chocolate!!!

i recently had the opportunity, through blake makes, to get free amano chocolate for review in my blog. here are the results:

we tried three flavors of chocolate. all of them were 70% cacao, rich and mildly sweet. the difference between the flavors is the source of beans. surprisingly, each of the flavors did have a unique taste, and i was able to distinguish between them in a blind taste test.

madagascar: the literature amano sent says that this chocolate has "hints of citrus". that means it's sour, which i don't really like in a chocolate. i didn't finish my portion of this bar, although i probably will if it's still around some day when we don't have any other chocolate.

cuyagua: they say that this bar has "notes of spice". i can see this -- it's a little like a chili flavored chocolate, only much, much less so. actually this was the chocolatiest tasting of the three, and would make a great every day chocolate if you don't mind paying seven dollars for a two ounce bar.

ocumare: this one has "hints of plums and other red fruit". this was interesting, and surprisingly true, although another way of describing the particularly fruity notes involved might be that it tasted a little like cold blood. delicious cold blood. this was my favorite of the three; it was definitely a unique tasting experience.

i liked two of the three flavors a lot, though i'm not switching from my current standby of sirius 70%, which is both sweet and dark and tastes something like condensed fudgy pudding with mild "notes of spice." at three dollars for a seven ounce bar, it's hard to beat.