Review: Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolate – Palos Blancos 75% (***1/2)

The USA. When you think of the artisan, small-batch chocolate scene, the USA is the place to be. Lots of exciting new companies have popped up over the years and they put some of the best bars out there on the market. I didn’t think twice when I was contacted by Doreen Leong of Cococlectic. She offered me the chance to experience some of the products these amazing producers create.

I’ll get back to Cococlectic.com, a craft bean-to-bar club, in a future post. One of the first chocolates provided by Doreen I can review, is a bar by Twenty-Four Blackbirds. The name alone is pure poetry! Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolate is based in Santa Barbara, California and they offer a very nice array of single origin bars, made from bean-to-bar.

The one I’m holding right now, is the Palos Blancos bar, made with Bolivian cacao. As far as I can remember, this will be my first Bolivian origin to review.

 

The bar is a 40 g tablet, packed in such a wonderful wrapper. A thick cardboard paper forms the outer shell. The artwork reminded me of old newspapers, children’s drawings and just puts one in a happy mood. I’m fond of the way the paper feels. Somehow it tells you, you hold a special bar in your hand, but at the same time it wants to ease your mind and lets you focus on the dark gold inside.

Funny detail, the company is concerned with your health as they state “ride a bike today!” on the inside of the cardboard paper.

Once you open the outer wrapper, a second white wrapper shields the bar. Opening it reveals a perfect rectangular bar, scored in little squares. Every square seems to be embossed with an old-school typewriter, noting 24 and the consonants of their name. This has been thought over. The bar oozes the same atmosphere as the wrapper. A beautiful design.

The bar may be named Palos Blancos, but this chocolate is anything but Blancos!

And the taste?

Bean: not noted

Origin: Palos Blancos, Bolivia

Production: Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolate– Santa Barbara, California, USA

Price: Unknown – sent to me by Cococlectic.com

   

Color: a very dark brown, touching black with a hint op purple.

Aroma: slightly sweet and lots of cacao with a hint of earth tones, not especially strong.

Taste: Starts with a massive amount of pure chocolate with an amazing texture. The earthy tones keep up front, reminding me of hay, mushrooms and raw cacao. The melt is velvet like. As smooth as a French style chocolate. Volatile vanilla aromas lighten up the taste, briefly turning over in a faint fruit note – impossible to name the exact type. Later on more power on the palate caused by nice espresso tones near the end of the melt. The aftertaste is following the main taste with lots of tannins and chocolate. Not as complex as other bars, this Palos Blancos bar delivers a solid dark chocolate taste for those who love to experience cacao at its intense, natural earthy nature – with just enough evolution in taste to keep things interesting.

Now, if your up for an intense chocolate taste, hop on your bike and peddle to the closest shop near you to get one of these bars. And it this means you need to cross the entire American continent or even an ocean, just think how that kind effort will benefit your health! Because you know the bar is worth it!

 

Review: Fruition Chocolate – Signature Dark Chocolate 66% (*****)

The chocolate circle. I’ve written about it before. Somehow the origin/artisan chocolate world is filled with people who are so thrilled by the wonderful products they make or discover, they want to share this knowledge with as many people who will appreciate it!

A while ago, I was contacted by Adrienne from the United States. She was intrigued by the Amma Cupuaçu bar, which she couldn’t find locally. So she proposed to swap some bars. You know, you toss me the Amma bars and I’ll throw some other bars back at you. And if we throw hard enough, we’ll reach the other side of the Atlantic ocean. I’m glad we both turned out good throwers!

In my package, I found two Fruition and one Rogue Chocolate bars.

Today I dig into the first of the Fruition bars. Let’s start with the lowest cacao content, to get a smooth first impression!

Fruition is a small batch, bean-to-bar chocolate maker from New York. The Catskill Mountains to be precise. I’ve heard a lot about them and saw their products pass by on Twitter and Facebook, but they are really hard to get over here in Europe. So I was thrilled to set my teeth in this bar.

 

The package is simply gorgeous. Stylish, yet playful and reminds me of an envelope sleeve. The first thing I noticed is how Fruition doesn’t throw the origin all over the package. It just states Signature 66% Dark Chocolate. Almost as if they already want to draw your attention to the bar itself, rather than name-dropping terroirs or bean varieties.

Flip over the package and there you’ll find all the info you desire.

