65 gram bar - Toronto, Canada
This is milk chocolate turned all the way up.
SOMA makes Mr. Salazar Milk with 55% cacao from Costa Esmeraldas, a single-estate cacao farm on Ecuador’s northwest coast owned by the Salazar family. The relatively high cacao percentage gives this dark milk chocolate remarkable depth and intensity while still retaining the creamy, rounded character that makes milk chocolate so irresistible.
Costa Esmeraldas grows Nacional-Venezolano Amarillo cacao on lush, steep hills where oranges, lemons, limes, bananas, plantains, guava, and papaya are interplanted among the cacao. The fruit trees help reduce erosion and, as grower Fredy Enrique Salazar has explained, also provide food for the people who work on the farm. During harvest, cacao pods are collected and transported daily for careful fermentation and sun-drying close to the estate.
SOMA takes that beautifully prepared cacao and coaxes out an astonishing range of flavors. Bright lemon and cherry notes mingle with baked bread, brownies, green banana, and a subtle balsamic-like tang, all softened by milk into something rich, smooth, and incredibly satisfying.
It’s one of the most flavorful milk chocolates we’ve tried: complex enough to linger over, but so deliciously balanced that lingering over it may prove difficult. This is the kind of bar where one square very easily becomes several.
Tasting notes: Lemon, Bread, Cherries, Brownies, Green banana, Balsamic-like acidity
Cacao Origin: Costa Esmeraldas, Ecuador
Ingredients: Cocoa nibs, Organic cane sugar, Cocoa butter, Milk powder, Salt
Style: Single-origin dark milk chocolate
