Searching for Chocolate Near Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica – 8 Tips for Your San Jose Layover

The road to Puerto Viejo is lined with fruit stands, banana plantations, and the occasional restaurant, but get some rest before the drive.

The first night in San Jose

It’s been a while since our last trip to Costa Rica, but since many of you are about to head down again, I’d like to share a little of our experience in San Jose. Our ultimate destination was Puerto Viejo where we searched for local chocolate, but the five-hour drive to this idyllic beach-town required a night in San Jose on both ends.  Why?  Well, this is not a drive I would want to start in the dark – the city is confusing at night and unless you know Spanish, finding someone to get clear directions would be hit-or-miss at best.  So, get some rest and head out in the morning.   Here are some tips to make for a more comfortable transition.

A flight delay put us on the ground at midnight only to find no one at the airport rental car desk even though we called them from Miami to confirm they would wait.  The next day we learned that Economy Rental Car didn’t hold our car as promised and were not willing to give us the original rate.  After over an hour of negotiation, we left the city rental office with a small SUV and started our adventure.  Tip #1:  before you head over to any rental car office, get a firm price on the phone, get the name of the person you’re talking to and ask them how long they will hold the car.  When you meet them face-to-face, be prepared to argue persistently with the person you talked to on the phone when their story changes, if you can find them.  Tip #2: don’t do business with Economy in Costa Rica.  I don’t know about the other car rental agencies, but these guys simply don’t play straight.

Tip #3:  Accept the fact that small problems are a normal part of travelling.  My rule is that something always goes wrong on a trip.  The best thing to do is don’t sweat it and be happy to get any minor disaster out of the way early.  Keep in mind that you are in a kind of paradise, so it’s all good.

Where to Stay in San Jose, Costa Rica

TIP #4: A far more pleasant experience was our overnight stay at Out of Bounds B&B. Recommendation by our American expatriate friend, this place was comfortable, reasonable and well situated – only 20 minutes from the international airport.  The rooms were clean and smartly decorated.  Most of all, the owners, a couple from Canada and Costa Rica, were extra helpful – jumping in to assist with our rental car mix up and providing advice on alternative transportation to Puerto Viejo.  Breakfast was served outdoors on the second-floor balcony with a view of the tropical hillsides.  At the time, rates ranged from $80 to $125 per night for standard and deluxe rooms, but may vary by season.

A brochure for an Arenal Volcano tour combined with local hot springs. Costa Rica's most active volcano started its most recent eruption in 1968.

This place is hard to find in the dark, so I would recommend getting a taxi from the airport to the inn (can be arranged through Out of Bounds in advance) and then getting your rental car the next day.  You can also hire a taxi or van to take you all the way from San Jose to Puerto Viejo (cost varies depending upon the size of car required, but will be north of $100 ).  If you are travelling light, the Grey Line bus is only $35.  At your destination, you may also be able to hire a car for a few days, rather than the whole trip.

What to see around San Jose, Costa Rica

A top priority on my bucket list is to see Costa Rica’s most active volcano, Arenal which is northwest of San Jose.  TIP #5: It can be done as a day trip, but I would recommend staying overnight near Arenal so you can get a chance to observe the eruption at night, from afar.  Expediciones Tropicales offers tours including hot springs near the volcano and overnight packages.  Or, you can drive up on your own schedule.

TIP #6: If you don’t have much time, you can visit the Britt Coffee Plantation and Factory.  Our friends took this tour at the end of their trip and walked on the plane all loaded up with genuine Costa Rican gifts: bags of coffee beans.

The Red Velvet was our favorite at Cupcake Cafe, San Jose

Mary Little helps us decide

TIP #7: If you are in the city, give your feet a rest and stop to check out Cupcake Cafe.  Owner Mary Little goes far beyond the run of the mill cupcake and makes some wonderful and creative indulgences with flavors such as Chocolate Brownie with Leche Dolce, Zucchini, and our favorite, Red Velvet.  Of course they also  have a serious espresso machine to make the perfect complement to your frosting-topped treat using the best coffee from the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica.  The clean and lively decor will stimulate your conversation and plans for the next great adventure.  Cupcake Cafe: Mon. – Fri. 11AM-7PM, Sat. 11PM-5PM.  Tel: 2224-5563

There’s so much more to do around San Jose.  For more ideas, ask your innkeepers, Meranda and Matteo.

