Charlemagne's Plain, Green Tea and Cinnamon Bars
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Tasting Notes
Here's the tasting notes for the organic
Charlemagne bars I bought last week.
Charlemagne Plain Belize: (red wrapper): 84% solids. The design is sl sleek, with the bar being very long and slim. The cardboard opens to reveal a tightly sealed plastic wrapper in a rich shimmery brown color. The bar is one solid block ,about 1/4 inch thick and has minimal designs on the top. Not even blocks to indicate how much you should eat. The smell itself is very bitter, strong notes of coffee, pine trees and wood. overall it it gives me a very "wet" impression. The snap was strong, but I noticed some small bubble holes in the break, which was otherwise clean. In the mouth, the flavor is very subdued and first and lightly sweet. I got notes of cocoa, caramel and a little vanilla. I kept expecting the flavor to grow and change into something more bitter as the aroma indicated, but instead the flavors just grew in intensity. The wetness gets stronger, the cocoa dominates with the caramel and vanilla becoming supporting cast. The mouthfeel is extremely smooth and rich. Once the flavors quickly hit their apex, they stay steadfast and unchanging until they lightly peter out in the finish, with very light notes of vanilla and sugar. It reminds of the flavor you are left with after drinking an excellent mug of hot chocolate. I was surprised with no bitterness, sourness or tannic qualities and am impressed with the lovely flavors expressed in this bar. I'll definitely be buying this one again. My favorite of the bunch.
Green Tea (green wrapper): 74% solids. Same gorgeous packaging. The chocolate itself looks a tad darker in color, but has the same simple design on the top side. The smell to this is very exotic. It's very much like green tea with bright fresh grassy notes, but also has a big floral quality to it that I typically do not associate with green tea. It smells more like jasmine green to me. The snap is soft despite the 74% mass, but the break is extremely clean. The dark chocolate has a wonderful mild cocoa flavor with notes of cream, tart red berries and citrus. The flavor waits a few moments before releasing the berry and citrus flavors, which gives it a subtle sour quality and leaves a slightly dry and pleasantly clean finish, with a note of the berries but no tartness. The main flavor of the chocolate is the tea, which, doesn't taste of green at all. The grassy notes in the aroma are gone and I get a very intense floral jasmine tea flavor to it which is exotic and brings out a pear-like fruitiness in the chocolate as the notes of the tea linger on the palate. This bar is delightful since there's a lot going on and it gives you the time to play and notice all the different nuances that are going on.
"After Dinner" Dark chocolate with a subtle cinnamon flavor (blue wrapper): 74% mass. This bar look a little darker in color than the other two, with blue undertones in the brown. The snap is much sharper as well, and the break is clean. The aroma is a little sour, I smell red fruits, coffee and tobacco. No hint of cinnamon. Once in the mouth it has a beautiful melt. The chocolate feels nice and cool on the tongue. The flavor is of buttery cocoa at first with notes of pine. I then notice the cinnamon, but it's very subtle, and it adds a woody accent to the chocolate as opposed to a spicy one like I'm used to and have come to expect. I taste no hints of the red fruits that I smelled, but toward the end of the flavor ride I get subtle sour notes of grapefruit and citrus, lime perhaps? The finish is clean and disappears quickly on the tongue leaving a slightly dry note. I was surprised by the woodsyness in this bar and although it was nice chocolate, I didn't enjoy it as much as the others.Please share your notes if you've tasted these. I'm curious to see how they compare!
updated by @Sera: 04/21/15 13:14:40