 

So Bryan Graham is the person behind this receipt, it is made from Peruvian cacao beans and contains nothing but cacao, cane sugar, cacao butter and vanilla beans. The cacao is stone ground and slow roasted.

The bar itself is hidden in a clear cellophane blister, but to my happy surprise, it is one of those blister you can actually open in a way you can rewrap your bar for storage after tasting. Excellent!

Unfortunately, my bar seems to have been shaken up a bit during the cross Atlantic throw-about, as it had broken into several pieces. But you can tell the design follows pretty much the sleeve. The same markings show up, combined with nice “F” letters stating it is Fruition. The chocolate shines like there is no tomorrow. Perfect thickness and a gorgeous surface.

Bean: Not mentionned

Origin: Peru

Production: Fruition Chocolate – Shokan, New York, USA

Price: about $10 – 60 g

 

Color: A pretty dark brown, considering the lower cacao content.

Aroma: Dark Cacao tones, wood and roasted coffee. Smells more powerful than expected.

Taste: An obvious sweet start giving room for clear vanilla aromas, supported by loads of luscious yellow fruits. They remind me of ripe papaya, apricot and raisin. Slowly some roasted coffee tones come through, giving body to the chocolate. Never overwhelming, but just enough to make it mature. The texture is extremely smooth and the melt is very seductive and long. The aftertaste has a nice length and looses the fruit tones, but leaves you with such an amazing chocolate taste including touches of wood and espresso.

Even though the cacao percentage is lower than I normally experience, this chocolate never becomes to sweet. It is simply delicious. Full bodied, amazing flavors and a gorgeous melt. And what struck me most? I barely could put it aside. I could easily have eaten the whole chocolate bar in one sitting. Not because it is the most complex chocolate ever or throws the most amount of flavors around, but just because it is so darn good!

Highly appreciated and recommended! I can’t wait to try the other bar I have laying in the cupboard! Mr. Bryan Graham unmistakably knows his trade!

Review: Chocolate Naive – Trinidad and Tobago 70% (***1/2)

Lithuania. No there is another country I wouldn’t have linked to chocolate some years ago.

How little did I know back then. Today I know bean-to-bar chocolate producers are popping up everywhere. In center point of this movement seems to be the USA and UK, but in nearly every country there are chocolatiers stepping up to the challenge.

Chocolate Naive is on of those inspired companies who put quality before quantity. They produce chocolate all the way from cocoa bean to finished bar from their workshop in Giedraiciai, Lithuania.

http://chocolatenaive.com/

And the origins they state on their website are enough to make your mouth water. Peru, Grenada, Madagascar, Vietnam, and so on.

Agné Laskauskaité was so kind as to offer my a very broad array of samples of their products. I’m very happy with that, as it seems a bit difficult to find their products in my homeland Belgium. I’ll spread their products over several reviews, because I think they all deserve full attention, rather than cramping them into a single text.

 

So let’s start with the two dark origin bars I found in the package. First on the line, the Trinidad and Tobago bar (being the purple one on the right)!

  

These samples come in such a great package! It’s almost like little books. On the front you get their logo and the origin. On the back the cacao bean used,the percentage, the roast and the conch time! Perfect! I love it when a producer shares this information.

This bar features 70% of cacao, lightly roasted and conched for 60 hours.

Inside a perfect square of brown gold is preserved by a cellophane blister. Opening this foil reveals a great aroma! Hard not to dig in right away!

The little square looks very nice and shiny with the Naive logo embossed on it. Simple and beautiful.

Made with Trinitario beans from Trinidad and Tobago, situated just in front of the coast of Venezuela. I haven’t tried any chocolate from this origin, so I’m not sure what to expect. let us find out together!

 

Bean: Trinitario

Origin: Trinidad & Tobago

Production: Chocolate Naive – Lithuania

Price: Unknown – sample

 

  

Color: Deep ebony brown.

Aroma: There is a hunch of leather and lots of spices, including just a smidge of fruit.

Taste: Sweet at the start, a bit spicy with a touch of tobacco and  even some hay for a moment, before going to a sweet bread-like aroma. The texture is a bit grainy and a bit dry. This isn’t a bad thing to me, as there is no excess cacao-butter feeling to it. Next come subtle yellow fruit tones to mind – delicate and illusive, difficult to specify the exact fruits. Even a hint of vanilla twirls around. The melt is pretty quick but leaves a really satisfying chocolate aroma in the mouth. The aftertaste stays in line with the aromas detected before, although it seems short-lived.

