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Ocumare 70% Dark Chocolate 56g (2oz) bar.
The remote valley of Ocumare de la Coasta sits on Venezuela's coastal range and is a legendary source of the world's finest Criollo cacao. Once again, Amano demonstrates their dedication to the craft by hand selecting and roasting these fine flavor beans to produce a single–origin chocolate that's won the AOC silver medal for best bean–to–bar chocolate. Look for nuances of raisins and smoke and crisp fruity and floral hues. This has been Amano's flagship bar for years, so if you want to understand why connoisseurs rave about Amano, try this bar.
Ingredients: Cocoa beans, Pure cane sugar, Cocoa butter, Whole vanilla beans.
PLANET POSITIVES:
+ Fair Trade. Fair trade with growers assures fair wages for small farmers. Amano pays three to four times the so–called fair trade price for cacao. Amano also works directly with farmers to improve their growing, fermentation and drying techniques and, most importantly, to take care of the land.
Amano has quickly become a most highly decorated artisan chocolate maker despite their short history compared to European chocolate houses. Amano has earned not one, but over six medals from the London Academy of Chocolate including the gold for Best Bean–to–Bar Dark Chocolate. They have also received awards and high praise from the Los Angeles Luxury Chocolate Salon, the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon, and the Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon. What's all the excitement about and how did Amano Chocolate get there?
Amano Chocolate was started by Art Pollard after he realized that the chocolate familiar to most Americans falls far short of the bean's full potential. He spent years studying chocolate making, visiting cacao growing countries and experimenting with antique chocolate making equipment as well as machines of his own design. When he emerged from his deep immersion in the art and science of chocolate, he produced tiny batches of exquisite artisan chocolate to rave reviews of local chefs. Art soon realized that a factory was needed to meet demand and, working with his business partner, Clark Goble, set out to build a new factory high in the rocky mountain town of Orem, Utah. It was here that Art believed the high altitude and dry climate would further enhance his chocolate's potential.
Art's approach to chocolate making starts with careful selection of the finest flavor beans from around the world. He works directly with farmers to improve their growing, fermenting and drying methods and in exchange for meeting his exacting standards, pays these farmers three to four times fair trade prices for their top–quality beans. Art is notorious in the industry for his meticulous attention to detail – for instance, bringing temperature measurement instruments into the field to monitor fermentation at harvest time. It's this level of attention that Amano applies all the way from bean selection to roasting, conching and molding that results in a world–class chocolate.
In a final act of brilliant simplicity, Amano's has decided to keep all their dark chocolate bars at 70% cacao so that you can directly compare the flavor profiles of one bar to the other without the differences in sugar content to confound things. This makes it even harder to resist exploring all their bars to compare origins and bean varieties!
The remote valley of Ocumare de la Coasta sits on Venezuela's coastal range and is a legendary source of the world's finest Criollo cacao. Once again, Amano demonstrates their dedication to the craft by hand selecting and roasting these fine flavor beans to produce a single–origin chocolate that's won the AOC silver medal for best bean–to–bar chocolate. Look for nuances of raisins and smoke and crisp fruity and floral hues. This has been Amano's flagship bar for years, so if you want to understand why connoisseurs rave about Amano, try this bar.
Ingredients: Cocoa beans, Pure cane sugar, Cocoa butter, Whole vanilla beans.
PLANET POSITIVES:+ Fair Trade. Fair trade with growers assures fair wages for small farmers. Amano pays three to four times the so–called fair trade price for cacao. Amano also works directly with farmers to improve their growing, fermentation and drying techniques and, most importantly, to take care of the land.
PROFILE: Amano Artisan Chocolate
Amano has quickly become a most highly decorated artisan chocolate maker despite their short history compared to European chocolate houses. Amano has earned not one, but over six medals from the London Academy of Chocolate including the gold for Best Bean–to–Bar Dark Chocolate. They have also received awards and high praise from the Los Angeles Luxury Chocolate Salon, the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon, and the Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon. What's all the excitement about and how did Amano Chocolate get there?
Amano Chocolate was started by Art Pollard after he realized that the chocolate familiar to most Americans falls far short of the bean's full potential. He spent years studying chocolate making, visiting cacao growing countries and experimenting with antique chocolate making equipment as well as machines of his own design. When he emerged from his deep immersion in the art and science of chocolate, he produced tiny batches of exquisite artisan chocolate to rave reviews of local chefs. Art soon realized that a factory was needed to meet demand and, working with his business partner, Clark Goble, set out to build a new factory high in the rocky mountain town of Orem, Utah. It was here that Art believed the high altitude and dry climate would further enhance his chocolate's potential.
Art's approach to chocolate making starts with careful selection of the finest flavor beans from around the world. He works directly with farmers to improve their growing, fermenting and drying methods and in exchange for meeting his exacting standards, pays these farmers three to four times fair trade prices for their top–quality beans. Art is notorious in the industry for his meticulous attention to detail – for instance, bringing temperature measurement instruments into the field to monitor fermentation at harvest time. It's this level of attention that Amano applies all the way from bean selection to roasting, conching and molding that results in a world–class chocolate.
In a final act of brilliant simplicity, Amano's has decided to keep all their dark chocolate bars at 70% cacao so that you can directly compare the flavor profiles of one bar to the other without the differences in sugar content to confound things. This makes it even harder to resist exploring all their bars to compare origins and bean varieties!
- Item #: AM002
