In my chocolate tasting sessions, Venezuela was often present but I cannot remember that many offerings from Panama.
After tasting and tasting again, a bite at a time, I have to say that the Extra Dark Chocolate from Panama by Equal Exchange has my vote.
It is rich without being a chocolate bomb, treats you to a long finish, organic, 80% Cacao and 'fairly traded'.
I don't know if the 80% quota also applies to the origin since it is "made with chocolate liquor from the COCABO
co-operative, in Panama, cocoa butter from CONACADO, in the Dominican
Republic, and the fairly traded organic sugar comes from a farmer
co-operative in Paraguay."
No single appellation here.
For those of you who do care it is Vegan and Gluten Free.
Let's move to Colombia now with Chocolate Santander by Nacional de Chocolates whose offerings all carry the 'Colombian Single Origin' tag.
Their 'dark chocolate with pineapple bits' was good but I think Italian Chocolatiers get Fruit and Chocolate to work better. I will get back to that in another post.
Second the very potent 'dark chocolate' only, should I say creaminess with a touch of bitterness on the finish.
Third, for the caffeine kick, dark chocolate with 100% Colombian Coffee Bits.
I would still go with the second offering, all dark and Latin. All 3 were 70% Cacao.
Chocolate Santander shares that "no longer does the term “Vendimia”, VINTAGE, refer solely to wine, but also to a special assortment of cacao grains chosen by hand from select, specialized farms with absolute control from the harvesting to the extraordinarily rigorous selection and manipulation process in order to produce a bar of LIMITED EDITION. No vanilla is included, so that you may delight in pure chocolate. VINTAGE 2008, an especially fine chocolate, that melts in your mouth in an explosion of refined and unique flavors, originating from Los Andes, privileged for its temperature, topography..."
Where? They inform us that it is in the Andean mountains of Yariguies. "Peasants in the Santander municipalities of San Vicente de Chucurí, El Carmen, Rionegro and Landázuri have been growing cacao for more than two centuries in medium-size and small farms that sustain over 12,000 families."
Why don't we find more Colombia chocolate, Seventypercent.com (UK) in Growing county chocolate – Santander, Colombia says the root cause is that Colombian are chocolate lovers and actually net importers mainly from Ecuador.
They share this picturesque shot (above) of cacao drying in the area.
Traveling South in search of pure, unaltered pleasures for a post NY Chocolate Show 09 expedition.
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