Rather enjoyable, though it could do with a longer melt. It is gone to soon! Fresh and Light on the palate and no trace of bitterness, it is a morning chocolate to me. Balanced and satisfying, it offers everything a good bar should provide.

 

Review: Marou – Bên Tre 78% (****)

A rainy, dull sunday morning. The kind of day you wish you could be wandering on a sunny beach somewhere on a tropical island.

Anyway, that is not going to happen today, so why not review a bar of chocolate. I know I still have some in the cupboard!

To be honest, I already had the chance to taste this particular bar of brown gold. During the Origin Chocolate Event in Amsterdam, it was paired with rum. I was impressed back than, but after a full day of chocolate tasting my taste buds became a bit overloaded, so I needed to taste it again. On its own this time. Without distractions.

Chocolate made in Vietnam might sound weird. Chocolate, in Vietnam? Most people won’t even know cacao is growing there. Don’t be ashamed, I didn’t know either until some months ago!

The Bên Tre bar is a 78% chocolate, so a fairly high percentage. It is made from cacao beans grown near the Mekong Delta. Marou keeps close contact with the farmers who produce the beans. Their farmers ferment the cacao on the spot and Marou turns them into chocolate in their factory in Ho Chi Minh city. And they seem to be pretty good at it, as their products have been awarded with several medals by the Academy of Chocolate.

So, the bar. It is wrapped in one of the most exotic packages I’ve seen so far. The vibrant green with gold ink instantly brings Asia to mind. The fonts used add to the feeling, as they remind me of Tintin albums for some reason.

Inside, another gold wrapper tightly hugs the bar. An “M” seal makes sure you are the first one to open the bar.

Inside a very generous bar is hidden. Atypical, it is not scored into rectangular pieces, yet diagonally, producing pieces of different size as you start breaking it up. In the middle, a proud M finishes of the design. Neat and sleek. I like it a lot!

Bean: Trinitario according to several sources, though I could not find any info about it on the Marou website.
Origin: Vietnam – Bên Tre Province, Mekong Delta
Production: Marou, Faisseurs de Chocolat – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Price paid: € 6,50/100 g (Hilde Devolder Chocolatier – Ghent Belgium)

 

Colour: red-brown and shiny, it looks very appealing.

Aroma: Chocolate, spices, some wood in the back.

Taste: The bar starts pretty sweet, producing an immediate and massive wave of spicy tones, a wonderful symphony of tastes slowly developing from earthyness to ginger, cinnamon and Belgian speculoos. (You can’t blame me for that last one, given I live in Belgium!)

Just underneath all those taste  developments, a refreshing fruity acidity keeps this chocolate interesting on the palate. The melt is slow at start but once it starts it keeps going and is über-velvety. Yellow exotic fruits (papaya and mango) appear and take over from the spices, while releasing rich cacao. Towards the end of the melt, coffee tones sneak in, adding depth to the taste. Biting the piece of chocolate remaining in the mouth immediately revives the spice tones.
The aftertaste is not particular strong but lingers a long time in the mouth. Due to the lack of bitter tones it is subtle, keeping a reminder of the spices swirling over your tongue.

This bar is sweet and warm, almost a tropical experience. While it is a high percentage chocolate, it is very smooth, mellow and balanced. Vietnam sure hides some spectacular cacao and Marou knows how to bring out the best of the tastes. Don’t hesitate a second if you come across this bar, just buy it and enjoy the richness! And me? I’ll grab any variety I come across.

Media: Koffie T Cacao magazine

An annoying cold keeps blocking my nose, so any decent chocolate tasting is out of the question. By luck, I’ve discovered a nice magazine to keep my cacao craving mind busy. Unfortunately, “Koffie T Cacao” is a  magazine only printed in Dutch, but any of my Dutch speaking readers might be interested in this fine publication.

Bundling Coffee, Tea and Cacao information, it hits a soft spot of anyone interested in fine tasting products. This particular issue, being the celebration of its 1 year, focuses a lot on cacao making it a must read for chocolate aficionados. Somehow it still is so much better to actual hold a magazine to read an article, instead of peering to a computer/tablet screen. It once more acknowledges cacao’s and chocolate’s new position in the world of fine food products.

