Amano Guayas 70% Chocolate Bar Review

Having been disappointed by Amano’s Chuao bar (and everyone’s really when compared to Soma’s Chuao) but recognising that everyone else loves this chocolate, I decided to give them another chance.  I didn’t select this chocolate but the lovely guy in the Paul A Young shop did.

This is a richly scented dark chocolate and the first thing I noticed was the acidity.  Not as well balanced as a Soma microbatch bar probably because of the diversity of beans used and mass production, this bar does have a delicious flavour with a slightly odd aftertaste possibly because of the lecithin or the vanilla. I’m not sure what that aftertaste is but it is slightly flat and chalky.

I am being hard on this chocolate by describing it as slightly flat and somewhat dull as it would shine out as a stunning example of the chocolate makers’ art when compared to other bars.  If you’re looking for a dark chocolate bar with some character which is slightly challenging with a hint of smoke which doesn’t taste of over roasting and possibly a light mention of berry, this is the perfect bar.  It is a complex, slightly acidic chocolate and as such it is absolutely in top notch chocolate but it isn’t at the top of the scale of top notch.

This bar develops in complexity if you let it melt in your mouth.  It’s difficult to resist chewing it as the slight acidity hits your mouth starts to activate but if you let it linger the complexity of flavours will increase and you can spend time experiencing them.  Letting any high quality chocolate melt in your mouth to better experience it will be its own reward as you will suddenly discover depths to chocolate you hadn’t before.  This is a great chocolate to start with developing your enjoyment of complex, high quality chocolate.

A fine recommendation by the nice guy at Paul A Young’s Camden shop 🙂