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.

Olive and Sinclair: 75% Cocoa Bar via Blogger Chocolate Exchange

Something very awesome showed up in my mailbox yesterday afternoon.

Alright, well, that was awesome, but few people get as excited about The Economist as I do, and it usually has very little to do with chocolate. This, however, has everything to do with chocolate.

After I sent Heather some Teuscher super-dark chocolate to sample, she kindly sent me some chocolate from her neck of the woods (Nashville), along with a cute homemade card. I love checking out boutique and bean-to-bar chocolatiers, and these bars by Olive and Sinclair certainly fit the bill. I started off with the 75% cocoa pure chocolate bar.

Inside that sassy wrapper is a dark chocolate bar sourced entirely from the Dominican Republic. The aroma wasn’t that noticeable, so I had to take a bite to find out what this bar was all about.

The bar is quite soft for a dark chocolate, and melts very nicely. Clearly, high-quality cocoa butter is in play here. The chocolate is not very sweet, which allows the chocolate flavor to shine, but there is just enough sugar mixed in to cut the bitterness to make it enjoyable on its own. I sensed a woody taste with a bit of a cherry after flavor. I definitely like this bar, and will be on the lookout for shops that carry it. Thanks, Heather! Nice find over in Tennessee.