Bundling three distinct product may seem a lot, but actually these form a triumvirate of potential taste bombs and as a reader, you get intrigued by the other one’s you weren’t focusing on at the start. Magazines like this one always remind me a bit of a treasure map. They finally point you in the direction of where to get the good stuff and keep you up to date of what is happening in this exciting field of taste experiences.

KTC combines informative articles with small news items and stunning photography. Just the way I love my lecture. Pleasing to the mind and eye, tickling your interest and putting new products in your field of view.

 

KTC issue 7 offers articles including Dominique Persoone’s experiences on cacao in Mexico, features an interview with Philipp Kauffman of Orignal Beans and gives a view on a cacao traders warehouse and operation in Amsterdam. And the coffee and tea parts are well worth the read too.

A perfect past time in this end of the year period!

Available in your local bookshop or check them out at www.koffietcacao.nl

Review: Geert Vercruysse Chocolates (*****)

My faith in Belgian chocolate has been restored. And how…

Quiet a while ago, I realised I’ve been told a big lie all my life. Belgian bulk chocolate may be better than average when compared to other foreign bulk producers, but it is meaningless when compared to the kind of product so many great artisan bean-to-bar producers create in the field of Single Origin chocolate.

Next to the bars, Belgium is also renowned for chocolates. yeah, confusing, but this time I’m talking about “pralines”, ballotins, the type of chocolates that come in nice boxes. Chocolate filled with all sorts of ingredients. Well, I’ve eaten those all my life and if you are a sweet tooth, they are actually up your ally.

But I know there is so much better out there. A while ago I finally had the opportunity to buy a selection of the chocolates Geert Vercruysse creates. Geert must be one of the most inspired persons in the Belgian chocolate world. In his view, quality is everything. So he creates these wonderful chocolates, based on single origin chocolate and premium ingredients. The result? You’ll see…

 

A transparent plastic box protects the wonderful content. No wrapper, but a review written by Lee McCoy ( founder of the http://www.chocolatiers.co.uk website – a big name in the international chocolate world). Reading the text only makes you want to dig in! Opening the box, you are greeted by 12 gorgeous looking chocolates. No fancy designs, but rectangular little blocks showing of some very interesting single origin chocolate names and other nice embossements. The smell coming from this collection is simply overwhelming. This particular box will cost you € 10.

Describing all these chocolates would take too much time and effort and would take my attention away from the amazing taste experience, but I’ll give you some impressions. Sadly, Geert doesn’t provide the buyer with info on each chocolate and filling, due to the fact that his collection isn’t a fixed one, rather following the inspiration of the maker as he goes. This means the content will change several times a year. Somehow it even makes tasting these creations even more exciting.

The pink star one: I started with this chocolate. It did hit me full in the face with an amazing, velvety ganache producing intense nutty and creamy, caramel flavors including small pieces of nuts, covered in a soothing milk chocolate. While sweet, it doesn’t clog the palate, nor leave you with that clingy feeling of overly sweet bulk chocolates. The aftertaste was even more remarkable, as it brings the nut flavors back to the front in an unexpected way.

The El Ceibo one: It’s hard not to be impressed when you are thrown all the way to the other spectrum of tastes in chocolate. This deep dark ganache covered in more dark chocolate is earthy in its start. Powerful. The buttery texture of the ganache softens the taste a bit, while it still stands as masculine and dark. Coffee notes and roasted nuts pop up, before the long aftertaste kicks in.

The blue dotted one: And zap, another spectrum opens. This chocolate brings fresh, green zings to the tongue. Floral notes mingle in and slowly turn over to toffee type flavors. One more surprise to see how Geert seems to be able to capture the essence of all the different chocolate flavors in these ganaches.

The Marou one: Spices! And lots of them. I was fortunate to taste some Marou bars a while ago, and this chocolate immediately threw me back to that tasting. Gingerbread, cinnamon and herbal notes open up, before chocolate-coffee-caramel-notes seem to be gliding in from the ganache. A nice smoky and slightly woody finish make this particular one very impressive!

The one with the Mayan drawings: Preserved citrus fruits. As clear as the sun in the sky on a glorious summer day. Combined with a smoky milk chocolate. The favorite of the teenager in my family.

The Akesson’s one: Dark and powerful. Rich dark chocolate and lots of red fruits and a slight acidity making me quiet sure this is Madagascan cacao. A ubersoft ganache brings balance to the taste, while a pleasant and gentle bitterness accentuates the power of the dark chocolate used. One of my prefered chocolates.

