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Michel Cluizel: Chocolate with a missing ingredient

Michel Cluizel single-origin chocolate bar [1]

Purists insist that dark chocolate should only have five ingredients: cocoa mass (aka chocolate liquor or paste), sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla and an emulsifier (usually soy lecithin). Is there butter or vegetable fat in your chocolate, as in Godiva’s? That’s a travesty: substitute fats don’t quite melt in your mouth. Is there vanillin, an artificial flavoring, instead of vanilla? That’s another chocolate no-no.

Chocolat Michel Cluizel [2] of Normandy takes chocolate purity one step further and eliminates soy lecithin. Lecithin makes chocolate smooth, since it evenly disperses the solids and fats. Thanks to Chez Pim’s Menu for Hope II raffle [3], I won three single-origin bars of Michel Cluizel’s chocolate, sent by Pascale of C’est moi qui l’ai fait [4] (or “It is me who did it” as translated by Google).

Michel Cluizel’s prestige line, 1er Cru de Plantation (translated roughly as “1st Vintage of Plantation”) featured beans from just one plantation to create distinct flavor profiles. Due to variations in climate, soil and harvesting, beans from around the world taste different. Some say that single-origin chocolates allow tasters to appreciate the nuances. Others, like Jacques Torres [5], say that chocolates with many types of beans have a greater range of flavor. Most chocolatiers blend beans to insure against a bad crop. For more info on single-origin v. blended chocolate, check out Love’s Cool [6].

Michel Cluizel Tamarina chocolate

The first bar I sampled came from the Tamarina plantation in Sao Tome [7]. At 70% cocoa solids (the upper limit for most people), this chocolate was the strongest of the bunch. It had an earthy flavor like my favorite chocolate, the Valrhona 70% Guanaja [8]. There were notes of orange and raisin. Then it turned acidic, making the flavor unrefined. Since I’m not an expert at describing flavors, I’ll include the package description: “It expresses notes of a fertile, volcanic marine soil, which blend, in a superbly lingering delight, with subtle, grassy and liquorice aromas.” It was apparent that the chocolate didn’t have emulsifiers, as I had to coax it with my tongue to make it melt.

Michel Cluizel Concepcion chocolate

I then switched to the mildest chocolate, with Venezuelan beans from the Concepcion plantation [9]. It had a minty aroma and milky flavor. The product description read, “…discover hints of vanilla, honey spice cake and caramel in a remarkable lingering aroma with hints of mixed dried and black fruits.”

Michel Cluizel Los Ancones chocolate

The 67% Santo Domingo chocolate [10] had just 1% more solids than the previous bar, but it had noticeably more chocolate flavor. It tasted most like what I associate with pure chocolate. This was the smoothest melting bar, but the acidic finish snuck in once again. The product description said, “…aromas of liquourice wood, then red berries and green olives with a lingering flavour of currants and apricots.” This one was my favorite.

Each bar had a unique flavor profile, but the acidity was a distraction. Although the bars were pre-scored, they didn’t break evenly, probably because of the missing soy lecithin. The chocolate also tended to melt in spots. Don’t get me wrong: the texture was better than 80% of the world’s chocolate, but at $6 for a 3.5-ounce bar, it should have been near perfect. My favorite chocolates are still the Valrhona 70% Guanaja and El Rey [11] 70% Gran Saman, both of which are cheaper.

Michel Cluizel chocolate is available online, at fine food stores, a dessert bar in New York, and a flagship Paris store.

Chocolat Michel Cluizel
@ ABC Carpet & Home
888 Broadway (at 19th Street), 1st floor
New York, NY 10003
(212) 477-7335

201, rue Saint-Honoré
75001 PARIS
+33 (0)1 42 44 11 66

http://www.cluizel.com [12] – company info
http://www.chocolatmichelcluizel-na.com [2] – online store