Discover the many tastes of the cacao bean - Koko Black
A gift can be more than just a gift. It can tell how much you know, care or respect someone. It can apologize, celebrate, or love in words that do not exist. Fundamentally, this is why Koko Black spends so much time curating its chocolates for you. Understanding the richness of the single origins and blends ranges will give you the upper hand as a memorable giftee. As goes with many things in life, the discovering journey is almost as good as its destination, so don’t wait, start today!
Exploring the flavors of chocolate goes well beyond its cocoa content and the generally understood white, milk and dark varieties. As most artisan makers around the world, Koko Black chocolatiers, our sweet sommeliers, work their raw material, selecting from a myriad of notes to compose complex layers of tastes into an eating delight.
Much like rich grapes in wines, cocoa has a story intimately tied to its origin and more particularly its growing conditions. A product of the land it come from, sun exposure, land chemistry and hygroscopic conditions combine to create the rough canvass of the raw bean. Expressing and suppressing notes with careful drying, fermentation and roasting, a process of experience has occupied generations of cocoa farmers. It will ultimately determine whether the chocolate mass our chocolatiers will create with can live up to their mouthwatering potential.
What does Single Origin mean?
Simply means it comes from a particular location and with that carry a unique profile, but that is only where the challenge starts.
We have curated a range that will surprise your taste buds, stretch them from one end of the spectrum to another, take it on a condensed tour of the world is a tough job. It requires hours of research, dozens of tastings, days of careful crafting. Someone had to do it, Koko Black answered the call!
Sometimes, the beans are so complex, so unique, so rarified that they are all it takes to meet the intricacy of a pure chocolate pleasure.
Often from remote parts of the world, always tropical and beautiful in nature, our single origin range comes from places you wish you could teleport to. Better than a postcard, the precious blocks transport your mind to these remote territories in one lingering bite.
Following the cocoa content coast, we start close by with our Vanuatu 44% tasking like a smoking coffee cup in the wee hours watching a magical sunrise, with notes of roasted hazelnuts and caramel for a smooth start to the day.
Blink. We jump to the other start of the world to grab the perky energy of our Mexico 66% with its yellow fruit and aniseed flavors, a sun-bathed chocolate that brings a smile to your face and a spring in your step.
As the afternoon wears on, we settle on the incredible balance of our Vietnam 73% a miraculous blend of citrus, wood and tobacco notes coursing through your palate like a cigar after a job well done.
As the night brings its curtain, it is time to go deep into the dark and light it up with our 100% Dominican Republic block, the epitome of dark chocolate you didn’t know you could have. Pure cocoa fruit, a kick to your senses you will remember for years to come.
If that wasn’t enough, our chocolatiers will surprise you underneath some of their creations with a single origin chocolate here and there, like the special color on the painter’s palette, to strike the killer blow they needed to complete their work.
From the 80% Ugandan cocoa used in some of our favorites like Cocoa bits, Pure Darkness or the recent Hazelnut and espresso egg, through the complex 70% Sao Thome Island cocoa holding our Native Davidson plum block and praline high, to the uniquely smooth 72% Venezuelan chocolate boosted with Lemon Myrtle for a memorable moment, Koko Black explores the gift of chocolate so you can bring chocolate gifting to new heights.
Are all unique chocolates single origin?
Australia has brought to the culinary curious its new world touch for a long time. Chocolate is no different to coffee or wine down under, frontiers to be crossed, unknown to be known, without predetermined rules but the quest for unadulterated pleasure. Like many such artisans before us, Koko Black also blends the best of cocoa to create new sensations.
Our blend series herald the results of this kitchen musings, seeking in the simplicity of blending cocoa notes a sublime alchemy of tastes. Its only purpose is to discover delicate flavors unknown to man (and woman).
Whilst this is very much what defines us at Koko Black across the board, our blends aim to achieve their using chocolate mass as their only ingredients.
Starting easy with a smooth rendition of the now famous white caramelized blend, our superior Gold chocolate has now found its way in a dozen of our star products across the seasons but it is where the journey began. Taste it in its true form for your eating pleasure.
Its traveling companion, our Caramel blend #36, has been with us for many years and has never disappointed.
Next, you should explore the incredible blast of our intense milk #41, so surprising, so smooth, it should be in everyone’s bucket list.
Finally, as you probably feel you cannot take anymore, our chocolatiers will hit you behind the eyes with a rendition of Green Matcha, blend #28, that will make your ears pop. The way to matcha if you ask us.
If you haven’t tasted them all yet, clear your afternoon. Make sure you have rare wines and liquors to suit and drag it late into the night. Best shared with friends. You will thank us later as your future gifts will display a dimension of subtle knowledge of your giftees tastes they didn’t know existed.
There’s chocolate and there’s Koko Black.