The Original Beans one: Pretty particular in taste, this chocolate brings a powerful starting flavor, moving over to salty caramel followed by a gorgeous smoky end.

The one with the rings: Last one on my list so far, this little square blows you away with roasted hazelnut. Praliné, but done in such a way it brings the nutty taste to the tongue every so clear and refined, without the over sweetness of other producers’ chocolates. In this case, the milk chocolate and filling seem to work together to create a taste explosion in your mouth, ringing on long after the chocolate actually dissipates.

Products like these make ma happy. Very happy. It steps away from mediocrity and takes you to places and aroma’s you would never expect in a “piece of candy”. Geert Vercruysse surely knows what makes good chocolate and makes all these wonderful discoveries available in one single little box. Not a single chocolate lover should leave the opportunity to taste this products aside when he/she is in Belgium. Geert Vercruysse is the name to look for, Kortrijk the city you need to go!

Patisserie-Chocolaterie Vercruysse
Doorniksewijk 115-117
8500 Kortrijk West Vlaanderen
België

Tel.: +32 56 21 68 81

Review: Alter Eco – Noir Intense – 60% (***)

Second bar I picked up during my business trip to France. Totally different, this is a true dark chocolate with no special ingredients other than cacao, sugar and some vanilla. Alter Eco produces chocolate which is fair trade and eco-friendly. The company goes a long way to ensure farmers get a good price for their crops and help to reduce the CO2 footprint of the chocolate making, by supporting reforestation for instance.

The package of this bar is pretty into your face, but on the back an inside the cardboard sleeve, a massive amount of info is given about their goals and actions. This time a golden-colored foil keeps the bar in mint condition. This bar doesn’t look very special either. It serves it purpose without any frills.

The bar imprints Peru as its origin, but on the back I found the cacao came from a Peruvian cooperative, while the cacao butter originated in the Dominican Republic. So it isn’t single origin, rather a blend.

Bean: not mentioned
Origin: Peru (cacao) + Dominican Republic (cacao butter)
Production: Manufacturer not mentioned – produced in Switzerland
Price pair: € 1,95/100 g – Cora Dreux, France

Colour: Pretty light, almost milk chocolate with a reddish hue

Aroma: lots of cacao, wood and a little acidity and sweet vanilla. A nice promising smell in my book.

taste: A hard snap on breaking, taking a piece in your mouth brings immediate sweetness to your attention. While it subsides, cacao takes over. The chocolate taste is entwined with a slight fruity acidity and a noticeable bitter coffee touch. The vanilla added to the chocolate is very clear on the palate. the overall taste is strikingly bitter/sweet while still mellow compared to the more refined single origin chocolates. Yet it brings a nice freshness to the tongue in a degree I didn’t find in any low-cost bars before.
Don’t expect powerful taste changes, rather a nice harmonious taste experience. The aftertaste provides lots of vanilla and some more bitterness and isn’t particularly long. But since the price of the chocolate is close to the bulk chocolate, I consider this a very enjoyable everyday chocolate-craving bar. Well worth to try if you can get a hold on it.

Review: Lindt – Noir à la pointe de fleur de sel – 47% (***)

I adore going abroad, as it give you the chance to stroll around local supermarkets who always seem to sell lots of products just a little bit different from what you are used to home. Does it surprise you that I always check out the chocolate displays? On my latest trip to France, I found two bars in the “low-cost but better than average chocolate” section.

Lindt makes my favorite everyday chocolate bar, their 70% dark in the Excellence range. Whenever I see their name, I check out the variations available. This dark bar combined with fleur de sel (sea salt) caught my eye.

Lindt gets high point for presentation. Their packaging looks luxurious and sharp. Love it.

Inside, a sliver aluminum foil protects the large 100 g bar. The bar itself doesn’t shine when it comes to shape or imprint, but taste is more important after all. When looking at the ingredients, I’m surprised Lindt has used dairy butter in the mix, probably to create a very smooth and creamy texture.

Bean: not mentioned
Origin: not mentioned
Production: Lindt & Sprüngli SAS – Oloron-Sainte-Marie/France
Price paid: € 2,10/100 g – Cora Dreux, France

Colour: Light brown, milk chocolaty in nature.

Aroma: Milk chocolate, sweet, a touch of vanilla and a very delicate smokyness.

