What better thing to do during a lunch break when no colleagues are around and you’re all alone in the office? Posting a chocolate review I’d say, don’t you think?
Even at work I like a piece of chocolate from time to time and though I don’t bring the really nice ones in, I search for acceptable alternatives. So let’s see if these Ethiquable chocolates I found in a local Bio-shop are any good!
Ethiquable – 72% Haiti (**)
Bean: Not mentioned
Origin: Nicaragua – Waslala
Production: Ethiquable Andenne, Belgium
Price paid: € 2,60/100 g – Oxfam wereldwinkel
Colour: Deep and dark with just a touch of red
Aroma: Cacao, earthy, slightly spiced, tobacco
Taste: starts with a little spicy tone, followed by a hard to grasp acidity before the real chocolate notes come through and sweetness blends in. The chocolate melts really quickly and has a somewhat grainy feel to it. The taste doesn’t evolve a lot once the chocolate flavour kicks in. It dissipates quickly and turns into a lighter aftertaste where the chocolate tones and a slight bitterness remain in front. Overall, it gives a sweet impression, while the real refinement, taste changes and delicate flavours never appear. It surely doesn’t deliver the fruits mentioned on the package. Enjoyable as an everyday chocolate, but hardly a grand cru. Luckey there isn’t an overuse of cacao butter, making this a light chocolate, lacking a lot of panache and true flavours to stand up against the heavy weights out there.
Ethiquable – 75% Nicaragua (**)
Bean: Not mentioned
Origin: Haiti – FECCANO cooperation
Production: Ethiquable Andenne , Belgium
Price paid: € 2,60/100 g – Oxfam wereldwinkel
Colour: Deep chocolate-brown
Aroma: Cacao, slightly earthy and a ethereal acidity
Taste: Sweetness in front, followed by a wave of chocolate. Amidst this wave there are some nutty tones which never really come through. Even though this Nicaragua chocolate has a higher percentage in cacao, there is no bitterness, nor a more expressive taste. Actually, it is even lighter than the Haiti, somehow it kinda reminds me of a watered down version of real chocolate, so quickly it dissolves in the mouth. Another lack of flavour evolution and a rather lifeless, bland aftertaste.
These products aren’t offensive, but they don’t shine either. As light as they are, I could imagine one could eat an entire bar in one sitting without feeling overdone. It feels like the producer aims a the more “general” chocolate taste to appeal to the public, but why not aim higher and go for a really tasty chocolate with lots of variation between the different regions they retrieve their cacao from?