Destination: Puerto Viejo

For us, the ultimate destination was the secluded sea-side town of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.  TIP #8: If you’re looking for some chocolate tours in or around Puerto Viejo, take a look at this earlier post.

Zotter Labooko Peru 60% / Peru 80% Dark Chocolate

Zotter Labooko Peru package art by Andreas H. Gratze

I’ve only recently discovered Zotter, the quirky and creative Austrian chocolate maker. Maybe I’ve been too busy tasting other bars or maybe it’s because Zotter is a bit hard to find here in the USA. Either way, I’m now furiously tasting everything that I can get my hands on. What’s captured my attention with this guy and his factory set in the village of Riegersburg, Austria? First of all, he’s doing all fair trade certified and organic bean-to-bar chocolate – an important factor for the planet and the people of the world growing cacao. What’s more, Zotter’s approach to chocolate-making is simply a whole lot of fun – from the award-winning package art to the one-of-a-kind Labooko bar sets. Labooko is two bars in one. You can enjoy and compare two bars from a different region or two bars from the same country using different beans.

Labooko Peru 80% - Peru 60% is not just the same chocolate at two different strengths

So let’s start with the Labooko Peru 60% / Peru 80%, what I simply call “Peru-Peru” because I’m too impatient to spit that all out. The 80% bar is comprised of 40% Porcelana Criollo from the Aprocap cooperative.  A rarity among cacao varieties, Porcelana grows in striking porcelain white pods and is known for its subtle and complex flavor profile. For the 60% bar, they start with a blend of Peruvian cacao from the Acrapogro Cooperative and do an unusually cool roast at only 130°C.  How this translates into the flavor of the chocolate, we’ll see.

WHAT:  Zotter Labooko Peru 80% / 60% Dark Chocolate.  35 g each bar, 70g total. Ingredients:  cocoa mass, raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, salt.   Where to buy  Zotter Labooko.

WHEN: November 27, 2011

OVERALL RATING:  85 (the 60% actually scored an 84 because it got dinged a point for aroma, but let’s call it all the same since I enjoyed the 60% bar at least as much as the 80%).

AROMA: 60%:  Very closed. Some nuts.  80%: More berry than the 60%, very light blueberry and nuts, light leather.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS: 60%:  Light blueberry 80%: Cherry, blueberry, cream cheese.

MIDDLE TASTE: 60%:  Moves quickly into a burst of subtle fruit; honey, light butterscotch, custard.  80%:  Blueberry, cashew, caramel, brown sugar.

Labooko opens like a book to reveal two bars. Prepare to do some reading - a personal note from Zotter and a description of each bar.

FINISH: 60%:  One of the most unaggressive finishes I’ve ever tasted – low acid, no bitterness.  Light pistachio, honey, malt blueberry, and strawberry.  This is where the complexity appears – moving between flavors and then fading into a super long honey finish.    80%: Creme fresh, waves of spices – clove, ginger, cinnamon and black tea.  All pretty subtle with a bit less fruit than the 60%.

TEXTURE:  60%:  Melts slowly and smoothly.  80%: Similar – butter smooth.

LAST BITE:   If this Labooko was just two bars of the same cacao made the same way, one with more sugar than the other, that wouldn’t be very interesting. Instead Zotter goes to the trouble of sourcing two different cacaos and roasts and conches them to bring out their separate potentials.  Sure, there are some clear similarities in the flavors, but there is no doubt you can easily distinguish the two.

I fully expected to like the 80% better since I prefer higher cacao chocolate, but the 60% brought on a surprise ending with all that complexity suddenly appearing after being so closed at the start.  It gets my vote as #1.  The low roasting of the 60% beans translates into more fruit, something I prefer.  The 80% is one of those paradoxical bars, like Pralus Le  100%, that has high cacao, but subtle flavors owed to the use of Porcelana Criollo.  If you are into high-cocoa bars, but don’t want to get hit with astringent bitterness, the 80% is for hits the mark – a soft and round delicacy that you would expect from Porcelana.

Whisking Up Some Zotter Bourbon Vanilla Drinking Chocolate

Zotter Bourbon Vanilla Drinking Chocolate is nothing like what your grandma made. Potent floral vanilla aroma rises up from the cup.