Taste: A softer snap as one can expect from such type of chocolate, quickly opening up with lots and lots of chocolate and smooth cream. While melting it feels a bit thick on the palate and suddenly frees little grains of salt that melt with a sudden pop on the palate. The salt mingles in nicely without overpowering the chocolate itself and bringing vanilla to the front. It brings a great twist to what would otherwise be a more average chocolate experience. Towards the end of the melt, some smoke tones become more obvious. What surprised me is the fact that the chocolate doesn’t prove to be over sweet. The aftertaste follows the chocolate taste minus the salt pops and is rather short and mellow. It shows a milk chocolate profile due to the low cacao percentage of 47%, while real butter was added to the mix. Yet still it brings enough cacao notes to make it a nice bar. Comfort food. It makes you happy without trying to bring a zillion taste changes. One could easily eat a whole bar, as my wife noted during our little tasting session.

Review: Mayta Chocolate – 71% Arriba (****)

It has been a while since I reviewed any chocolates. A burned tongue was the evildoer. It simply eradicated a part of my taste, making everything very dull on the palate. Not your ideal way to taste the delicate flavours in a product like chocolate. Luckily everything healed by now, but it makes you appreciate the sense of taste you have and the difference it makes once it is gone.

Anyway, lets focus on the task, or should I say privileged ahead. During the Origin Chocolate event, I had a great chat with the people of the promotional stand of Ecuador. Not only did they bring the illusive Pacari products, but they handed me a bar of Mayta chocolate. A brand I hadn’t heard of until then. Always a treat to taste something new.

Mayta is an Ecuadorian brand, using national grown cacao to make gourmet chocolate bars, bean-to-bar. This particular bar was made with Arriba (Nacional) beans from the Esmeraldas, grown deep within the coastal plains of Ecuador.

The bar comes in a rather nice looking square box. The imprint unmistakably puts it in the South-American territory, as it uses an Inca style mask. Clean and simple text provide you with all the details needed. The chocolate itself is wrapped in a cellophane blister, wich certainly does the protecting part, but was a bit of a hassle to open and makes it pretty impossible to rewrap the bar afterwards. Guess I’ll have to enjoy this chocolate within a short period.

Bean: Arriba
Origin: Ecuador
Production: Mayta chocolates, Ecuador
Price paid: Unknown, given to me during the origin chocolate event 2013 – Amsterdam

Colour: obviously dark ebony with a red/purple hint.

Aroma: This chocolate doesn’t produce a particular strong aroma. Some nice green cacao smells are present, slightly acidic and a hint of woody aromas were detected.

Taste: The bar starts gently with a brief burst of raw cacao followed by lots and lots of deep chocolate. It melts nice and slow and has a very smooth texture, releasing more waves of chocolate, before a subtle sweetness brings delicate dried yellow fruit aromas to the palate. The taste is very harmonic as no elements comes forth strong and overwhelming, they rather mix and mingle to produce a very satisfying chocolate experience. At the very end of the melt, one suddenly notices some tannins adding more depth to the overall taste. The aftertaste lasts just long enough to prolong the enjoyment and brings a slight bitter and woody touch as the last crumbs of chocolate melt on the tongue.
A gentle, but high quality chocolate delight, this bar is to be enjoyed pure while paying attention to all the aromas it provides. Another great chocolate I was privileged to taste.

Cocoa… a close encounter of the third kind!

Beeing fascinated by chocolate, one naturally gets interested in the source of this wonderful product aswell. To us Western people, chocolate is well-known. The cocoa beans, pods and the tree itself are as illusive as pixie dust. No one really knows them.

Slowly I’m starting to get a view on the wonderful world of cocoa production and I’ve seen some pods in real life, but I never expected to see the real deal in real life, simply cause one has to travel to the equator in order to find them.

To my surprise, I stumbled upon one recently, during a trip in the Rouen area in France. Biotropica in Val De Reuil seemed a perfect destination to entertain the kids on a grey afternoon. This vast greenhouse houses a large collection of tropical animal life and lots of tropical plant species. And there she was. A tree catching my immediate attention. A small, green pod growing on its stem. Little flowers surrounded the pod. What a great sight. The Theobroma Cacao tree.

Many people will pass this plant without noticing. But not me, as it is the source of such great taste experience. The very beginning of chocolate. Just a little encounter that made my day even more magical. And I smiled as we continued our tour…