April 1, 2008
Drip, drip, drip... we're thawing out! The crocuses are coming up, birds are migrating and people are starting to sit outside again on the patio at the Deli — all sure signs of spring. So what is new this month? Well, I'm stocking a chocolate that has been on my radar for almost a year — Amano Artisan Chocolate. Amano is a small bean-to-bar chocolate maker based in Utah producing three different chocolates. I am really proud that the Deli is able to offer their chocolates and I think that the addition of Amano brings us one step closer to having the best selection of chocolate bars on the planet.

This month you'll also find a couple new Italian chocolates at the Deli, as well as an "almost-the-end of hot chocolate season" sale on Chocolate a la Taza Amargo — dark Spanish drinking chocolate from Enric Rovira — as we bid a (fond?) farewell to colder temps and warm beverages.

There is but one chocolate tasting this month — at the tail end! Join me on April 29th for a foray into the world of Malagasy chocolates.

New stuff Duff is excited about

Amano Artisan Chocolate
In a departure from my usual approach to introducing new producers, I'm going to start by talking about the product itself. After all, no matter how much we at Zingerman's might like the people and the story behind the food, in the end if the stuff doesn't pass our rigorous taste test, you won't find it on our shelves. So here are my tasting notes for the three chocolates from Amano Artisan Chocolate — a new brand debuting at the Deli this month.

A couple of things to note before we taste together:
- Amano molds their chocolate in 2 oz bars, which is a slightly smaller size than most retail bars.
- For right now, Amano only makes dark chocolate and all of their bars are 70% and single-origin.
- Amano chocolate contains added cocoa butter as well as whole Tahitian vanilla bean, but no lecithin.
- Currently, the Amano bars are made from Fall 2006 or Spring 2007 harvest cacao.
- Zingerman's is the only store in Michigan to stock Amano's chocolates.

Tasting Notes
1. Ocumare 70% (Venezuela) — The cacao for this bar comes from the Ocumare de la Costa valley in Venezuela. This valley is part of the municipality of the same name, which is on the coast in north-central Venezuela. This area used to be very difficult to access, because of the high mountains that back the coast. Many parts of the coastal region are still inaccessible by land. Ocumare is not directly on the coast, but slightly inland.

Very aromatic — bright, fruity aroma. Slow melt. Tastes like buttered toast, roasted coffee, butterscotch, cinnamon turning into clove. Mildly astringent.

2. Cuyagua 70% (Venezuela) — The cacao for this bar comes from a different valley in the same municipality as the Ocumare bar. So again, a northern, coastal cacao from central Venezuela. As near as I can tell, the Cuyagua valley is northeast of the Ocumare de la Costa valley — very near to the Caribbean coast. Amano doesn't have very many of these beans so they've released this bar as Limited Edition.

Again, very aromatic. Flavor starts tobacco-y and then becomes very sweet and almost honey-like. As progresses, continues to mellow. Nice bite of acidity around the middle. Little or no astringency. A very mild chocolate.

3. Madagascar 70% (Madagascar) —
Art tells me that the cacao for this bar comes from the Sambirano valley, which is in northwestern Madagascar. I really can't find out a lot about this region, other than that it seems to be the only place on the island where cacao grows with success. If you do a search for "Madagascar Sambirano" on any search engine, pretty much the only hits you will get will be for a.) chocolate bars and 2.) scholarly papers about lemurs.

Aroma is bright and olivey. Flavor is dried fruits — Currants, raisins, figs. The acidity is intense and almost sour.

The story behind Amano
Amano was started by two guys — Art Pollard and Clark Goble. As near as I can tell, Art is the chocolate guy and Clark is the business guy. So needless to say, I've been corresponding mostly with Art and talking chocolate. Art is a Renaissance man — photographer, archaeologist, software developer, physicist, engineer and chocolate maker are all titles that he holds.

