Taza Chocolate 70% Dark

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate makes minimally processed chocolate using stone mills according to Mexican practices. This one is a showcase of their small batch, sundried cacao beans, these ones coming from Dominican Republic, as there are no additional flavours; the ingredient listing is good and short, cacao beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter and whole vanilla beans. The cacao content is at 70%.

How does it taste? The chocolate is fairly good, a good showcase of their chocolate, though the bar is not great, and suffers from the crunchiness of the sugar and cacao beans, because of the relatively large size of the stone ground ingredients - smaller size means smoother product, as your tongue can not distinguish very small size, interpreting the chocolate as smooth. I would, though, eat this bar again, given the chance.

Taza Chocolate Chipotle Chili

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate makes Mexican-style chocolate using Oaxacan stone mills. This one features chipotle chili powder; chipotles are smoke-dried jalapeno peppers from Mexico. The ingredient listing is good, organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar and organic chipotle chili powder. The cacao content is at 70%.

How does it taste? Whereas the Guajillo Chili didn't have much heat, this one packs a greater punch. Mixed with the smokiness and the bitterness of the chocolate, this bar makes for an interesting flavour. There is still the underlying crunchiness of the sugar, less so than bars with less cacao content I've tasted. Overall, I would say this is one of the more flavourful bars from Taza, and one I would eat again.

Taza Chocolate Ginger

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate makes artisan chocolate using traditional Mexican (Oaxacan) stone mills. This one features the flavour of ginger. The ingredient listing is good, organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar and organic powdered ginger. The cacao content is at 70%. The ingredients are also all Organic.

How does it taste? Normally enjoying ginger, in chocolate and in other dishes, I wonder why powdered ginger was chosen over stone grinding ginger slices or using ginger juice, that would have provided for a better flavour. There is a definite ginger flavour to this bar, which I enjoyed. The chocolate itself did not have quite the same amount of crunchiness to it; because it's 70% cacao content, that would lead me to believe that it's the sugar that isn't ground enough in their other chocolate bars, and leads to the disconcerting crunchiness. While this is one of my more favourite of Taza's offerings, I don't think that I would buy this bar again.

Taza Chocolate Vanilla

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate makes artisan chocolate using traditional Mexican stone mills. This one features the flavour of whole vanilla beans; vanilla is a normal ingredient in a lot of bars, so this should showcase the taste of their cacao. The ingredient listing is good, organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar and organic whole vanilla beans. The cacao content is at 50%. The ingredients are also all Organic.

How does it taste? This should be one of their showcase chocolate bars, there is very little to flavour the chocolate and spoil the experience of the bar. Once again, Mexican chocolate, stone ground chocolate, makes for a crunchy bar, that one has to get used to. I did not taste the whole vanilla beans at all. The chocolate otherwise was reasonably good, though not one I really enjoyed. I don't think that I would buy this bar again.

Taza Chocolate Guajillo Chili

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate makes artisan chocolate using traditional Mexican stone mills. This one features the flavour of guajillo chili, a chili with a small amount of heat, normally used for making salsa for tamales in Mexico. The ingredient listing is good, organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar and organic dried guajillo chilis. There is no indication of cacao content. The ingredients are also all Organic.

How does it taste? If you are looking for heat, and I do like some of the chocolate and chili pairings I've tasted, and I like moderate to high heat, this is not the bar for you. This has a very mild heat to it, almost not there even. The chocolate does suffer from a crunchiness to it (and Mexican chocolate, stone mill ground chocolate, would); it's not smooth to the tongue like the European chocolates. I don't think that I would buy this bar again.

Taza Chocolate Yerba Maté

The American chocolatier Taza Chocolate uses traditional Mexican stone mills to grind chocolate, creating an, in their words, intense and full-flavoured chocolate for eating and drinking. Each package contains two discs of chocolate. The flavour of this bar is of yerba maté, a herb from Central America that is used as a natural caffeine alternative; I've drunk yerba maté off and on for years, when I feel tired, it perks me up. The ingredient listing is good and short, organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar and yerba maté powder. There is no indication of cacao content, but the cacao beans come mostly from the Dominican Republic.

How does it taste? Because it's stone ground, the chocolate and the sugar are not quite ground smooth enough, there is a crunchiness to the chocolate that is not unpleasant, but disconcerting if you are used to smooth melt-in-your-mouth chocolate. The yerba mate brings an underlying slightly bitter herb-y flavour that is not unpleasant, but needs getting used to. I wouldn't say this chocolate is either intense or full-flavoured, but interesting enough that I would like to eat other of their offerings. Now I read that they have discontinued this particular flavour, there seems to be not enough of a demand for it; from my point of view, I didn't like this enough to mourn its loss.