Fearless 75% Dark as Midnight

2oz (56.7g) bar

Ingredients: Organic raw cacao, o. unrefined cane sugar

6g sugar/28.35g serving (21.2% by wt.)

Corporate Info: [Copied from 6/2/12] Fearless is totally new to me, but I spied its frankly adorable boxes (tiny elephant! lightning! cloud/bite out of corner! friendly font!) on sale and bought a couple boxes. The company was apparently founded in 2006 in California, uses recycled paper for the outer boxes, and makes bean-to-bar chocolate with organic ingredients and direct trade cacao from specific plantations in Brazil, with a special focus on raw cacao. All of this may or may not mean anything to you, but I think I can safely say that Fearless is full of good intentions, part of what I'm seeing as a young cohort trying to bring chocolate into the modern age more thoughtfully, with an eye toward (or blatant focus on) sustainability and treating growers well. The small-company, bean-to-bar model is one way of doing it (contrast with Divine, for example), and it's a fine option. Good for them. Oh, and Fearless currently produces only five items, a plain 75% bar and four 70% bars with interesting flavor combos.

Today's Bar: Fearless's plain chocolate, in 75% cacao rather than the 70% they use in flavored bars.

Appearance: Fearless's usual fairly matte bar with the great mold, though I'd venture (without having the others in front of me) that the 75% chocolate is slightly glossier and has a richer, redder hue than its fairly grey 70% base.

Smell: Fresh, raw but rounded, earthy.

Taste: Like Fearless's other bars, this one crunches before melting into something smooth and thick. The flavor is tart and beany, like cacao nibs with a super-creamy texture; there are undertones of something fragrant and tropical, maybe banana, but the predominant flavor is sour and somewhat tannic without being seriously bitter or harsh.

Conclusion: Fearless 75% Dark as Midnight has a creamy texture and a bright and raw but tempered flavor. It's wild cacao that's been tamed for your palate.

Fearless 70% Super Seeds Crunch! Hemp Chia Flax

2oz (56.7g) bar

Ingredients: Organic raw cacao, o. unrefined cane sugar, o. flax seed, o. hemp seed, o. chia seed

7g sugar/28.35g serving (24.7% by wt.)

Corporate Info: [Copied from 6/2/12] Fearless is totally new to me, but I spied its frankly adorable boxes (tiny elephant! lightning! cloud/bite out of corner! friendly font!) on sale and bought a couple boxes. The company was apparently founded in 2006 in California, uses recycled paper for the outer boxes, and makes bean-to-bar chocolate with organic ingredients and direct trade cacao from specific plantations in Brazil, with a special focus on raw cacao. All of this may or may not mean anything to you, but I think I can safely say that Fearless is full of good intentions, part of what I'm seeing as a young cohort trying to bring chocolate into the modern age more thoughtfully, with an eye toward (or blatant focus on) sustainability and treating growers well. The small-company, bean-to-bar model is one way of doing it (contrast with Divine, for example), and it's a fine option. Good for them. Oh, and Fearless currently produces only five items, a plain 75% bar and four 70% bars with interesting flavor combos.

Today's Bar: One of Fearless's flavored bars, 70% cacao enrobing small, nutritious flax, hemp, and chia seeds.

Appearance: Like Fearless's other bars, this one is matte and greyish, in Fearless's delightful mold of elephants, stars, and a bite or cloud cut out of the corner.

Smell: Raw, beany, rich, but not sharp or strong.

Taste: Texture starts crunchy and melts smooth and thick, with the small seeds adding a popping crunch that makes the mouthfeel more complex—you have to chew this bar. Flavor is earthy, chocolatey, balanced in a close-to-the-tree way, with some sour and bitter notes but nothing harsh or separated from the other flavors, and the seeds contribute a slight nuttiness (and, yes, stick in your teeth a little). I'm a fan of Fearless!

Conclusion: Fearless 70% Super Seeds Crunch! Hemp Chia Flax is Fearless's thick, raw chocolate flavor with some nutty notes and the added texture of crunchy, popping seeds.