Wine drinkers usually fall into one camp or the other – “I usually drink red” or “I usually drink white” and the agnostics, those who happily drink whatever they’re handed are few and far between.  So knowing that I am a deep red kind of guy (think Cabernet, Red Zin, Syrah), I was a little reluctant to try this “blond” drinking chocolate.  Then I remembered this was Zotter – I guy who excels at breaking the rules to create something fun and unexpected from his Austrian chocolate factory.

Organic Drinking Chocolate

The 20g bars use organic fair trade ingredients.

This unusual drinking chocolate is made from a blend of fair-trade certified organic ingredients including:  raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, full cream milk powder, almonds, sweet whey powder, and vanilla.  Now, I know that some of you are worried that there’s some kind of distilled spirit mixed in there somewhere, but you can relax knowing that “bourbon” is just a term given to vanilla from the Indian Ocean islands – such as Madagascar.  Of course if you want to throw some dark rum into your cup of drinking chocolate, it’s not a bad idea, but try it straight first – to get a sense for the subtle flavors and aromas.

Even if you've never made hot chocolate from a bar, these will melt easily into warmed milk.

Because of the high cocoa butter content, it’s hard to imagine this in anything but bar form – something a bit alien to us Americans when it comes to hot chocolate. Have no fear, this uniquely European approach [1] is no more difficult to prepare than powder if not a bit easier. The bars melt readily into warmed milk and prep time is far less than 10 minutes even if you are fond of ritual and want to stand over the stove whisking gently and drinking up the natural aroma.  I basically followed the instructions on the back of the box that go something like this (edited for clarity):

Melt a bar of Zotter Drinking Chocolate in 100 mL to 200 mL hot frothy milk, then stir it well with a whisk.  Give the drinking chocolate a little bit of time to develop its flavor.  Enjoy it!

Keep the heat on medium low to avoid burning the milk. You don't need to whisk as enthusiastically as I did, but its nice to create a little froth.

Their recommendation of one bar for 100 or 200mL of milk is pretty loose giving you wide latitude to make it mild or splurge with something more intense. Of course, I did the 2 bars for 200mL to get the full-on experience. Pausing for the flavors to develop was the hardest part, but real or not, I imaging the flavors diffusing and melding throughout the milk while I waited.

Tasting Zotter Hot Chocolate

Despite the light creamy color, the taste was plenty satisfying although unlike anything your grandma called hot cocoa (unless she makes home somewhere near the Austrian Alps). We’re talking about a luscious blend of sweetness, vanilla with notes of rum and toasted nuts.  The potent vanilla aroma rising up from the cup is at once seductive and therapeutic with complexity that you can only get from real vanilla bean.  All in all, I found it smooth and comforting.

I don’t plan to give up my rich dark drinking chocolate anytime soon, but I’m feeling a bit more agnostic than before and that can’t be bad.  Zotter Drinking Chocolate is available online at NewLeaf Chocolates.

Notes:

[1] You also see these drinking chocolate bars in parts of Latin America such as in Mexico.

[2] I paid for all the materials myself.

Taza Ups the Ante: Orange vs. Ginger Organic Dark Chocolate

New flavors from Taza – Orange and Ginger Organic Dark Chocolate

I’ve been searching for ginger-flavored chocolate that goes beyond the familiar Chocolove commonly found at upscale grocery stores and bookshops.  What do I have against Chocolove?  After all, when I conduct tastings in my chocolate class, Chocolove’s Crystallized Ginger in Dark Chocolate often rises up as a crowd a favorite.  Well, Chocolove uses Belgian couveture chocolate and I find much, but not all, Belgian couveture is overworked to the point of moving a bit too far down the road towards tastelessness.

The other American masters at melting couveture and blending with flavors – Vosges Chocolate – simply don’t have a ginger bar despite their prolific assortment of flavors.  Don’t get me wrong, you can get good results melting couveture (chocolate made in someone else’s factory and bought in bulk) into bars, but it’s got to be great couveture [1].  In contrast, Taza’s chocolate is organic and made bean-to-bar using a direct trade model of working with cacao farmers.  That’s the direction that I’d like to see things go – more control of the chocolate making though involvement in all parts of the process and more sustainable practices in an industry that has had a so-so track record over the last century.

