Castronovo Chocolate, Floridian Bean-to-Bar
I visited Florida this past January and had the good fortune of passing by Castronovo Chocolate. I have been a fan of Daniele's chocolate for several years now and think she is a leader among the dark milk crowd. One thing that immediately stood out to me was her chocolate wheel (pictures below). I have not seen any flavor wheels for specialty cocoa and to see the one Danielle designed herself and bases her chocolates off of was a great cue to start from when you immediately walk in the door. Danielle makes an interesting array of bars for a small producer. She has Dark, Dark Milk and White chocolate. Dark Milk is a category of chocolate bars that has both a high percent of cocoa, as in 60% or higher, as well as the addition of milk powder. The Colombia Sierra Nevada bar with 63% cocoa brings a sturdy backbone of dried fruit flavors like plum and raisin, but then the milk shows up and smoothes over the finish with big buttery flavors. My first impression when I ate this bar was oh my god it tasted like chocolate butter cookies! I’m actually munching on this bar right now. It is a long time fav of mine and all the accolades it has won are well deserved (ICA 2015 Gold among others). Danielle has been making this bar for the last year but when I arrived at the shop, it was clear that she had changed her origin and didn’t have many Colombia bars left. She had to dig out the last few Colombia bars left and I bought them all!
Onto her next origin- Honduras! This was super exciting for me because we have been featuring a lot of Single-origin Honduras at Blue Bottle right now and they taste so lovely with strong sugars, light spices and fruity flavors. And to go from tasting lots of Honduras coffee to getting to taste some Honduras cocoa made by one of the most detail oriented chocolate makers out there was truly fantastic. Also it is interested that Danielle has kept fer factory so small that she only makes chocolate from one origin at a time. This gives her the space to really focus on what roast profiles and conch times bring out the best flavors in the chocolate. The Honduras Dark Milk was to die for! An extra treat from going to the factory was that she had truffles made with the Honduras Dark milk and since we went on my Mom’s birthday we bought a bunch for everyone to enjoy. The fleur de sal was a little heavy handed but it brought a very intense warmth to the bar. Where this bar differed from the Colombia was in the fruits. I got more brightness and acids from the fruits here, think raspberry, candied orange peel hint of ginger, but also the nuttiness was more intense with walnut and strong almond flavors and I love nutty chocolate profiles!
Overall it was a really great trip, and I was not disappointed. Big thanks to Danielle and her team for representing Bean-to-bar so eloquently down in Florida. Will visit again.
