Original Beans, Chocolate Bars

On Fridays, I usually review snacks.  Which, I obviously love.  But another thing I love?  Chocolate.  I have at least one piece, every morning, without fail, alongside my cup of morning coffee.  Much like snack foods, I love trying every brand I can, which this time lead me to Original Beans.

"Speak what’s true. Eat what’s pure. Preserve what’s rare."

This is the mission of Original Beans, as the company has a strong focus on sustainability.  They partner closely with the cacao farmers in South America, Africa and Asia, where all the beans for their single origin bars originate.

Assorted Mini Bars.

I was able to try an assortment of flavors, all in adorable mini form.  Strangely, the one I liked best?  The white chocolate!

Edel Weiss, Bare White Chocolate.
Yuna River Valley, Dominican Republic, 40%.

"Sweet impressions of banana milk and cacao butter paint a golden portrait of the bare organic life in the Yuna River Valley."

I started with a white chocolate.

Wow.  This was really good white chocolate.  A product that often is entirely overlooked, just sweet and waxy and "not chocolate", but this ... this was lovely.

Incredibly smooth, great texture, sweet in a pleasant, not cloying way, no waxy qualities.  A really, really nice bar.

****.

Edel Weiss, Bare White Chocolate.
Yuna River Valley, Dominican Republic. 40%.

This was another lovely white chocolate.  Same name, but different color wrapper, I'm not 100% certain it was the same, but I think it was?

So smooth and creamy, really quite enjoyable.

****.

Esmeraldas Milk 42% with Fleur de Sel.

"Notes of caramel and hazelnuts with Fleur de Sel resonate throughout this silky milk Rare & Original chocolate. The taste floats down from Ecuador’s last Pacific cloudforest, where endangered tree frogs bask in the breeze."

Next I went for a milk chocolate.

This was ... fine.  A very smooth, creamy milk chocolate.  I thought I almost tasted hazelnuts, so I was pretty shocked when I later read the description and it mentioned "notes of ... hazelnuts".  Well then.  Maybe I *do* have a sophisticated chocolate tasting palette!  I didn't taste the fleur de sel though.

Overall, it didn't seem like a particularly notable bar, but I'll admit that I was in the mood for dark chocolate, not milk, at the time.

Update Review: I've since had another.  I again did not taste any fleur de sel.  This time I didn't particularly taste hazelnut either, but it was a decently smooth milk chocolate.  Not remarkable, but not bad.  If it were a wine, I'd call it a table wine.

***.

CRU VIRUNGA (70%). 
Deep Dark Chocolate, Virunga National Park, Eastern Congo D.R..

"Hints of morello cherries, earthy chocolate and black tea are revealed as this chocolate from Rare Amelonado beans melts in your mouth. The deep flavours embody the spirit of the last mountain gorillas that inhabit Virunga Park."

Next, I went dark, a 70% bar.

I didn't taste any of the complexities described.  Instead, just, mediocre dark chocolate.  Smooth enough, not crazy sweet, but, not complex.  Slightly bitter in an unpleasant way.

Not for me really.

**+.

Cru Virunga 70%.
Deep Dark Chocolate, Virunga Park, Congo DR.
(Update)

"Hints of morello cherries, earthy chocolate and black tea are revealed as our Rare & Original Cru Virunga melts in your mouth. The deep flavours embody the spirit of the last mountain gorillas that inhabit Virunga Park."

A year or so later, I tried it again.  I broke off a chunk of this before I took the photo, not intending to review it, just assuming I would feel the same.

But ... it was too good not to write up, so, apologies for the photo.  You'd think that I know better by now.

This was beautiful, smooth, rich, dark chocolate.  Perfect snap, perfect shine. ****.

PIURA PORCELANA 75%.
Bright Dark Chocolate, Peruvian Nacional.

"Flavours of lime, raspberry and pecan divulge the secrets of a rare white cacao–nature’s delicious mistake–we found along Peru’s coastal desert and habitat of hundreds of captivating butterflies."

And finally, darker, a 75%.

75% dark chocolate should be fairly dark and complex.  This ... was not.  It was smooth, snappy, but really sweet.  I felt bad, but it reminded me of Hershey's Special Dark, just nothing to it.

**+.

Piura Porcelana 75%.
Bright Dark Chocolate, Piura Valley, Peru.
(Update)

"Flavours of lime, raspberry and pecan divulge the secrets of an Ultra Rare white cacao–nature’s delicious mistake–we found along Peru’s coastal desert and habitat of hundreds of captivating butterflies."

Much like the 70%, I tried the 75% again a few years later.  This one I also took a piece of before taking a photo, but, it was less successful.  As in, not successful.

It was a darker bar by percentage (75% instead of 70%) but it didn't taste like a dark chocolate.  It had no depth.  No smoothness.  A very boring, generic, nondescript bar.  And no, I didn't get hints of lime, raspberry, or pecan.

**+.