The color of the bars is nearly the same, but Taza seems to be investing in new molds with shallower letters (on top) that are easier to fill

When Taza introduced their new Stone Ground Mexicano flavors earlier this year, two bars that leaped out from the new offering were the Orange Chocolate Mexicano and the Ginger Chocolate Mexicano.  Those of you that have been following Taza know that the Mexicano disks were originally created with 55% cacao.  What you may not know is that they started this way so that people could enjoy them two ways: simply nibbling on the bars or mashing them up into a rich drinking chocolate – just like the tradition of solid bars made in parts of Europe and Latin America.

But the new bars depart from that original path by sporting a higher cacao content of 70%.  I asked Taza co-founder, Larry Slotnick, about the new direction and he explained:  ”What became clear with the success of the mexicano discs was that folks were eating these discs much more frequently than melting them into a chocolate beverage. They found the chocolate flavor just so robust due to the quality of the cacao we use and the minimal refining, that even traditional ‘dark chocolate’ consumers were really wowed by the intensity.  Thus, we decided to expand the line with a tweak of the cacao percentage to give a wide swath of ‘dark chocolate’ eaters the minimum cacao percentage they often look for ….”  Placing myself squarely in this swath, I needed to give these new bars a taste.

Taza Organic Dark Chocolate Review

WHAT:  Taza Ginger Chocolate Mexicano.  70% Cacao. (2.7oz). Ingredients: Organic roasted cacao beans, organic cane sugar, organic ginger powder.   Taza Orange Chocolate Mexicano.  70% Cacao. (2.7oz).  ingredients: Organic roasted cacao beans, organic cane sugar, organic orange oil.

Where to buy Taza Organic Dark Chocolate.

WHEN: October 10, 2011

OVERALL RATING: Ginger: 82.  Orange: 85.

AROMA:  Ginger:  strawberry and, um, ginger.  Orange: tobacco, pine honeysuckle.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:  Ginger:  strawberry, grass, herbals.  Orange: light citrus.

MIDDLE TASTE: Ginger: ginger, berry, citrus  Orange: clean orange – not sticky cream-sickle sweet, but crisp and clear.  Some cedar and berry.

FINISH:  Ginger: lemongrass, ginger.  The finish is the best part where the chocolate and ginger stop competing and come into balance.   Orange: citrus and cacao acid come into focus at the end.  Otherwise, the orange  is somewhat hidden by the chocolate until now.  Some grassy mushroom at the very end.  The ginger is a bit cleaner in the finish but you could say the orange has more complexity.

TEXTURE:  Both have the trademark Taza rustic texture that comes from their traditional stone ground method.

LAST BITE:  As far as the ginger bar goes, it’s not a substitute for Chocolove.  Which is only saying these are completely different bars with completely different styles.   The ginger bar get’s points for a clean finish and will appeal to those who enjoy more herbal notes.

For the orange bar, I was a little surprised by how light-handed they are with the orange flavor as if they wanted to avoid creating a clumsy caricature of a flavored bar.  I guess it’s all about the chocolate in the end and you don’t want to cover up something so good.  The verdict?  I liked the orange bar a tad more for the perception of complexity and balance of flavor, but I would place both in my top three favorite Taza mexicanos.

Notes:

[1] Couveture chocolate is normally used to prepare other confections such as truffles, bonbons and the like.  However, companies that are making blended bars remelt other people’s couveture and mold the new mixture into bars.  This chocolate often comes from Belgium since it’s the home of a few very large producers of couvture.  For more, see Koko Lingo.

[2] I paid for this chocolate myself.

Amedei Toscano Red Dark Chocolate Review

Amedei packs a generous amount of dried fruit into this dark chocolate

When a brand like Amedei gets so much press for its most famous chocolates such as Amedei 9 and Amedei Chuao, it’s easy to forget that there is so much more to their offering.  Sure, they have earned a staggering number of awards from the London Academy of Chocolate for well-known chocolates such as Toscano Black, Toscano Brown, Cru Madagascar, and  Chuao just to name a few.   The top honor this year, the “Golden Bean” award was  shared by Amedei 9 and a bar by the British chocolatier, Duffy’s.

Today I’d like to taste a lesser-know Amedei bar, but one that still earned a silver for “Best Flavoured Dark Bar.” Amedei Toscano Red is a blend of 70% dark chocolate and dried fruits:  cherries, strawberries and raspberries.

