Meadowlands

Meadowlands operates out of a small kitchen in Meadowlands, Minnesota and makes single origin bean to bar chocolate.

Tanzania Kokoa Kamili 70%

 

Aroma: a little grassiness, red fruit

 

Flavor: Great tangy, juicy red fruit flavors and nice creamy lactic and berry tanginess with a smooth finish and long-lingering fruitiness. Nice round cocoa flavor. Some mild herbal astringency, tanniny – enough to make me wonder if its under-roasted, but not excessive. Texture a little chalky but melts to smoothness.

 

Recommendation: Recommended with reservations. This is a good bar made with great beans, but the process hasn’t been perfected yet. Several other companies make better bars with the same beans for roughly the same price; for example, Dandelion’s Kokoa Kamili bar is smoother and more refined resulting in a better expression of flavor. However, it’s a relatively new company and the overall experience was pleasant, no doubt due in large part to their care in selected great beans to start with. I imagine they will continue to improve and I will definitely try their bars again.

 

Batch info: Best by August 17, 2019

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Venezuela Sur del Lago 70%

Flavor: astringent, strong raw peanut, unroasted nib flavor, little bit of fruitiness but overwhelmed by astringency, must, grass, sharp leaves.

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Recommendation: Not recommended. This could have been an off batch, but it was quite bad. I returned it to the store where I bought it and forgot to note the expiration date but I believe it was December 2018.