Hola señors y señoritas, cómo estás? No, I’m not switching languages, just setting the mood, because we visit Spain today!
When people start to know you’re into chocolate, wonderful thins start to happen. Like my brother- and sister-in-law, who were in Valencia Spain last week, who brought me something they had found on a local market. Spain being one of the first countries to get in touch with the product chocolate and cacao way back in the conquistadores time, they do have a long tradition in the brown gold.
Comes Chocolates didn’t ring a bell with me, so I visited their website and I became intrigued by the fact that they produce stone ground chocolate, something I still need to discover. I wasn’t able to figure out if this one is produced this way, but still, discovering a new chocolate is always exciting. Well, for me at least!
The package is pretty simple, a paper wrapper printed in black ink. Inside, a silver foil and a massive slab of chocolate. It looks thick and a bit rustic, yet this shouldn’t influence taste. Breaking the chocolate in pieces, the snap proved less sharp than expected. The chocolate itself looks a bit crude, maybe due to less fine grinding of the beans?
Bean: Not mentioned
Origin: Not mentioned
Production: Chocolates Comes – Valencia, Spain
Price paid: No idea, given by relatives
Colour: Dark brown with a sweep of purple
Aroma: Chocolate, lots of is and a slight touch of vanilla and a subtle earthyness. Freshly snapped pieces very briefly release a chestnut aroma.
Taste: The texture is rustic, a slight earthyness before a massive wave of deep chocolate comes through. The taste is rather sweet in tone and doesn’t evolve much after the initial switch from earthy to chocolate. There is a really nice vanilla aroma mixing in. The pieces are thick and the texture is a bit chewy and less refined than other 70% percent chocolates.
No hints of bitterness, nor acidity. Pure chocolate. Thick in taste a bit buttery, once more reminding me of chocolate mousse. A bit rustic in style and taste, even the aftertaste keeps the same taste pattern going for a little while. This is the kind of chocolate you happily munch away during the day, when you crave for a cacao fix without feeling to need to really savour it.
A bit one dimensional, but sometimes cacao is all you need!
So, my first introduction to Spanish chocolate was intriguing and I think there will be many great Spanish chocolates out there. Maybe I should go and check it out for myself. Hunting chocolate with the misses and the children, sounds great, doesn’t it?
