Idilio Origins 74% Porcelana
Share on: Facebook | Twitter | Google +1 | Stumbleupon
As most people know, Porcelana Criollo cacao is not quite as rare as hen’s teeth, but its close. It’s very much revered in the chocolate world, but for me it’s produced varying results. The Pierre Hermé was average, The Amedei 70% bar very nice and the Domori 70% delicious. Whilst this Idilo Origins bar is just plain fantastic.
I’ve never, ever, found a more apt company name than Idilio, as it means “a short poem” or “the romance of living close to nature”. For me fine chocolate should be a poetic journey, an experience if you will. Like many other chocolate bloggers and tasters I often have problems fitting words to the experience even the most mundane chocolate offers , but sometimes you come across a chocolate that offers a variety of flavours that seems like your life flashing in front of your face. Luckily I’ve only had that experience twice – once whilst nearly crashing on the motorway and the other whilst incorrectly using a grill. Whilst tasting this chocolate, however, I had flavours and the words to match flashing through my mind at such pace that I had no chance to memorise them. I needed to slow the whole process down to fully appreciate and communicate this experience. For it is exactly that, one heck of an experience.
I’m sure this is by design, but the packaging does look like a piece of classic poetry with solid and slightly aged-looked paper (without being cliché) and uses of a literary-style font. And despite being in German and French (not my first, or second languages) I can establish that they offer a very good level of information that would appeal to artisan chocolate lovers such as the conch time and the region of Venezuela the cacao is grown in, namely Zulia – which is at the foot of the Extremo Norte part of the Andes.
The mould the bar had very much reminded me of some other “Swiss Chocolate“, but obviously this tastes and has a scent that is significantly more pleasant. The aroma has a very strong tobacco with a saline solution and blackberry edge. It was delightfully intense.
The flavour certainly has raspberry notes that was present in a bar that I tasted at a recent Demarquette focus group. This one, however, was enclosed within slight lime notes. The odd bite offered shooting sensations of spice, whilst others displayed more of that lime characteristic and occasionally red fruits. But what was constant through every mouthful with a mild hazelnut creaminess that was just utterly delicious. I really do LOVE this bar of chocolate.
It may not have the “burnt” edges of the Pralus Chuao, but it has that perfect, mellow chocolate taste. It might not be totally novel, but what it does do, it does extremely well. It really is exactly what I needed today.
Lee McCoy