Chocolarder – 40% Pure White Chocolate

Description

This is a white chocolate bar, the likes of which you’re unlikely to have ever encountered before. Sumptuous caramel depths are enlivened with sweet strawberry and slight pistachio undertones to reveal a complexity that is extremely unusual in white chocolate. Impressively crafted from Chocolarder’s very own virgin-pressed cocoa butter, this bar will have you reaching back for more with a dangerous frequency!

When you first unwrap this bar, you’ll notice that it isn’t the creamy colour that you might expect from a white chocolate bar. This chocolate has retained its natural, deliciously golden colour, having been spared the process of bleaching. It is also a reflection of the meticulous processes of production that have inspired its conception and creation.

This white chocolate bar is both a rare and remarkable achievement – few makers in the world press their own cocoa butter as few can boast of their own cocoa butter press. Of these, fewer still are based in the UK, with Chocolarder a true pioneer. Perhaps even more impressive is that this press started its life as a car jack, meticulously and ingeniously repurposed by Chocolarder frontman Mike, in order to bring you an extraordinary chocolate tasting experience. By pressing their own cocoa butter, Chocolarder are able to ensure that the subtle flavours of their beans are coaxed out and showcased without the need for the addition of vanilla. Furthermore, this cocoa butter does not undergo a process of deodorisation, extraordinarily unusual in itself. Industrial chocolate makers, for example, often deodorise cocoa butter so that they can eliminate its flavours and aromas, to ensure that it does not impart any taste upon the chocolate. So, by using cocoa butter that hasn’t been deodorised, Chocolarder is able to produce an authentic, chocolate tasting experience in its white chocolate bar.

This beans in this bar have been ground for 19 hours, conched for 22 hours, with the chocolate then aged for 24 days.

This is a white chocolate bar crafted in Cornwall, but that started its life as Criollo cacao in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. Mike sources these beans from Asháninka farmer cooperatives in the rainforests of the Ene River valley, with the help of environmental charity Cool Earth, who are dedicated to protecting against deforestation. The Asháninka are an indigenous population who live mostly in the Peruvian Amazon, for whom biodiversity and its protection is a central tenet of existence. Harvesting and selling cacao provides them with a sustainable income stream. This is crucial to combat the challenges they face from illegal logging, mining and deforestation.

Chocolarder is the creation of former Pâtissier, Mike Longman, who began his bean-to-bar journey after committing to make as many of his own ingredients as possible. Starting out in his kitchen, Mike now operates out of a small factory in Cornwall, where he is dedicated to sourcing unique and exciting local inclusions ranging from wild gorseflower, to the honey of native Cornish black bees. Mike is dedicated to a production process that is truly transparent and sustainable, both economically and ecologically. Not only does he source his beans direct from the farmers, but he transports them back to his factory by sail boat, all in the name of zero carbon transport!