Jean-Paul Hévin 64% Papua New Guinea

I absolutely loved the last Jean-Paul Hévin 70% Madagascar I reviewed a few months ago, but I thought it would be a good idea to see if he was just a one-hit wonder or not by trying out this slightly lower cacao content Madagascar bar.

This bar comes from Papua New Guinea, which for those with a great sense of geography is just above Australia and shares a landmass with Indonesia and lies on the edge of the Pacific Ocean and is a stronghold of the Trinitario varient which I believe this bar is made from.

Again the packaging isn’t anything special, but at least Jean-Paul does go to the extra effort of placing the pastic-wrapped bar within an envelope to keep the light off it – which probably a good thing as this bar has been in my chocolate collection for a couple of months longer than it should.

Even though the bar is two or three months past its best I must say I’m still massively impressed with it. The aroma is absolutely spot on. It has a very intoxicating nose but manages to stay just below the acidic level of many dark chocolate bars I’ve reviewed of late. Instead it provides a Bakewell Tart type of sent – sweet, but not overly so. In fact there’s a sort of sweet-pea, fresh medow edge that is delightfully welcoming.

The texture was utterly fantastic too. This one is a quick melter. It seems to turn into a thin liquid very easily. Perhaps on reflection I would like it too hold a bit better but the benefit of this is that the flavours are more easily transported around the various taste receptors on your tounge which, I would say leads to a more balanced flavour profile.

It’s these flavours I find fantastic too. There is that cherry and almond context which compliments the flavour, but there’s also a touch of marmite sharpness too, but its very much in the background. Overall its a very light bar of dark chocolate, if that’s not an oxymoron. It’s much more of a summer bar of dark chocolate than most I’ve reviewed and I feel it’ll also be something that would work with a glass of medium white wine when the sun is shining.

There’s nothing sinister, shadowy, intense or anything reminiscent of a dark January day. This is a little bit of summer excitement to distract you from the Christmas bills that seem to come through our door on a regular basis now.