What can I say? I’m not good at keeping a schedule when the sun is shining. But I’m a problem solver. And how did I solve this one? I’m outside on my sun soaked deck with my laptop and dogs (they have a shady spot–which one takes advantage of and the other spurns), and I’m ready to talk chocolate. Sounds like a pretty good day to me! Let me introduce you to Mount Pleasant Chocolatiers, from Jamaica. Hellen Akiror French and Averell French started the business officially in 2013, however, they’d met years prior. Averell worked in the UK and was running his family’s cacao and coffee farms in Jamaica. Hellen was researching Blue Mountain coffee. They met and the idea of Mount Pleasant Chocolatiers took shape. Their chocolate is a blend of Criollo and Trinitario cacao from the Blue Mountain area of Jamaica. The Blue Mountains are in eastern Jamaica. They’re about 30 miles long and extend eastward to the Caribbean Sea. The coffee produced from this area is among the most expensive coffee in the world and is exported mainly to Japan. I met Averell and his son at the NWCF. They were such kind people! Mount Pleasant Chocolatiers has won at least 2 food awards and 2 business awards.
Now let me introduce you to Mount Pleasant’s 70% chocolate bar. The bar is handcrafted using single origin Jamaican beans from the Blue Mountains, cocoa butter, sugar, and vanilla beans. This is their flagship bar. It was the first bean-to-bar chocolate made in Jamaica, and the first single origin bar.
Sight: clean, basic mold design; dark brown color; poor tempering
Sound: good snap with break in some areas but crumbly in others
Smell: moderate intensity, sweet and chocolatey
Mouth Feel: smooth and creamy with even melt
Taste: initial moderate sweet walnut flavor and a hint of floral, that ends in a walunt-y deep chocolate flavor
Astringency: very minimal
Summary: This bar might look questionable because of the tempering, but it’s tasty. I’m not usually a fan of the walnut flavor, but this 70% bar was sweeter than expected and the walnut was mellowed by the floral notes. I look forward to supporting these chocolate makers with more purchases in the future.