My final Valrhona bar, how depressing. I never wanted it to end but alas I knew it would someday. I’m not sure why I saved this one to the end, I’m not sure why I even bought it. I’m not a dark chocolate fan, I don’t have the palette for it, please bear this in mind before we even start.

This bar has 64% cocoa solids, not too shabby at all, when chocolate pushes 70% then I’m put off, but anything below that and I’m confident. This is from their Madagascar plantation, and here’s their blurb:

“Fresh, sharp bouquet. A blend of precious Criollo and Trinitario beans from Madagascar, Valrhona’s Manjari releases red fruit notes that captivate the senses.”

So there are a few things to touch on there. First off, Criollo and Trinitario beans. I wasn’t even aware they used two different types of beans! So I did some research and found the following out about both of them:

“Criollo beans fall into the fine flavor category of bean. Criollo beans produce chocolate with much richer and more intense flavors but at the same time more subtle than the other types of beans. Criollo trees are less resistant to disease, mature later, produce for fewer years, and produce fewer pods than forastero or trinitario trees. Perhaps the most highly prized criollo variety—it is certainly one of the rarest—is Porcelana, which comes from the Spanish word for porcelain, referring to the very pale color of the flesh of the fresh bean.”

“Trinitario beans are also fine flavor beans. Trinitarios are a deliberate hybrid of criollo and forastero beans developed on the island of Trinidad (hence its name). The trinitario is easier to grow than the criollo, but, while more nuanced in flavor than the forastero, is not as rich as the criollo. Trinitario hybrids are grown pretty much everywhere cacao grows.”

So basically we have two very high quality beans here. Criollo with its rich, intense flavours and Trinitario with its fine flavours and being easier to grow. I would assume they use more Trinitario beans due to them being easier to grow, but knowing Valrhona they may very well not, it’s hard to tell.

The box itself, same old story. The image is green this time, woo. The box opens, the gold foil wrapper inside, rip it open, here’s our bar. It’s obviously noticeably darker than the other bars, not that that’s a surprise. The taste is actually how they described, it’s a very sharp bar, it gets somewhat tangy as it goes on. There are hints of it being every so slightly milky in some places, and then the tangy, fruity flavour kicks in.

I enjoyed this and I’m not even a dark chocolate fan, so I can hardly imagine the pleasure that dark chocolate lovers will get from this. This is dark chocolate close to its best and if you can afford it and you want it, it’s definitely worth a look.