Your Connection for Ecuadorian Chocolate, Part 1

Today is part one of a four part series here on The Chocolate Cult looking at the Ecuadorian chocolate company, Conexión Chocolate. I will have an interview with their founder as well in the future. Today we are looking at one of the tasting kits the company sent me to test out and write about for all of you. I was aided in my testing by our own Mocha Acolyte because this kit contained chocolate covered coffee beans, All the testing kits and bars I’ll be sharing with you during this series were sent to us free in exchange for sharing our honest experience with you all; no other form of compensation was received. We are looking at five products today; three couvertures and two chocolate covered products. Trying a brand’s couverture is a great way to understand the flavors they are creating from cocoa beans and their processing. Remember everything affects that final chocolate you love or hate from where it is grown, the mixture (or not) of different cocoa beans, every step of processing, to the final addition of any inclusions, the base is the couverture. Additions can damage but I have never known them to improve a terrible couverture.

We began with the 33% White Chocolate  from Atacames. It has an intense vanilla fragrance that truly impressed us. Letting one melt in our mouths, we noted the cross between vanilla, caramel, and another spice that neither of us could pinpoint. The cocoa butter was clearly was smooth and lightly creamy, but we both got a chocolate flavor we were not expecting. Our Mocha Acolyte called it an “earthiness she couldn’t quite place.” We both liked this a lot more than white chocolate we’ve ever had before. I would eat something made with this couverture simply because I was so impressed by the quality.

Next we tackled 43% Milk Chocolate from Pichincha. I thought this had a pepperlike scent to the chocolate while our Mocha Acolyte thought it had a peppermint edge to the fragrance. Letting the first disc melt in our mouths, we found the chocolate to be smooth, and much darker than we normally expect for a milk chocolate. This had “darker elements” as Mocha said, but what it really demonstrates is how much chocolate will change purely because of the amounts of each ingredient that is used. Remember that in the USA milk chocolate tends to be less cocoa mass than in this couverture. Yes, it is darker but it is not dark chocolate. Chewing a disc made it more varied in terms of the sharpness of chocolate but also revealed a buttery creaminess. No additional flavors came out.

Before turning to the the chocolate covered products, we looked at the same percentage cacao that will be used with those coffee and cacao beans with the 55% Dark Chocolate Couverture from Puerto Quito. These look darker and have a stronger chocolate fragrance that the 43% did. Mocha found “it had more of the bitterness associated with dark chocolate and doesn’t have the butteriness that the milk chocolate did.” I let a disc set in my mouth and it took some time to completely melt, it was slightly bitter but also had a sweet edge that built up over time before the bitterness struck back. It didn’t quite get me to that cocoa buzz level that I live for, but it was close.

The chocolate covered coffee beans have the 55% dark chocolate, too. I could smell the coffee immediately upon opening the little envelope. I let our Mocha Acolyte handle the description on this one since I am not a coffee fan at all and we always want to be fair to the brands and companies that send us products to write about for you all to read. She said: "Often when you have a chocolate covered coffee bean, the chocolate is stronger than the coffee but this is a nice balance, especially if you crunch into the bean then let all the flavor melt together. Crunchy throughout just like it is supposed to be. That is a strong coffee finish. Unlike other brands, this does not have a graininess to it at all, it is crunchy then smooth."

Our final product we tested together was the dark 55% chocolate covered cacao beans. These are much bigger than coffee beans as you can see. Oddly, neither of us got much fragrance from these; we were expecting a strong chocolate scent. I chewed my first piece and other than a soft continuous crunchy; I didn’t get any flavor until near the end with there was a burst of chocolate and sweetness that disappeared as I kept chewing. Our Mocha Acolyte had the same experience as she tried two pieces. This was surprising, not a all what we expected based on the previous four products. It was “bland” compared to the others.

The couvertures all tasted great; we'd eat anything made with these and if that bar, truffle, or baked good wasn't high quality, it would not be the fault of Conexión Chocolate. Our Mocha Acolyte seemed to really love those chocolate covered coffee beans; once we were all finished with the testing that day, continued to eat those. The big disappointment was the chocolate covered cacao beans; I think further processing into nibs and then covering might allow more chocolate to come through.