Cococlectic Chocolate Club

Black Sheep Dark Chocolate

Earlier this week we shared an email interview that we did with the founder of today's focus of our blog: Cococlectic. This is a subscription service that will send you 4+ bars of small batch (craft) dark chocolate bars, that are made by American bean-to-bar brands. Each month you get a different brand. The box I was sent for free in exchange for this article, had five bars from Black Sheep Chocolate, an Oregon company. The bars are all single origin which as you may recall from the multiple times we've tested such products here on The Chocolate Cult, means that you will get chocolate in a pure form and enjoy how the soil, weather, and farming practices influence the final flavor of chocolate. In these particular bars, there are only three ingredients: Cacao, organic cane sugar, and organic cocoa butter, so how and where they were grow is going to affect the flavor greatly. Before we get on with the article, I need to say that no other form of compensation was received in exchange for me sharing my experience was the products.

Rather than show you numerous photos of what was inside the Cococlectic Club box, check out this video that I made.

Since I was asked to test and write about the bars inside, I'll do so below, but really, this article is about the Cococlectic Club itself. I spread out the testing over several days to make what I hoped was pleasure last. As long time readers will remember, Your Chocolate Priestess, that's me, adores most chocolate in the 70 percentile range. The downside to these bars has to be the wrapper. I appreciate protecting the planet, it is the only one with chocolate so far, but I had to cut it open and it couldn't be resealed easily to protect the chocolate from heat and humidity, both of these are bouncing around like crazy in October 2020. The bars look very similar, nearly identical, only small variations in the color but I'll describe the experience I had with my other senses for each bar below.

 

72 Ecuador (Costa Esmeraldas):  The fragrance of this bar is both slightly fruity and slightly spicy with a strong dark chocolate essence. The four pieces snap loudly when I break one off to bite into. My chewing makes sharp sounds several times before the chocolate starts to melt. Immediately I get that light spicy that has a sort of cinnamon like tone to it but with each bite it gets tangy and sweeter which makes me think of a light brown sugar. Those flavors really take the edge off the high cacao content and make it seem very smooth and creamy even though I can feel more light entering my vision indicating that I'm getting the cocoa buzz I so enjoy. Letting a bite melt on my mouth intensifies a brownie like flavor as well as the spiciness. I highly recommend this bar.

72 Belize (Maya Mountain): There is a much stronger fruit scent in this bar, a mixture of several fragrances and a sweetness that almost covers any chocolate that my nose can pick out. The sections break apart more easily but still make a loud snap when I do so. When I take a bite, there is a burst of sweet followed by the darker chocolate. Oddly the sweet starts to turn sour as I keep chewing before settling back into a fruity chocolate flavor. I let the next bite melt in my mouth but this heightens the sour notes to a degree I can't say I love. I recommend chewing this bar instead of letting it melt in your mouth.

72 Dominican Republic (Oko Caribe): Since the bars and the wrappers like almost identical, I tried to switch things up in my photo poses as you can see most clearly with the bar. To my nose, the fragrance is dark chocolate, smoky, with just a tiny hint of tart fruit. Breaking off a piece and biting into it makes a high pitched snapping sound. When I chew it, the tart fruit and smoky flavors are there but so is the darker chocolate with a bit of a bitter edge. The tartness builds up with each chew but never overwhelms the chocolate. The tartness nearly disappears when I let a bite simply melt in my mouth; the flavor is smooth dark chocolate with just enough bitterness that I love it. I think I may love this bar even more than the Black Sheep bar from Ecuador that I revealed to you first in this article.

72 Guatemala (Chivite): This bar has a similar fragrance to the one above just a bit more intense in terms of the tart fruitiness. The snap when I break off a section and bite into it isn't as loud as the other bars were and as I chew it the chocolate is softer and melts far more quickly. The dark chocolate flavor is the first thing I get but the tartness builds up with each chew almost overwhelming the essence I want as the dominant flavor. When I let a bite melt in my mouth, the dark chocolate and the tart flavor blend more smoothly; now I get a definite cherry flavor, too. I'd let this melt in my mouth over chewing it personally but I liked it either way.

73 Colombia (Sierra Nevada): When I cut open the wrapper, I get a strong caramel and chocolate fragrance before I even can take the bar out. The four sections make a sharp snap with I break them apart; the snap is just as loud when I take a bite into one. The chocolate is smooth but the caramel flavor I was expecting doesn't really materialize. Instead there is a nuttiness to it with a touch of tanginess which blends into a slightly bitter flavor with each chew. Letting a bite melt on my tongue increase the tang resulting in a stronger caramel like flavor that fade into the nutty and dark essence; I'd even say there is a coffee like edge to it that makes me likely to chew than let this bar melt in my mouth though I know our Coffee Acolyte would love it. This is a bar I would eat just one section of every couple of days.

If you followed the links to Cococlectic you may feel that the price is high for what you get. However, as our interview earlier this week indicated, what you are paying for is not just the bars of chocolate but the curation of the team at Cococlectic. You could visit lots of small bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the USA online or in person, but that would take time and possible a lot more money over all. Food club subscriptions aren't about getting the most for your money, they never have been. Joining a chocolate subscription is about having others do all of the work for you and that work as well as the food needs to be compensated for. If you are looking to try out a chocolate club, support small American businesses, or support a woman-owned enterprise, then Cococlectic may be just what you are looking for. Financially speaking, doing either the 3-month or 6-month subscription is the better deal.