It’s another repeat maker review! I reviewed Azu Chocolate’s 70% bar a while ago. Let me introduce you to Azu’s 68% sarrapia chocolate bar. Azu is a bean-to-pastry bakery and chocolate workshop in Caracas, Venezuela. They make their chocolate using Venezuelan ingredients, like sarrapia, aka tonka. This bar has 3 ingredients: cacao from Hacienda La Sabaneta, cane sugar, and tonka beans.
Sight: brown with a hint of red; clean, crisp molding featuring the company’s name and origin; creative packaging
Sound: good snap with break
Smell: intense vanilla
Mouth Feel: thin, creamy and smooth melt
Taste: initial strong note of vanilla, then a rounded caramel note with just a hint of bitterness
Astringency: slight
Summary: The tonka is not subtle in this bar. The intense vanilla smell that’s followed by the combined vanilla/caramel flavor notes yell, “Tonka!” I like strong/bold flavors, as long as they combine well with the chocolate, like they do here. The slight bitterness also keeps it from being too sweet. This is definitely a bar and a flavor that are not common in the US. Might be why I like it so much.