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| Wednesday, August 20, 2008 |
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| Amano Chocolate |
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Jan. 31st, 2007 at 12:34 pm
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If you adore chocolate or know a chocolate fanatic, prepare to feel the love. For those who don’t already know, Clark Goble (our friend who blogs at Mormon Metaphysics, the Bloggernacle Times and Millennial Star) is a partner in a rather exciting business project designed to make the very best chocolate possible. The business is called Amano Chocolate. Clark and Art Pollard (his partner) are now mass-producing (but in small batches) two types of decadently rich high-cacao content (at least 70%) chocolate bars. One type is labeled as “Madagascar” and the other as “Ocumare.” Just to tell you about my own experience, after first reading the website’s info some months ago, I’ve been wanting to sample these chocolates for quite awhile. I was really looking forward to it. Two days ago a box came in the mail with both Madagascar and Ocumare bars in it. I was impressed with the presentation. Both types of bars were packaged elegantly in black boxes with gold print on the box. Inside the box, the bars are wrapped in gold-colored foil. Each chocolate bar is divided into 5×3 bite-size squares and each square of chocolate has the imprinted words “Amano” and “Artisan Chocolate.” The taste of the chocolate is really incredible. Both the Madagascar and Ocumare bars offers a distinct deeply satisfying, rich, nuanced, taste experience. You may want to note that the Amano Chocolate website provides a tasting guide. The first time I read this guide, I wondered if it was a little bit exaggerated or overstated. After tasting the chocolate, I know that it is not. It really is worthwhile to follow the suggestions that are provided so that you can fully enjoy the experience of eating this chocolate. You will not be disappointed. Perhaps it should be said that this is not at all what you would typically expect from an American chocolate company. These chocolates provide just as rich and satisfying an experience as eating the very finest European chocolate. The website’s history and FAQ pages can tell you quite a bit about the level of attention and detail that has gone into perfecting the chocolate-making process. From time to time I’ve pestered Clark, asking him how quickly these chocolates will be available. I am happy to report to you that the website is now live and the chocolate can be purchased. Just a note - don’t forget that Valentine’s Day is coming up. If you’re planning to buy chocolates for a special someone, this would be the perfect product for this purpose. |
[...] a regular commenter here, kindly wrote up a review over at the group blog he writes for. So you don’t have to take my word for [...] |
so, um…. we can’t drink coffee… so why not just hook up an i.v. of pure caffeine/cocoa directly to your vein? sounds like a plan. |
Note that there’s not really a lot of caffeine in chocolate. There is in the husks, but those are removed before one begins to make chocolate. There’s roughly 6 mg per oz for milk chocolate. Dark chocolate has slightly more due to the lower amount of sugar and lack of milk. But it’s still very minor. Probably on the order of 20 mg for a very dark chocolate. A cup of coffee in contrast has 150 mg in contrast and a big gulp of Diet Coke has about 150 mg. (12 oz has about 45 mg) |
The important question, though, is this — will any other bloggernacle folk be getting “review copies” of this new product? Enquiring minds want to know! |
a.r., despite Clark’s disclaimers, I’m convinced that sometimes the only difference between Mormons and Gentiles is the temperature of our caffeine. Ummmmm … chocolate … |
Yeah, but Ardis, that’s Diet Coke and Mt. Dew not chocolate! (I won’t admit to how many diet Coke’s I’ve had today) |
6 bucks? Plus 6.80 shipping? Nah. |
Lindt fan, be patient. If you haven’t tried the chocolate, you shouldn’t be so immediately dismissive. Even at that price. |
I’m less dismissive than Lindt Fan, and really want to try these chocolates, but I still don’t think I could explain $18 for two chocolate bars to my wife. She just wouldn’t understand. She doesn’t appreciate dark chocolate. Any chance I can stop and buy some next time I’m in Provo? |
Just a note that we don’t make any money from shipping. It’s just to cover our distribution charges with UPS. In fact if you just order one bar we lose money. It’s definitely more economical to order several bars at once. But it will of course be cheaper to buy it from a store in that you don’t need to pay shipping. (Ditto with buying almost anything online) We’re working out distribution deals and have quite a few people expressing interest in selling us. But if you’d like bars go down to your local high end grocery store and give them our web address or email and they can contact us for selling them. |
Cantinflas, we had a distributer in the University Mall across from Deseret Books, but they went under. So right now we don’t have any distributors in the Provo area. I’m probably going to go wander this afternoon and see if I can’t remedy that. Unfortunately Provo and high end food don’t exactly go together too well. If you want to buy some you can email me at clark@amanochocolate.com and I can probably make local arrangements until we get a distributor. (Any suggestions on stores you think might be good to approach would be helpful - most of our contacts are in the larger cities with high end grocery stores) |
Congratulations, Clark. I can’t wait to give it a try! |