Fearless 70% Sweet & Hot Hibiscus Ginger

 

2oz (56.7g) bar

Ingredients: Organic raw cacao, o. raw cane sugar, o. hibiscus flower, o. ginger

7g sugar/28.35g serving (24.7% by wt.)

Corporate Info: Fearless is totally new to me, but I spied its frankly adorable boxes (tiny elephant! lightning! cloud/bite out of corner! friendly font!) on sale and bought a couple boxes. The company was apparently founded in 2006 in California, uses recycled paper for the outer boxes, and makes bean-to-bar chocolate with organic ingredients and direct trade cacao from specific plantations in Brazil, with a special focus on raw cacao. All of this may or may not mean anything to you, but I think I can safely say that Fearless is full of good intentions, part of what I'm seeing as a young cohort trying to bring chocolate into the modern age more thoughtfully, with an eye toward (or blatant focus on) sustainability and treating growers well. The small-company, bean-to-bar model is one way of doing it (contrast with Divine, for example), and it's a fine option. Good for them. Oh, and Fearless currently produces only five items, a plain 75% bar and four 70% bars with interesting flavor combos.

Today's Bar: The third in a run of ginger bars, this one also contains hibiscus, which in my experience is usually quite tart. The raw cacao also promises to be a flavor wild card.

Appearance: Fearless has its looks down, making raw/organic/direct trade accessibly cute. In addition to a matte, orangey bar with a touch of grey (mostly the washed-out effect of the matte texture), this bar has the tiny elephant, stars on each section, and a replica of the scalloped “bite” taken out of the top right corner. This is a rare case of meaningfully good product design.

Smell: Surprisingly mild, with a beany-tart “real chocolate” aroma (similar to last week's) and some super-integrated gingery spice. Not sure about the hibiscus.

Taste: Spicy ginger shows up immediately, even before I begin chewing, then a sour combo that I think comes from both the chocolate (beany) and the hibiscus (sharp). The texture is quite smooth and somewhat thick, which also means no crystallized ginger pieces. I don't know if I'm tasting ginger juice or ground ginger, but either way it's thin and spicy, not at all candied, but also not overwhelming or hot. I'm not sure that raw, super close-to-the-tree chocolate is my favorite kind, but it works very well with the fresh tasting ginger and a hibiscus flavor that enhances the cacao's raw, sour highs. A surprising success.

Conclusion: Fearless 70% Sweet & Hot Hibiscus Ginger makes raw cacao and fresh ginger and hibiscus friendly by controlling potentially harsh flavors and presenting an outstanding appearance.

François Pralus Brésil Forastero 75%

 

100g (3.5oz) bar

Ingredients: cocoa, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin

Ages ago I reviewed François Pralus's 100% cacao bar. I so enjoyed it that when I was visiting Cacao in Portland, I decided to try one of the chocolatier's many single-origin bars, in this case Brésil Forastero (Brazil is the country of origin; Forastero is the bean variety).

Corporate Info: François Pralus's website and press kit (a pdf) give pride of place to Pralus's father Auguste, a pastry chef whose work François considers his company to be carrying on; the franchises sell both Auguste's praline brioche (the “Praluline”) and François's chocolate. François Pralus processes all of its chocolate from bean to bar in its factory in central France, and while it sources the beans from all over the world, it now owns one plantation on an island off the coast of Madagascar. There is no indication that the beans are fair trade or organic, and this Brazilian bar obviously didn't originate from Pralus's own plantation.

Appearance: I rather like the look of François Pralus's bars; there's something pleasing about the symmetry of little squares and the large block with the Pralus signature. Otherwise, the chocolate is a nice reddish brown, with a slight gloss. Mine is also a little banged up.

Smell: There's not much smell but it's warm, reminding me of something like nutmeg, hazelnuts, and crème fraiche (like sour cream, but richer and not as tart).

Texture: Very rich and creamy, with some bitterness and a touch of acid. Nothing really distinctive, but not especially mild either. For me this chocolate is all about the creamy texture.

Conclusion: François Pralus Brésil Forastero is rich and creamy, with a little bitterness for complexity.