Take a walk on the wild side with Hachez’s Wild Cocoa de Amazonas bars. Above, the 70% cacao bar. Photography by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

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October 2009

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Chocolate

Hachez Chocolate

Page 2: Wild Cocoa De Amazonas Bars

This is Page 2 of a two-page article. Click on the black link below to visit Page 1.

• Page 1: Overview: Hachez Style
• Page 2: Wild Cocoa de Amazonas Bars

Wild Cocoa de Amazonas

As ethically responsible chocolate has captured the hearts and interests of consumers recently, Hachez has introduced a new line of bars that in some ways parallels what Felchlin pioneered with its Cru Sauvage chocolate. The Wild Cocoa de Amazonas line is a series of (currently) two bars that was produced with beans grown in the Amazon rainforest. A local farmers’ cooperative takes care of the harvesting, fermenting and drying of the beans, as well as arranges the export of the beans to Germany (thereby keeping for the cacao farmers the profits that middleman have traditionally enjoyed).

Similar to efforts of chocolatiers Dagoba and Askinosie, among others, to offer above-market prices for cacao beans, Hachez pays a higher rate to the cooperative, which allows the farmers to live above their previously barely-subsistence standards. The German technical coop organization Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) assists the farmers with organizational and administrative matters, while the Regenwald-Institut e.V. helps protect the rainforest as an ecosystem and a habitat for the farmers.

70% Wild Cocoa De Amazonas Dark Chocolate Bar. At 70% this chocolate is far more along the lines of what a typical chocolate offers by way of cocoa butter. With 17g of fat per serving, its flavor is not nearly as muted as the 77% and 88% classic Hachez bars. It melts with excellent, though not as superb, texture comparable to a Bonnat bar. Flavor-wise, it has some classic notes found in a Venezuelan chocolate, most notably strawberries and blueberries, but the flavor is quite dark and ashy in some ways, perhaps a result of a longer/hotter roast. Also, it is a bit soft in tone, so it has less explosion of intensity that one typically finds at this density of cacao. But it’s still a bit more explicit in expression than the company’s classic bars, and in our opinion, a positive step forward.

70% Amazonas bar: up close and personal.

Note for those who like flavored chocolate: Hachez makes its 77% bars in Blackberry (with dried blackberry bits), Mango-Chili (with dried mango and chili bits), Orange (with natural orange oil) and Strawberry-Pepper (with dried strawberry bits and green peppercorns).

45% Wild Cocoa De Amazonas Milk Chocolate Bar. Unlike Hachez’s superb Maracaibo 55% dark milk chocolate, this bar is far milkier and hence geared towards palates with a penchant for the mild. Passion fruit and banana notes can be found aplenty (inherent in the chocolate), but the milkiness is overriding and exists in interludes with the actual intensity of the cacao beans. The result may seem haphazard to discerning palates who seek harmony, but joyfully complex to the typical American consumer of milk chocolate.

The entire Hachez line is available at one of our favorite chocolate merchants, Chocosphere.com.

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