Monday, November 1, 2010

Olive and Sinclair: Mexican Style Cinn-Chili

That package I received from Heather last week had two stone-ground chocolate bars from Nashville, and I only discussed the 75% cocoa dark chocolate bar in my first post about the package. Truthfully, I was even more excited about the second Olive & Sinclair bar, the Mexican Style Cinn-Chili bar, but when trying out a new chocolatier, I like to sample a plain chocolate first to get a better sense of what they are all about before I dive into the more exotic creations. Having accomplished that by trying the 75% cocoa dark chocolate bar, I moved along to the Mexican Style Cinn-Chili bar.

Again, the aroma isn’t very strong – not even from the cinnamon or chili – so I had to bite into it to find out more.

My impressions of this chocolate came in four stages. First, the chocolate is soft with a little grit to it, and that unique texture leads to the second stage of taste-testing: the cinnamon. As the soft chocolate melts away, the chili starts to come through as the third stage. The fourth stage comes several seconds later, when I tried to determine what the chocolate itself tasted like. After several bites of this 67% cocoa bar, I was convinced that it was more about the add-in flavors than the chocolate flavor, and that the chocolate quality was most evident through the texture. Since I adore cinnamon and chili in chocolate, I enjoyed the spiciness despite the fact that it overwhelmed the chocolate flavor. I would certainly get this bar again, but more for the cinnamon and chili mixed with the high-quality cocoa butter than for the chocolate itself.

2 comments:

  1. Must buy one for myself...like today! Been dreaming of that mug of Mexican hot cocoa.

    Glad you enjoyed. :)

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  2. I still have *about* half of one. The Mexican hot cocoa sounds great (maybe with coconut milk to cut the spice). I've been thinking about some kind of cookie base that would go well with chunks of the Cinn-Chili bar. Maybe salty oatmeal, or a savory cookie base, which is more like a soft craker. Regardless, I think it goes with something less sweet.

    Or savory oatmeal scones. So many possibilities.

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