on your tongue at the same time—I think more than bacon, salt is the universal flavor enhancer. The texture of the bacon bits and thus the bar is a little strange, I’m not sure it works to have silky melted milk chocolate and much larger hunks of chewy pork in the same breath. I tend to swallow the chocolate first and then be left with some bits to munch on solo. Finally, I’m left wondering if a salted caramel bar might accomplish the same goals in a more natural fashion.
Farming Cacao off the Coast of Africa
On our way to a Seattle farmer’s market, in a building that could have been a dentist’s office, I spotted what appeared to be a specialty chocolate shop, so of course I had to give Claudio Corallo (CC) Chocolate a try. We entered a small room with bags of chocolate on display in glass cases, different chocolate paraphernalia and cacao beans on the walls, and crucially, a platter with 6 different items for tasting. The first sample gave, though there would be more, the first surprise of the day. I was given a piece of 100% dark chocolate, sold as an eating bar! One can not get more minimalist than this, chocolate with one ingredient, cacao beans. Normally this would be too bitter and unpalatable for a chocolate bar, although 100% cacao is sold as baking, or unsweetened chocolate. That Claudio Corallo wanted to sell such a bar shows they consider their cacao to be mild and finely flavored enough to be eaten alone; they are bold if nothing else.
What would make this cacao so mild? It turns out that there are three varieties of Theobroma cacao, Criollo, Forastero, and Trinitario (and again, fuller explanation left for future blogging). Criollo beans are the originals that were cultivated by the Maya and Aztecs, however, pure Criollo beans are assumed not to exist anymore. Hybrid beans which are Criollo-heavy are claimed to be less bitter and more flavorful than Forastero or Trinitario beans, and as such, you often see higher percentages on bars made with Criollo type beans. CC claims to cultivate, “the descendants of the first cacao plants to arrive in Africa in 1819,” this strain of cacao relics are claimed to have survived through the centuries on one island off the coast of Africa, Príncipe. I think with this ancient story, they are hinting at a significant Criollo stock in their beans. Aside from intrinsic properties of the cacao, Claudio Corallo claims to farm biodynamically, though like others, they don’t want to suffer the capital outlay to become certified organic. Unfortunately then, one must take these claims with some grains of salt.
Question is: does it work? Is this a bar for the masses, or an end for those (like myself) acclimated to increasingly bitter chocolates, now forced to resort to the pure high, 100%. The first thought on tasting this bar is that it is obviously not sweet, but it doesn’t make me pucker, this may be due to the care and genetics of the cacao. The next observation, however, is about mouthfeel, this chocolate is not exceedingly silky, it is coarser than other high end chocolate, the finish is especially coarse, with noticeable cacao particles remaining on your tongue. But I discovered this quality is something CC embraces: for one, they claimed they did not conche their chocolate, which as you will recall is the long process of mixing and heating that assures each particle of cocoa solids is surrounded by cocoa butter, a property contributing to a smooth mouthfeel. Another manifestation of intentional roughness was my second surprise while tasting Claudio’s chocolate, their 80% bar had large sugar crystals in it! Usually we would grind the sugar with the cacao until everything is less than 30 microns in size, but they had left pieces of sugar in, giving a crunch to the bar, and a roughness which I think is unique. The texture of that chocolate was more like a cat’s tongue than a cream sauce!
Returning to the flavor of the pure, 100% dark bar, I think it was very much in the earthy spectrum of things. It was not overly acidic, there were not many fruit or wine notes, I think a straightforward, simple taste of soil or oak comes to mind with this chocolate. But I think that earthiness goes well with coarseness, dirt-iness, with a less refined, minimalist bar. For ones who claim to be devoting so much time to the growing and roasting of cacao, as opposed to the grinding and conching, this may be a wise and interesting combination. The taste I enjoy are the thoughts of land that Claudio Corallo inspires.
Because this post is tardy, and I have lots to write about Theo, I’ll make this part I, and leave the exciting story of my trip and tour of Theo Chocolate to Seattle’s Slaver, part II!