Friday, July 29, 2011

E. Guittard Orinoco: I'm Going to San Francisco Next Month

After a weekend filled with hot weather baking for Daring Bakers and an epic workout-chocolate tasting combination, this week has brought much planning for a technical workshop I’m managing next month. Good folks involved, which makes my job easier.

Most importantly, we have a good location: San Francisco, an area that is home to many chocolatiers, including E. Guittard. With that, let’s talk about their Orinoco bar, a 38% cocoa pure milk chocolate bar.

The bar has a hint of a caramel aroma, and is quite soft with a very fast melt that isn’t quite perfectly smooth, but isn’t excessively grainy.

The flavor is caramel-centric with a hint of creaminess, and is very sweet – nearly as sweet as white chocolate. It is, in fact, a bit too sweet for me, and perhaps would go well with something tart for contrast. I could imagine this working quite nicely with some limes and salt.

Or, I could look for even more outstanding milk chocolate while in the Bay Area next month.

I just might.

Have you had chocolate that you found to be too sweet? What was it?

3 comments:

  1. EvildemonCadbury, yes indeed! I think it's a matter of complexity, though. A chocolate can be sweet but pleasant, if there's enough else going on to distract from the sugar, but if the sweetness is one dimensional, then it's cloying.

    I'm sure I remember having a darkdark E Guittard that I very much liked, though :)

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  2. Oh god, those cadbury eggs make my teeth scream from sugar shock! But dark chocolate has my heart; milk chocolate and white chocolate can come over any day too.

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  3. Mmm I love cadbury eggs. I can't help it.

    Isn't the Orinoco region one of the cornerstones of cacao origins? [Yes, wikipedia, I realize the 339,000 square mile Orinoco River basin is a bit large to define as a region.] As such, though, I find it rather sad that this bar is overly sweet...

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