![]() I received three of the classic “disks,” (salt & pepper, vanilla, coffee, and pure), and a bar of the 87% dark. When the folks at Taza sent me some samples to review, then, I was pretty excited! It strikes me as sweeter than regular dark chocolate, but it’s subtle nonetheless, and it features such cool flavors as salted almond, ginger, and salt & pepper. This sounds weird, I know, but it’s really delicious if you’ve ever had a disk of Mexican drinking chocolate, it’s the same exact idea, except Taza chocolate isn’t as sugary-sweet. The chocolate that results does not have the texture of conventional chocolate: instead, it has a granular mouthfeel. This means it goes through a mill and stone refiner that look something like this: Taza chocolate is stone ground in a traditional Mexican style (one of the founders of the companies first tasted stone ground chocolate in Oaxaca, and it inspired him start the company). Since then, the company has grown considerably, and I’ve also found out that one of the principle chocolate makers at the company and I have a good friend in common. Many of you have already told me that you’re great Taza fans, which I love to hear, because I am, too! I first found Taza chocolate years ago (my friend Liz mentioned them to me), and it was love at first bite. Today, I’m here to review Taza Chocolate, which comes to us from Somerville, MA. ![]() The gentle homework schedule won’t last, so I’m savoring it while I can.Ī few months ago, I gave a glowing review to Lulu’s Raw Chocolate: Taza Chocolate Mexicano Extract was produced from 2010 until 2013.Happy Friday!!! So glad the weekend has arrived, especially since it’s a relatively open one in terms of schoolwork. ![]() It combines Taza Organic Cacao, Biodynamic Vanilla, Organic Cinnamon, Organic Almonds, Organic Pumpkin Seeds and a touch of salt. This extract was developed for pastry chefs and bakers, as well as bartenders and cocktail enthusiasts who want an expression of Taza’s Chocolate Mexicano in a liquid form. That’s when it hit us – a Chocolate Extract. At worst, it would cannibalize the market for the existing Xocolatl Mole Bitters. Though almost 16 months had passed from their first email exchange, a meeting was quickly set up at the Taza factory with Avery, Alex and Adam Lantheaume of The Boston Shaker.Īfter learning about the culinary applications that the Taza chocolate was being used for, we realized that a bitter wasn’t the right direction – at best, it would only serve a small portion of Taza’s established market. Avery and Janet were back in Boston, when they decided to recontact Taza to discuss opportunities to work together. Between getting wrapped up in the negotiations that would result in our licensing the production of the Xocolatl Mole Bitters and Grapefruit Bitters to The Bitter Truth and then Avery unexpectedly accepting a promotion that led to a (brief) relocation to Europe, there was no way for us to kick off an initiative of this scale.įast forward to March, 2010. We were interested but time wasn’t on our side. Taza was interested in us producing a custom chocolate bitter using their cacao nibs, but not having a legal kitchen basically put the kibosh on starting any new projects.įor the next year, we exchanged the occasional email. If you don’t know them, Taza is a small bean-to-bar chocolate maker, and the only producer in the US of 100% stone ground, organic chocolate (yes, we lifted that verbatim from the Taza website). It was during this time that we first received an email from Alex Whitmore, one of the founders of Taza. ![]() The formulation for the Xocolatl Mole Bitters and Grapefruit Bitters had received TTB approval, but the state had rejected our request to start production from our apartment’s kitchen – throwing our plans into chaos. After relocating to Boston a few months earlier, Avery and Janet were looking to launch their first products. It’s a tale of bad timing, missed connections and endless delays that resulted in a truly innovative product concept. This is a story of a beautiful collaboration between Bittermens and Taza, the legendary Somerville, MA based chocolate manufacturer. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |