When you’re surrounded, as I am, with wonderful artisan food, it’s all too easy to forget about something we’ve had on hand for a number of years. Then, one day, for whatever reason, I’ll have my first taste of it again in years. In many cases, my mind is blown by just how darned good it is! I blame myself for forgetting, but I figure I can still make amends by writing about it here! This Dark Chocolate Orange Bar from Shawn Askinosie is celebrating its fifth anniversary right now and is tasting even better than ever! If you like orange and chocolate, you will most definitely want to buy a bar or two. Or five. The flavor is fantastic. And the aroma as well.
We were made fools of. And the scent of mock orange drifts through the window.
How can I rest? How can I be content when there is still that odor in the world?
The Askinosie bar goes in the other direction—it tastes surprisingly, creamily, dreamily, and authentically of real orange in a way that few chocolates do. I’ll let you, of course, taste for yourself. As Gluck says, “Everyone is different.” We could though, I forecast, come to a consensus quickly about its quality. To my taste, the chocolate and the orange are beautifully balanced. The chocolate is the bass line—dark, nutty, a solid flavor base on which to build. The orange comes at it from the other end—it’s the violin playing over top. Light, bright, sensual, ethereal. Nibble a little with a shot of espresso. Great after dinner, or for a positive midday pick me up, and super tasty with a bit of the Bakehouse’s Better Than San Francisco Sourdough bread.
The bar begins with carefully crafted Trinitario cacao that Shawn brings from the Philippines. It’s a 58 percent dark chocolate—very smooth, gentle, cocoa-y, that, thanks to Shawn’s good work, enabled the first Filipino exports of cacao since the country’s land reform in the mid-1970s. The cacao is conched and blended with turbinado sugar and cocoa butter (the butter is made by the folks at Askinosie from the same beans that go into the bar), and then a good bit of orange pulp and peel. The finished flavor is something special.
Shawn’s enthusiasm for this bar seems especially high. When they first made it, he was over the moon: “I love orange! You should have smelled the factory this week!”