Art spent 10 years learning about the trade before he made his first bar available in 2006. One thing I've learned in visiting with Art and reading about his work is that he is very, very hands-on when it comes to making chocolate. In fact, I picture him wearing a kind of mechanic's jumpsuit and running around his factory with a toolkit and a tasting notepad. I don't mean that Art is literally hand-grinding his beans with a mano y matate — obviously, his chocolate is made with machines like most other highly-processed foods. What I mean is that Art understands the machines he uses and knows how to tweak them so that they do exactly what is right for the cacao. Forget factory settings — Art has personally rebuilt, re-tooled and modified every piece of equipment in his factory in an effort to achieve the perfect — custom designed — chocolate making process. In fact, one of the reasons he uses vintage equipment is because he likes being able to work on it. His roaster is from Portugal (1962), his mélangeur is from Germany (1930), and other equipment is from Italy and Spain... all at least 50 years old.

Not only does he like taking stuff apart and putting it back together again to work better, he likes designing things from scratch. For example, the company's winnower is completely his design. He designed it to remove the germ from the beans, as well as the husk. There is only one other person in the world that I know of who goes to the trouble of removing the germ from the bean because he feels it contributes nothing to the end flavor of the chocolate — Claudio Corallo.

There are a lot of things that keep Art up at night, but one thing that doesn't worry him too much is running out of beans. I mean, he doesn't want to run out of beans, but he is a lot more worried about sourcing great cacao than sourcing a lot of it. It is entirely possible that one of the three bars Amano makes right now might disappear from production at some point, maybe to come back later or be replaced by a new batch of beans that they've gotten a hold of. Art makes every effort to meet the people who produce his cacao — often times when I call or email, I'm told that he is out of the country visiting plantations. I love to hear this.

Amano is definitely the smallest chocolate company we buy from domestically, both in terms of how much chocolate they produce in a year and the range of their product line. While I look forward to tasting more from them as their range grows, I am very happy with the three bars they offer currently. I think their chocolate is elegant and clean — sort of in the style of Cluizel or Valrhona. Their flavor profiles are nuanced and they don't use so much vanilla that it muddies the waters. To me, it tastes like 10 years of work went into these bars. These are gems.

For more information about Art, Clark and Amano Artisan Chocolate visit their website: www.amanochocolate.com.

Hot Chocolate Sale
Chocolate a la Taza Amargo from Enric Rovira $12.99/box (reg. $17.99)
It's almost the end of hot chocolate season and we want you to spend these last few chilly days cozying up with some great drinking chocolate. So we're offering our super-popular Amargo (Bitter) Spanish Drinking Chocolate at a discount to you this month. This drinking chocolate traveled all the way from Barcelona to be with us! So before you trade in your hot chocolate for iced tea and lemonade, treat yourself one last time! If you prefer your chocolate a little sweeter, try the lighter version: Chocolate a la Taza Traditional for the same great price.

Traditional: 55% dark chocolate pellets. Amargo: 70% dark chocolate pellets.

New treats from Cuba Venchi
Unico Bars
These Italian candy bars come with three yummy fillings.
Crema Latte Cereali: Creamy milk fondant and hazelnut filling covered in milk chocolate.
Unico Cialda Caramellata: Gianduja cream, caramel and crispy wafer covered in 56% dark chocolate.
Unico Nougatine: Dark chocolate filled with a caramelized nut and sugar paste.

Mr. O'Brown Bar
This dark chocolate candy bar has a creamy hazelnut filling with just a bit of crisp. It is darned tasty. Venchi advertises this bar as, "The first chocolate with sense of humour." It is true — no other chocolate maker that I know of has tried marketing a "funny" chocolate. Venchi effectively gave his bar a mascot — a little cartoon guy called Mr. O'Brown. The bar is named for him. Mr. O'Brown has adventures in his little cartoon world, which Venchi portrays in a series of four posters (Venchi sent the posters with the bars). I'm going to try to hang a couple of said posters up in the Next Door — I don't know if they are funny, but they are pretty cute!

Got any questions about our chocolates or tastings? Email me (eanderson@zingermans.com) or call 734-663-JAVA anytime.

Your Chocolate Lady,
Duff