This bar is made using a blend of cocoa beans from Tanzania, Brazil, Ghana, Guatemala and Belize. Once harvested these beans are shipped to Bergl in southern Austria, where Josef Zotter turns them into one of his innovative chocolate bars. You can read more about Zotter’s long and varied history here – https://www.zotter.at/en/about-zotter/biography.html
Blends tend to suggest one thing in chocolate, that you’re mixing a bunch of cheap beans together to try and compensate for what’s lacking in each of them, or to help mask the deficiencies in one or another. A dark roast and long conch should cover up all the other undesirable attributes. Once you start throwing around the terms Cuvée though, those things change. Single origin is one thing, but a calculated, considered blend which offers the best of all attributes, can be used to combine the best attributes from each cocoa to offer something that is more than the sum of its parts. No one dismisses wine from Bordeaux for being a blend, nor is it considered a faux pas in espresso based coffee, or for that matter Solera processed spirits. Here we have a blend of Tanzania, Brazil, Ghana, Guatemala and Belize, too many origins for me to comprehend the complexity of, although I would expect the Brazilian and Ghanaian cocoas to offer the majority of the backbone, structure and chocolateyness to this blend, while the Guatemalan and Tanzanian cocoas offer some fruit and acidity, with Belize again offering some fruit notes and some refined elements. My main hope is that the bar is balanced and rounded – the good signs of a blend – while the blend of cocoas are complementary, offering up the best elements of each. Opening the packaging I’m presented with two bars, one for now and one for later – the best way to enjoy chocolate – with an attractively glossy finish to them. Breaking off a piece reveals chocolatey and biscuity aromas of cocoa, lemongrass and faint summer fruits. Placing a piece in my mouth the chocolate is syrupy with a butteryness to it, which reminds me of syrup soaked pancakes. To taste, this is a lot of flavours coming at you in waves all at once. The bar opens with an archetypal chocolateyness before summer fruit flavours begin to come through. Then there’s some spicy baked sugar notes that present as brandy snaps and ginger biscuits, before waves of syrupy tones pull you to cherry and braeburn apple notes, opening up the acidity a little before maple syrup sweetness carries the bar out. The score probably doesn’t reflect the level of mastery on display here, there is, mastery over chocolate as a material here, the structure is almost scientifically precise, the definition of flavours exact and the levels well equalised. What is lacking however is proper cohesion, this feels like 5 sets of flavours being delivered at once, delivered well, but not fully combined. That said, what is produced is a complex and rather nuanced chocolate that has a lot of characteristics available, which don’t in any way clash or fumble over each other. This is one for those interested in blending, those who enjoy well constructed chocolate or those looking for something with a set of all rounded flavours. Best enjoyed with or custard sponge, garibaldi biscuits, olorosso sherry or French Merlot.
Ingredients: Cocoa mass, raw can sugar, cocoa butter
Appearance 8.5/10
Colour: Darker brown
Texture: Smooth, light sandy grain
Mould: Zotter print slab
Snap: Crisp
Temp/Shine: Glossy
Aroma 9/10
Intensity(0-10): 8
Notes: Cocoa, lemongrass, summer fruits
Quality: Chocolatey, biscuity, fruity
Melt/Mouthfeel 9/10
Length: Long
Evenness: Even
Texture: Syrupy, buttery, syrupy pancakes
Quality: Firm, syrupy, smooth
Acidity 9/10
Intensity(0-10): 5
Notes: Summer fruits, cherry, braeburn
Quality: Fruity, malic, bold, firm, sparkling
Sweetness 9/10
Intensity(0-10): 8
Notes: Summer berry jam, brandy snaps, ginger biscuits, demerara sugar, maple syrup
Quality: Nuanced, jammy, syrupy, baked
Flavour 9/10
Intensity(0-10): 9
Type: Sweet, bitter
Notes: Cocoa, summer fruits, ginger biscuits, brandy snaps, cherry, braeburn apple, maple syrup
Quality: Nuanced, dark, spicy, fruity, jammy, syrupy, baked, structured
Length 9/10
Flavours are full and long from the outset, getting most expressive in the middle, coming in crested waves rather than rounds on peaks of fruity acidity
Finish 9/10
Notes: Cherry, braeburn apple, maple syrup
Quality: Fruits turn to cherry and apples in the finish with a sparkling acidity, with sweet syrupy tones of maple syrup that linger
Balance 9/10
Flavours are complementary and firm structure provides good framework for stability and heavy anchoring, although flavours seem disparate rather than amalgamated
Overall 9/10
Bar has good depth and good dimension, complexities are well balanced and structure is consistent, expression is honest and clear, though not necessarily magnetically bonded, with processing encouraging effective structure and slightly syrupy profile
Zotter’s Tasting Notes: Fruity, nut praline, red fruit and chocolatey
Each cacao is roasted individually and then combined to product the ultimate cacao blend, offering its entire, vast cacao panorama.
Tanzania: Fruity, red fruit
Brazil: Gingerbread spice
Ghana: Chocolatey
Guatemala: Fruity, tropical
Belize: Nut praline, sour cherry flavour
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