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Ethical, Bean-to-Bar Matale Chocolate

Posted by  | Categories: Chocolate, Desserts, Featured, Melbourne

We all have our own addictions and vices. Things we simply cannot live without, things we cannot control ourselves around and things that make our life complete. Chocolate is one of these things for me. Whenever it is in the house it haunts my every waking thought until I know it has all been eaten. I can eat it in the early hours of the morning for breakfast, I can eat it before and after a run, in fact I’m sure I could find anytime of the day to eat it. I struggle to stop at just one piece and on many occasions have made myself sick by bingeing on it. Despite being a mad chocoholic, over the years I have grown to fine-tune my palate to chocolate in a similar fashion as to wine.

I first became introduced to the bean to bar concept at Gabriel Chocolate in Margaret River last year. Prior to this visit I was naïve to this concept and had little appreciation for the difference that region and climate can have on the flavour of chocolate. Gabriel has a wide range of chocolate from a variety of plantations around the world and it was fascinating to taste all the different types. Additionally by sourcing single origin beans, producers can make sure that their product supports ethical farming processes and allows the farmers to get an honest price for their hard work.

rth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Perth restaurants" "Perth food reviews" "Chocolate" "bean to bar" "ethical chocolate" "single origin chocolate" "organic chocolate" "dark chocolate" "matale chocolate" "artisan chocolate" "Melbourne artisan chocolate" "Melbourne chocolate" "Thibault Fregoni" "Monsieur Truffe"

Matale chocolate is a newcomer onto the artisan chocolate scene and I was recently contacted by their producers Thibault and Eloi to sample some of their gluten free, fructose friendly and dairy free chocolate.  How could I refuse such an offer? I was sent two luscious bars of chocolate to try.

rth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Perth restaurants" "Perth food reviews" "Chocolate" "bean to bar" "ethical chocolate" "single origin chocolate" "organic chocolate" "dark chocolate" "matale chocolate" "artisan chocolate" "Melbourne artisan chocolate" "Melbourne chocolate" "Thibault Fregoni" "Monsieur Truffe"

The first bar was made with 68% cocoa and the beans are sourced from the certified organic Somia plantation in Madagascar. Smooth and surprisingly silky for a dark chocolate; there was no bitterness or sickly sweetness and it ended with a very clean and fresh citrusy finish.

rth Restaurant Reviews" "food photos" "Perth food blog" "food blog" "Chompchomp" "Gluten free" "Fructose malabsorption" "Perth restaurants" "Perth food reviews" "Chocolate" "bean to bar" "ethical chocolate" "single origin chocolate" "organic chocolate" "dark chocolate" "matale chocolate" "artisan chocolate" "Melbourne artisan chocolate" "Melbourne chocolate" "Thibault Fregoni" "Monsieur Truffe"

The second bar was made using beans from the organically grown Malekula Plantation in Vanuatu. It was a darker chocolate containing 72% cocoa yet it still lacked that sharp bitter taste you can find in mass-produced dark chocolate. The flavour of this chocolate was a bit more complex than the Somia chocolate with distinct coffee notes and hints of spice.

The Boy and I sat down on the floor in the sun room to taste these chocolates, relishing in our attempts at describing the layers of flavours whilst enjoying their velvetiness. Twenty minutes later we realised we had devoured both bars in one sitting. I guess that says it all.

Disclaimer: Chompchomp received both Matale Chocolate bars complimentary from Thibault and Eloi. They offered them to me without any obligation to write a blog post be it either negative or positive. I truly found each bar delightful enough to binge on regardless whether it was free or not and wouldn’t hesitate to order more.