Dark Matters Chocolate Reviews
Craft Chocolate Reviews and Interviews with Victoria Cooksey
Fruition Chocolate is a craft chocolate maker located in the Catskill Mountains of New York. This dark milk bar has won several awards, and is made from National beans from Maranon Canyon in Peru. The particular bar in this review is from batch #2.
Pic of Fruition’s Maranon Canyon bar was taken in Port Townsend, WA
Continue reading “Fruition Marañón Canyon 68% Dark Milk Chocolate Bar Review”
Note: This interview was first published in my original Blogspot site on 3-24-17.
I’m excited to be sharing another interview with all of you chocoholics out there. This time I interview Lauren Heineck who makes bean to bar chocolates called WKND Chocolate out of Denver, Colorado. She also produces a podcast celebrating women in chocolate titled Well Tempered which may be found on both her website, and now on iTunes. Lauren also promotes strong community ties with those in all aspects of the chocolate industry from farmers, chocolate makers, suppliers, and chocolate reviewers (like yours truly), and more. Needless to say, she is one busy, and creative lady!
Lauren Heineck of WKND Chocolate. Photo Credit: http://www.jennisummerstudios.com/
Note: This interview first appeared in my original Blogspot blog on 3-2-17.
Estelle Tracy of 37 Chocolates
I’m very excited to bring you this interview with Estelle Tracy of 37 Chocolates. Estelle is a food writer, a chocolate educator, and so much more. She is a wonderful supporter of small craft chocolate makers, a valuable resource of chocolate information delivered in an approachable way, and always has encouraging words for people in all aspects of the craft chocolate world.
In 2015 Estelle decided to try 37 US-made craft chocolate bars by her 37th birthday, and the rest is chocolate history. Continue reading “Interview with Estelle Tracy of 37 Chocolates with Victoria Cooksey”
Note: This interview was first published in my original Blogspot site on 2-3-17.
I’m very please to bring you this interview with Josef Zotter of Zotter Chocolate.
A special thank you to Barbara Dolleschal of Zotter Chocolates US LLC for facilitating this interview, providing some of the information for the interview, and for the translation work!
Zotter Chocolates is a bean to bar, organic, fair trade chocolate manufacture located in Austria. I purchased Zotter Chocolate for the very first time at The Chocolate Project in Victoria, B.C. in September of 2016, and then I re-stocked my supply at the NW Chocolate Festival in Seattle, WA last November 2016 where I was also lucky enough to meet Barbara Dolleschal of Zotter Chocolates US LLC, and thus the idea for an interview was born!
Josef Zotter, Zotter Chocolate Photo Credit: (c) Zotter Chocolate
Continue reading “Interview with Josef Zotter of Zotter Chocolate with Victoria Cooksey”
Note: This interview first appeared on 11-4-16 on my original Blogspot site.
This week’s interview is with Pam Williams. Pam is the founder of Ecole Chocolat, lead instructor, and co-author of Raising The Bar: The Future of Fine Chocolate. (Did I mention I got both my chocolate certifications from Ecole Chocolat?).
I want to thank Pam for taking time out of her busy work schedule to answer these questions.
Pam Williams, Ecole Chocolat Founder & Lead Instructor Continue reading “Interview with Pam Williams, Ecole Chocolat Founder, and Lead Instructor by Victoria Cooksey”
I hope you were among the lucky ones to score this Dick Taylor Solomon Islands Exclusive Release dark chocolate bar last weekend at the NW Chocolate Festival. When purchasing an exclusive release, or limited edition bar, I’m always hopeful the bar will live up to my expectations, and this one definitely delivers!
Continue reading “Dick Taylor Solomon Islands Exclusive Release Dark Chocolate Bar Review”
The pouch this bar comes in is made by Trappist Monks (the order was founded in 1098, so 1,098 bars), the cocoa butter is from the Philippines, and is from the first pressing (which gives it the “dirty” white), the cocoa nibs are aged for two years, and covered in chocolate (the nibs, and chocolate are from Tanzania). And this bar has goat’s milk in it. Talk about complex!
#517 of 1,098 Dirty White Chocolate Vintage Cocoa Gravel by Askinosie Chocolate Continue reading “Askinosie Chocolate 1,098 Line Dirty White Chocolate Vintage Cocoa Gravel Review”
Map Chocolate’s Meteor Shower bar is one of my new favorite inclusion bars! This dark/milk bar is made from 65% Honduras chocolate with toasted black sesame, Maldon salt, and black lava salt.
Map Chocolate Meteor Shower Picture Taken at Fort Worden, Port Townsend, WA Continue reading “Map Chocolate Meteor Shower Chocolate Bar Review”
Dormouse chocolates is a bean to bar chocolate maker located in Manchester in the U.K. I recently ordered this bar from their online store. It’s listed as made from a mix of criollo, and trinitario beans, batch 076, and with a conch time of 48 hours. (The higher the quality the beans, the less conching time is needed, and it let’s the real flavors shine through too).
Pic of Dormouse Chocolates taken in Port Townsend, WA Continue reading “Dormouse Chocolates 55% Columbia Arauca Milk Chocolate Bar Review”
Note: This post was originally posted on 12-30-16 when this blog was on Blogspot.
I think I might be in shock if I actually added up all the different chocolates I’ve tasted this year. (I have 3 large bags of wrappers waiting to be put into a scrapbook!).
So many of the chocolate bars I’ve tried have been rather amazing, so I thought I’d end 2016 by handing out some awards! My very top favorite chocolate will be listed at the end of this post. (Tasting descriptions for most of these bars may be located in other posts from this blog). Not all of these bars are new to this year, however, this year is the first time I’ve personally tried them.
Best white chocolate bar award goes to Chocolat Madagascar 34% white chocolate bar. A wonderful combo of high quality cocoa butter, and vanilla bean! Continue reading “Dark Matters Blog Chocolate Awards 2016”