Noi Sirius Pure Icelandic Chocolate
February 22, 2010 - chocolate
When tasting dark chocolate, and we’ve tasted a lot – we seek a flavor and mouthfeel experience that tries to hit all the right buttons: The chocolate should be creamy, but not too creamy. It should have the consistency as it melts on your tongue that is not too crunchy or crumbly, but should not melt too fast or oily.
When the piece you’ve just tasted has fully melted, and you’ve swallowed it, and you’re swishing around the last bits left in your mouth, enjoying those last few notes as it fades away – those last glimmers should match what you enjoyed earlier, not just the bass notes, or the higher citrus flavors, but as much of the spectrum of flavors as possible.
In terms of flavors, chocolate is a really hard thing to qualify, and dark chocolate is even harder. Dark chocolate, in an ideal universe, is the Lagrange point between the bitterness of cocoa, the sweetness of cane sugar, and the silkiness of butter. We see dark chocolates with all different amounts of cocoa: 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, even 90%. From our experience, it’s in the narrower band from 50 to 60 percent that we most often find harmonious experiences.
While a true physical balance can only be determined mathematically, it is in the taster’s mouth, and only there, that such a true dark chocolate balance can be sensed, judged and enjoyed.
It is here, in this oddly old-fashioned packaged chocolate bar, that we find as close to perfection as we have found. From Iceland (again! more north/colder = better chocolate), it is a 56% cocoa dark chocolate bar, in an unassuming white paper and wax paper wrapping. It is damn near perfect. Now I just to find myself more!