WHAT:  Amedei Toscano Red Dark Chocolate.  70% Cacao. 50 g (1.8 oz). Ingredients: cocoa mass, cane sugar, cocoa butter, dried fruit (10% strawberry, cherry, raspberry) vanilla.  Where to buy Amedei Toscano Red Dark Chocolate.

WHEN: October 9, 2011

OVERALL RATING: 85.

AROMA:  Wine (Merlot, Zinfandel), berries, buttered bread.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:  Strawberry.

MIDDLE TASTE: The mix of fruit comes through loud and clear.  Tart cherries contrast with warm chocolate notes.  The fruit dominates over the chocolate in the middle.

FINISH: The chocolate flavor comes back around here, but not until the raspberry flavor rises up again, then fades into cocoa. There’s a nice soft finish if not a bit subdued on the chocolate end.

TEXTURE:  Loaded with a generous heaping of chopped dried fruit, it’s a satisfying crispy blend.

Amedei Toscano Red Dark Chocolate

LAST BITE:  I guess one reason this bar won the award is the generous portion of fruit loaded into the bar – a whopping 10%!  It’s as if Amedei wants to be sure you don’t miss out on the main point of making a flavored bar.  For me, I’d like to see more chocolate flavor come through, but I also get it — that the chocolate can’t overwhelm the fruit.  So, could this be just the right balance of chocolate and fruit?  That’s a matter of taste and an question worth answering if you want to go just slightly off the beaten path.

Notes:

[1] I paid for this bar myself.

Japanese Premium Dark Chocolate – Meiji The Premium Single

The Chocolate is molded with precision into deep squares

I’m back in Tokyo this week and had chance to pick up some real Japanese chocolate.  It seems that the trend towards premium and single-origin chocolate has finally reached Japan’s shores.  Meiji Milk Company has been around for almost 100  years and makes various inexpensive chocolate bars that can be found in the ubiquitous Seven-Elevens and Lawsons stores throughout the country.  Now, for the first time, I’ve come across a Japanese-made dark chocolate bar that uses single-origin beans and is marketed as a “premium” chocolate.

The box explains single-origin chocolate

Can the Japanese really make great chocolate bars?  After all, the food of the gods has its origins in Mesoamerica and was first transformed into drinking chocolate and what you would recognize as chocolate bars in Europe.  In fact, chocolate making seems to be far more intertwined with European culture which boasts easily over one hundred makers of bars alone – from Amedei to Zotter, never mind truffles and all the rest.  Europe has more practice and more history with refined chocolate than anyone else in the world. So, can a Japanese company really learn how to make a world class chocolate bar?

I will answer my own, intentionally naïve, question.  Yes, in my estimation, the Japanese are capable of making pretty much any fine or gourmet food you can think of.  When I lived in Japan with my family, we were delighted to hear that Tokyo had been deemed by Michelin to be “… a shining star in the world of cuisine[2].”  It’s an international city on par with any other and clearly people here get the concept and techniques behind fine food.

One of my favorite comfort foods when we lived here was the chocolate croissant.  When the walls of our tiny apartment started to close in, I would lead my then three-year-old son by the hand down to street level and around the corner to a delightful little bakery that might as well have been in New York or Paris.  The perfect little airy, buttery pastries made a lasting impression on both of us.  These are one of the few things my son can still remember from his time in Tokyo:   the “chocolate ‘a-sants.”

So, I have no doubt that Japan is capable of producing great chocolate, but Meiji Milk company?  Let’s taste some and see.

Dark chocolate from Dominica cacao beans

WHAT:   Meiji The Premium Single Dark Chocolate – Dominica.  61% Cacao. 58g. Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, trehalose emulsifier (soy lecithin, sucrose esters of fatty acids), artificial flavor.

Where to buy in USA: H-Mart Stores.

WHEN: September 25, 2011

OVERALL RATING:  73

AROMA:  Heavy roast, smoked ham, roasted fig, green beans, vanillin.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:  Malt.  It takes a while to open up, so not much else initially.

MIDDLE TASTE: Raspberry, oak, pine, cacao fruit.  I have to give them some credit for bringing out a bit of cacao fruit.

FINISH:  Cedar, caramel, wax beans.  Simple, not complex, but gets a few points for a long finish.

TEXTURE: A little dull, but melts fine.

