A while ago, TV-chef Jamie Oliver made a chocolate ganache, as part of a 30 minute meal. He warned the audience not to use the standard bulk chocolate, but a nice one instead. He used a bar with distinct imprint but I couldn’t figure out which brand is was. But it got me intrigued.
A week later I went into Bio shop Origino’s in Ghent and bought a nice looking 85% bar.
Let’s find out just how good it is…
The package looked appealing, the gold wrapper added to the impression. Once opened, the bar revealed the same marks as the one Jamie used. Yeah! Lucky strike!
Bean: Trinitario
Origin: Not mentionned
Production: Green & Black’s, United Kingdom
Price paid: € 2,40/100 g
Bought at: Origino’s – bio shop
Colour: dark brown, like roasted coffee beans.
Aroma: A little smokey, with cacao earthyness and a touch of vanilla. Sadly, as I’ve noted on some other bars, there is a slight rubber smell to it.
Taste: The melt is very butterlike from the first moment on. It takes a little while before the earthyness of the cacao comes through, combined with a very gentle acidity. The creamy texture of the chocolate seems to mellow down the taste changes, so you need to take some time before they come through. The taste itself is balancing between a rather empty, dry moments and more bitter-sweet accents. Only near the end of the melt, a slight bitterness comes through.
The aftertaste keeps concentrating on cacao and bitterness and is short. In my opinion, it’s a fairly straightforward chocolate, a bit boring. It lacks some refinement. After all, some of cacao’s interesting tastes come through ever so lightly, but don’t stay around long enough to be fully appreciated. The overuse of cacao butter probably aimed for a smooth and velvety melt, but it’s to fat like for me. Not a real winner in my book.
Nice try Jamie, but I think you’ll need to check the really nice chocolates out there and dazzle your audience even more!
I don’t like Green & Black’s. Only someone from a non-chocolate culture would call them quality chocolate. …