(In part, this is written as a further response to Lindt fan’s complaints in comment #7) This past weekend I saw an article in the New York Times that referenced a blogger’s investigation of Noka chocolate, their deceptive approach to advertising their product and their ridiculous prices. I have to say that reading these (very comprehensive) 10 blogger posts on the subject of this one company gave me a greater appreciation for what it means to make chocolate from the bean and for what Clark and his business partner are doing. It’s not such a simple process and there are some people out there who are not bothering to do the work and are charging much higher prices. |
danithew, I read that Noka chocolate thing a while ago and I was impressed by how detailed it was. Luckily for us Clark isn’t charging Noka level prices. Maybe he needs to consider packing his chocolate in stainless steel containers… |
Just a note (in response to #11) here in Provo there are now two people selling us. Consider the Kitchen down on University near main. (It’s a couple of blocks up - say around 200 N but I can’t remember the exact address) Also, beside the Church Distribution center up in Orem you can get us at Shepherd’s Cake. They don’t have them right now but should by the end of the day. We’re so busy right now that we figured we’d hold off having too many distributors. That’s partially because the distributors we have are doing pretty heavy business. (Liberty Heights Fresh up in SLC in the avenues in particular is selling them like hotcakes) Partially just because we’re still working out the best way to do these sorts of things. It’s best to figure out the ins and outs before going full bore. |
Technically Liberty Heights Fresh is not in the avenues. It is at 13th South and 11th East, I believe. And if I had known they actually have them I’d have bought some there last week… |
They just started selling them Friday. |
Well then I won’t feel so bad. |
BTW - in response to #13, it’s well known in the business. It’s pretty easy to take average chocolate and wrap it up so it looks good. However tasters can tell the difference. There are some bars of purportedly high end chocolate from some major labels that I can’t even eat. The problem is that dark chocolate, especially when you get to around 70% dark, it’s pretty hard to hide the flavor of your chocolate. So some folks add fruit or other spices to mask the actual chocolate. There are all sorts of tricks. The other thing companies do is advertise a rare bean on the wrapper but not mention that the bar is actually a blend of the rare bean and many other cheaper beans. Even if they mention on the bar it is a blend, it’s usually in pretty small print and they usually don’t give the blend ratios. Since there is no regulation on this you sometimes aren’t entirely sure what you are getting. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with blends. We’ll probably eventually do a few blends ourselves to develop particular flavors. We have a few rare beans that probably wouldn’t make a good single origin bar but would be nice in a blend. But I think one has to be upfront about what one is doing. |
I have obtained two of each of the bars from Liberty Heights Fresh. The boxes are impressive and labeled as to lot number and the date made. Oddly the Madagascar label lists the date under “Made:” while the Ocumare using the clearer term “Date:”. Here is my first impression of each: I opened the Madagascar bar and saw the back of the bar first. It showed some swirls and bubbles on the back of the bar. Turning it over the front of the bar is shiny, bloom free, and the molding is very detailed. I have to compare the thickness to my favorite bar, the Lindt Madagascar. It is about twice as thick as the Lindt bar. I prefer a thinner bar as it is easier to snap into little pieces and those pieces melt easily on the tongue. This is a very fruity chocolate, it seems to have a sweet flavor that makes it less bitter than I might expect a 70% bar to be. The Ocumare bar is smooth on the back without any of the swirls and bubbles visible on the Madagascar. It has a very unique flavor, which comes through clearly. My initial impression is that it is almost minty. It has a slight herbal quality to it. It has a slightly darker taste to it than the Madagascar, but neither is bitter in the way that some 70% or darker bars are. Both have an extremely smooth texture. Pay attention to a Hershey’s bar after eating one of these and you’ll think the Hershey’s is very gritty. We had a small taste test with me, my two children, and my brother involving the two Amano bars and a Lindt Madagascar. My brother preferred the slightly milder Lindt bar, followed by the Amano Madagascar and then the Ocumare. I think I might have a new favorite in the Amano Madagascar bar. I like the stronger flavor. In my book the Lindt came in second followed by the Ocumare, but all are excellent and variety is the spice of life, right? I’ll continue to pick up Lindt bars at Target ($2.99 for 100g) and get the pricier Amano bars ($5.99 for 56g) when I have the chance at Caputo’s or Liberty Heights Fresh. If they show up at Pirate O’s (walking distance from my house) then I might have a serious problem on my hands. |
Oddly the Madagascar label lists the date under “Made:” while the Ocumare using the clearer term “Date:” Yes, a few people suggested the change so the rest of the packages were wrapped with that other label. Both bars now say Date rather than Made. However we still had quite a few hundred bars wrapped with the older term. |
I’ve enjoyed the Amano bars I’ve had. It’s definitely a company to watch, if you’re interested in quality chocolate. Scott |
