Can Willie make an encore performance? Earlier this month I reviewed the Willie Harcourt-Cooze Peruvian 70 bar and fell in love. You can imagine my delight when my good friend, ERGagit, sent me a Venezuelan 72 bar from the same Forgotten Flavours collection.
Willie Harcourt-Cooze has created his own chocolate destiny. He bought land in Venezuela, planted, farmed and harvested the beans, and then sent them to his own chocolate factory in the UK where he turned them into his amazing chocolate. How cool is that? What a journey it goes through to become this rich chocolate morsel melting in your mouth.
The ingredient list on the box is only three ingredients - Cocoa mass, Cocoa butter and Cuban raw cane sugar. That’s it. And he believes the less meddling you do with the chocolate the better. Well, he must not have meddled too much with this chocolate because it tastes so good.
The Venezuelan 72 is so creamy with a smooth full-bodied flavour similar to the Peruvian 70. However, the chocolate has a more bitter taste and has a sharp edge to it. Its fruity undertones are not as dominant as the Peruvian 70 but they reach through with each bite you take. Note, that’s not a bite out of the bar in the photo, it had already broken off…REALLY. If I had to pick between the two, I still prefer the taste of the Peruvian 70 bar.
Willie is definitely doing something right with his chocolate. He takes you beyond chocolate and makes you wonder why we ever changed the way we did things. Oh for the good old days when chocolate was chocolate. I promise you you’ll find it in his Forgotten Flavours.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice review of Willies chocolate bars. I quite like the bars too but found them a bit grainy … I must buy some more because I reckon that he will have improved the texture. I have only just now come across your site - its brilliant … must go and read some more
Thanks Gillian. I found Willie’s chocolate very smooth and the 70 is now my favourite. Enjoyed reading your experiences you had through your chocolate course. Practice makes perfect!
Nice post here of the chocolate bars. It’s nice to know that there are still kinds of chocolates such as this one. It’s natural. I also have some favorite chocolates also which they made me drool over it, just found here at this site while i’m browsing.
You really have a nice blog about chocolates hope to hear some of it. Thank you.
Thanks and all the best on your new blog.
These are really mouth watering chocolates. Dark chocolate for me is the best because they are not that sweet. I can’t think about life without these sweets.
Come and meet Willie Harcourt-Cooze in Dublin at the Temple Bar Chocolate Festival on Saturday 31st October 2009! http://www.templebar.ie/home_nav_2_t_15_c_50_e_1822.html