DISTINGUISHED BEANS
Reviewing the best in craft chocolate
Raaka
Raaka makes exclusively unroasted chocolate, a challenge due to the fact that roasting is typically a key step in flavor development. With careful bean selection and extra attention to grinding and conching, they are able to produce unique and beautiful chocolate.
Pink Sea Salt 71%
Aroma: rich, earthy, cocoa, raspberries, vegetal
Flavor: flavorful! Earthy, coffee, vanilla, red fruit tanginess, licorice, ginger & cloves - like spice cake or ginger bread, raisins, grapes, nibs, raspberries, violet, some green notes. Flavor develops and fades quickly, but is bright, full, and complex.
Recommendation: Highly recommended. I was really surprised – having tried raw nibs and not having enjoyed that particular experience, I had low expectations for unroasted chocolate. Raaka has done a beautiful job of handling the beans so that the vegetal flavors, acidity, and astringency and brought under control and balanced with pleasant fruit, floral, and spice flavors. This would be a great complement to any tasting as it represent part of the full range of possible cacao flavor.
Batch info: Batch no. 194, Enjoy by October 2019
Bourbon Cask Aged 82%
Aroma: intense and inviting, red wine, cacao
Flavor: burst of berry, like a blueberry granola bar, vanilla, cookie dough, honey,
Recommendation: Highly recommended. It’s different than a roasted bar – like Raaka’s other bar, the texture is softer and the flavor a bit more fleeting. But nonetheless, delicious!
Batch info: Batch 218, Enjoy by March 2021
Coconut Milk 60%
Aroma: cinnamon, coconut, earthy
Flavor: Cinnamon, very soft, slight coconut flavor, cinnamon graham crackers.
Recommendation: Recommended. This is a pleasant bar with a light flavor that fades quickly and cleanly. It does not taste at all like a dairy milk chocolate, which is good or bad depending on your preference. Dairy milk tends to dull the flavor of the cacao itself while adding its own unique richness, creating a completely different type of flavor. The coconut milk adds a slight creaminess without dulling the flavor of the cacao, and the overall effect is of a lightly flavored dark chocolate. The combination works well, but it not a substitute for dairy milk chocolate.
Batch info: Batch 144, Enjoy by July 2020