Madecasse 67%, 75%
Chocolate produced in the country of origin is a trend we’ve been seeing more of. A few years ago I could only name one retail chocolate produced in a cacao growing nation; now I can think of several without trying too hard. The latest to come under my radar is Madecasse, a company founded by former Peace Corps volunteers. Their focus is on the greater economic benefit that follows from manufacturing chocolate in Madagascar, as opposed to simply buying their beans. I came across these Madecasse bars at a chi-chi grocery in NYC; they were the only bar on the rack I’d never heard of, so I decided to give them a try.
The defining character of the bars is a slight coarseness in texture. Unlike the chocolate Westerners are accustomed to, these bars do not give and flow easily, and as the chocolate is melting away, it leaves a suggestion of graininess on the tongue. There’s a faint suggestion of brittleness at work as well. This could be a sign that the particle size has not been reduced to the level achieved by other chocolate makers, but I don’t think that’s the case. I would guess that the chocolate has not been conched much (or possibly at all), and that the cocoa butter in the cocoa mass has not evenly coated the sugar. The added cocoa butter (the label: “cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter”) may be an attempt to compensate for this; a viscous chocolate becomes easier to process with a little extra butter. The impression of the depositor that pours the chocolate into the bar molds is still visible, which suggests the chocolate is indeed viscous and does not flow enough to mingle in the mold once deposited.
The taste? Kind of funky, also what you would expect from chocolate that hasn’t been sheared around in a conche for a long time. Both bars hit with a strong cocoa flavor up front, the 67 more interesting with a wine character early on. The 75 I had was strangely lacking in flavor. It had also bloomed significantly, however, and this can’t have improved the taste. There was a sort of generic dark chocolate start, then a big empty place where interesting flavors should be, then an aftertaste riding a lingering, coarse mouthfeel. The 67, on the other hand, was too flavorful, with spikes of pungency in the midst of an otherwise pleasant acidic, fruity dark chocolate. This bar suggests strawberries, maybe even raspberries…but fresh, unlike the darker, dried-fruit profiles I often associate with Madagascar chocolate. This refrain is jarred by strong fermented flavors and acetic acid. A darker roasting would probably drive these flavors out; longer processing would mellow them and allow them to drift away.
Both bars (more the 75 than the 67) draw out in a long, astringent finish that leaves your mouth feeling kind of dry and…well, like you sucked on a teabag. It isn’t exactly a pleasant sensation, but it is an intellectual exercise for those interested in the cocoa bean and its permutations. Much of these bars’ flavor and mouthfeel comes directly from roasted cocoa beans. That sounds cool, but there’s a reason people started turning roasted beans into chocolate: chocolate tastes better.
Tags: bar, bean to bar, origin
July 20th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
This company has a great story and the chocolate seems to have gotten better recently! The photographs don’t seem to match the bars that I bought recently. (The bars I tried were in a slightly shinier package with a picture of trees on the bottom and a man on the top.) The chocolate was great and has quickly become the favorite of my wife!