Scharffen Berger - Tome Acu

My past experience with Scharffen Berger chocolate has been less than stellar. I have found most of their bars to bitter or uninteresting while those around me praised them as some of the best they had ever tasted. I pushed my past experiences out of my mind as I tried to give this new bar a chance. I was encouraged by the following facts:

A. This is the first bar from Scharffen Berger that claims to be single origin
B. They list the batch size (might just be marketing....for all I know 120 cases is a normal run for Scharffen Berger)
C. A brown box that seems to say "Look at me....I'm artisan!"

Here are my thoughts....and a process you can follow to enjoy the nuance of chocolate for yourself.

1. Look at the chocolate - The bar was lighter than what I would expect for 68% cocoa content (That could be due to light roasting, high cocoa butter content, or something else)

2. Smell the chocolate - The bar had a gentle sweetness without any toasted or darker notes (My family laughed at me 2 years ago when I told them to smell their chocolate before eating. Bar after bar had the same "chocolaty" smell.....and then we smelled a bar made in Poland. The smoke smell was overpowering. Sorry Poland....no chocolate awards for you this year.)

3. Break a piece off the chocolate - The bar broke clean and showed a slightly grainy texture (look for a nice clean break and a smooth edge)

4. Put a small piece in your mouth and either don't chew or only chew a few times - The immediate taste of vanilla appears and then disappears quickly as the chocolate first hit my mouth. As the bar melted a pleasant sourness with a cream cheese taste kept me thinking of chocolate cheesecake.

5. Swallow the chocolate and pay attention to how the flavor changes as you swallow - The bar left me with a nice burnt caramel.

I really enjoyed the latest offering from Scharffen Berger. I look forward to more from their "chocolate maker's series." I just had a thought.....why is this bar the "chocolate maker's series?" Are other chocolates from Sharffen Berger from the non-chocolate maker's series? The accountant's series? Is that why I didn't particularly like them? Who wants chocolate made by a sheep herder???

Since my birthday is coming up my wonderful wife bought me a bunch of chocolate from Chocosphere.com. The first bar from the lot that I will try is a new offering from Pralus, one of the finest chocolatiers in the world.

Boo Yah Chocolate!