LAST BITE:  Sorry guys, this is not a great bar.  Meiji is sort of the Hershey’s of Japan, so what can we expect?  Well premium should be premium, but to be fair and compare to something clearly not premium, I bought some “garden variety” Meiji chocolate from the closest Lawsons.  I found a pack of little dark chocolate squares called Meiji Black.  In Japan, they seem to like products with the simple designation: “Black”– noting some pure extreme or trying to draw in a masculine audience like the popular chewing gum called Black Black.

Meiji Black is their basic dark chocolate

Well, the Meiji Black was as bad as the Hershey’s we all know – with an unnatural aroma of church-lady perfume and a flavor profile that boasts notes of salad oil, tomatoes, vanilla ice cream and marshmallow.  When you compare The Premium Single to that, then yes, these guys have made an honest effort, but they have a way to go yet.  Here’s my advice to Meiji:  you’re on the right track, but please get rid of all the artificial flavors – probably vanillin – and pay some closer attention to fermentation and roasting and you will have something closer to world class.  I’ve read that the quality of beans from the Commonwealth of Dominica can be excellent, so I don’t think there is anything wrong with the bean source.  You just need to work out some bugs the way you know best – practice, refine, purify, repeat.

Notes:

[1] I paid for these bars myself.

[2] Some doubted the validity of Michelin’s praise, but they did award 3 French restaurants their highest honor of 3-stars.

[3] Meiji is pronounced “may gee.”  Well, technically, “may ee gee” spoken quickly as “may gee.”

Amano Morobe Dark Chocolate Review

Amano Morobe shows a slightly reddish color

Leave it to Amano Artisan Chocolate to uncover a crop of superior cacao beans from far-off reaches of the planet and surprise us, yet again, with another unique dark chocolate.  For their newest bar, Morobe, they bring back beans from the South Pacific – Papua New Guinea to exact.  Although it’s only a few hundred miles north of Australia, New Guinea doesn’t resemble the more arid and flat landscape of its gigantic southern neighbor [1]. Rather, New Guinea is lush with volcanic soil, ample rainfall and vibrant jungles thanks to Mt. Wilhelm,the highest point in Oceania.  This is a place where cacao trees can thrive.

I was disappointed when Amano had discontinued their Jembrana single-origin Bali Dark Chocolate with its earthy, peaty aroma and fruit / floral notes, but pleased to see that they have quickly replaced it with something equally exotic.  Let’s see if Morobe lives up to its predecessor.

Single Origin Papua New Guinea Dark Chocolate

Amano Morobe dark chocolate package art

WHAT:  Amano Morobe Dark Chocolate.  70% Cacao. 56 g (2 oz). Ingredients: Cocoa beans, Pure cane sugar, Cocoa butter, Whole vanilla beans.  Where to buy Amano Morobe Dark Chocolate.

WHEN: August 7, 2011

OVERALL RATING:  90.

AROMA:  Berry tart, blackberry cobbler, chocolate croissant, ham.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:  There is a pronounced and immediate note of citrus / lime.

MIDDLE TASTE: Orange, cranberry, grapefruit, butterscotch, lime.

FINISH: An ultra clean finish fades into a buttery warmth.  No bitter notes or acid on finish, just a smooth lingering ride.

TEXTURE:  Amano smooth.

LAST BITE:  Leave it to Amano to make something that is both delightful and dumbfounding.  I’ve never experienced such clear citrus notes in a chocolate.  This is truly unique stuff.   The note of lime seemed impossibly clear appearing as soon as the chocolate hit my tongue and hanging on well into the bitter-less finish.

Whenever I come across a chocolate that stumps me (in the sense that I can’t believe what I am tasting), I ask my wife, Genevieve to render an opinion.  She eats every chocolate that I test, of course, but I usually don’t ask her to work too hard at it by doing a serous review.   With no input from me, she came back with “…plum, raspberry, lime. The texture is remarkable!”  Taking my investigation deeper, I contacted Amano to find out what bean variety they use for this chocolate.  The answer came back: “it’s proprietary information.”  No harm, no foul, Amano.  If that’s what it takes to keep making great chocolate, I’m happy to keep it a mystery.

Notes:

[1] Papua New Guinea is an independent nation that forms the eastern half of New Guinea.

[2] This bar was a sample sent to me by the good folk at Amano Artisan Chocolate.