Madecasse’s 63% cocoa bar
Posted by Charity on Jun 7, 2011 in Chocolate Bar of the Month | 0 comments
There is one thing I’ve learned about cocoa beans that still fascinates me – the soil in which it grows dictates the taste and flavor of the bean. It’s similar to coffee beans or wine grapes in that way. What makes cocoa even more unique (in my taste opinion) is that adding a little sweetener won’t negate the minerals that you can taste in the bar itself. Depending on the region it is grown the chocolate will have a taste unique to that region. This can either be a plus or a minus to your palette, depending on the bean’s initial flavor.
Many chocolate companies in the United States don’t utilize the natural flavor of the cocoa bean. Instead they purchase cocoa beans from a cocoa broker. Often they don’t know which country their beans come from. They just grind the bean into a powder or masse, add alkaline to cancel out any specific flavors from the soil it was grown in, and add their own flavors so each piece of chocolate tastes exactly the same. So, to take cocoa beans and make a bar directly from it is rare.
Enter our chocolate bar of the month, but before I announce it, I want to preface by saying I’m not terribly keen on cocoa from Madagascar. I’ve tried different versions of Madagascar chocolate (the kind made directly from the bean, not alkalined with flavors added) and I have to say it’s not my personal favorite. It has a bit of a metallic taste for me. Some people call it citrusy or fruity, but it reminds me of when I used to put my mom’s keys in my mouth as a kid. I wouldn’t say its “bad” or I “don’t like it” but I will say if I had a choice I would most likely choose another bean to bar option. That is, unless the Madagascar chocolate was a Madecasse bar!
Madecasse creates true bean-to-bar chocolate bars from Madagascar cocoa. But they don’t make it from beans they import. They make it from beans in their own country – Madagascar. They are an actual Madagascar chocolate company.
This idea may not sound unique, I realize, but according to their website 85% of the world’s cocoa beans are grown in Africa and only 1% are made into chocolate there. I’ve heard this statistic before.
So, why do it?
Their site offers a lot of answers. One is that it makes their bar very unique.
“There are very few fine chocolates made from bean to bar (from scratch) in the world. There are even fewer made fresh at the source, where the cocoa grows. And there are fewer still made in Africa”.
Another reason is that it creates positive change in a very economically depressed corner of the world.
“(We) make fine chocolate in Africa. … generating 4 times more income than fair trade cocoa alone. Every Madécasse bar you savor starts the change in one, small corner: Madagascar”.
Sometimes a culinary delight is as much the story behind the passion as the outcome the passion creates. In this case, the reason for making the chocolate is as important to me as the high-quality, antioxidant laden chocolate itself. And in the case of Madecasse, you won’t go wrong with the quality or the mission. For that reason it is our “Chocolate Bar of the Month”. (Specifically their 63% Cocoa bar uniquely delicious).
For more information on Madecasse bars visit their site: