Chocolate and Love: Panama 80%

Time for the second bar from Chocolate and Love. This time it's a plain chocolate that's also at a higher cocoa content--80% to be exact. And while the other bar's cocoa was sourced in Peru and the Dominican Republic, this one is sourced from Panama.

There is a sweet scent to this chocolate, which didn't surprise me given my comments last time. However, the chocolate did develop flavor in a slightly different way from what I'd been expecting.

The mouthfeel is smooth with that velvety, chocolate mousse/dessert kind of flavor. That then develops a little darker; at this point, it could edge towards bitter if you're more of a milk chocolate person. Otherwise, it feels more like a candy dark chocolate--that is, a specific kind of dark chocolate that isn't "dark" in the sense of, well, non-candy bar chocolates. You quickly settle back in with that dessert richness, nice and dense while still smooth in flavor and mixed with sweetness. So, yes, like a chocolate mousse.

As you know, I'm not always a fan of sweet dark chocolate. This one, however, hits just the right level; if you're going to do a sweet dark chocolate, then this is the way to do it. I've had plenty of darker chocolate, but 80% is definitely up there. So the fact that Chocolate and Love has put together a sweet dark chocolate at this high of a cocoa content is interesting. It must be the higher content that keeps this chocolate feeling grounded enough to steer away from that candy bar dark chocolate zone. I'm enjoying this bar more than I did the one from last week; it's dessert-like quality makes it satisfying. And I would definitely recommend it as an upgrade if you are used to dark chocolate more of the candy bar variety (looking at you, Hershey's) or if you usually dwell more around milk chocolate. It makes for a good transition chocolate.