Scott

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.

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.

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.

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.

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…

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.