#tttt_2022

[solkiki]

Posted @withregram • @cocoaencounters A is for alcohol this Tangential Twin Tasting Tuesday in the #tttt_chocolate series. I relish the challenge of pairing chocolate with spirits, particularly whiskies and delight in the tasting of each and the extra achieved through their pairing but I am sometimes disappointed with the inclusions or infusions in chocolate. Happily disappointment averted with these two bars. These bars both include nibs soaked in the alcohol. The @solkiki_chocolatemaker Ararat Brandy Bar have tasted before in a superbly successful sensorial pairing with Andrew Miller’s Now We Shall Be Entirely Free where the brandy brought out the fruity elements in the chocolate with the deep caramels turning the Ararat brandy into tones of Calvados and sticky toffee apples. The nibs adding that divisive textural element. The whisky nibs bar uses the same Maranon cacao with a touch of pink mountain salt. I know this dark milk intimately with its deep fruity caramel flavours. It is a yum yum bar. The whisky for me strikes upfront here rather than delivering a kick at the end. That welcoming, warming whisky sensation and then this time a full on summer fruit compote. The chewy nibs at the end creating a lasting impression. I so want to taste the whisky in the bar on its own to see how it’s character has been used to create this experience. that’s a good sign surely 🤔😊🍫🥃 #tttt_2022 #alcohol #ararat #whisky #chocolate #marañon #beantobar #chocolatepairing #chocolatetasting https://www.instagram.com/p/ChHD7amDerH/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[solkiki]

Posted @withregram • @cocoaencounters I am late to the #tttt_timezonem10 party this week but I bring a Tahiti tangent following on from the post by @chocolateuplift. 😊🍫 This is not my first tasting of this bar but the Tangential Tasting Twin Tuesday made me explore its connections - just one of the things I love about this concept! 🙏 @myic2016 Tahiti is an island of French Polynesia and among it's culinary delights is the Tahitian vanilla bean whose origins, researchers (led by Pesach Lubinsky) now believe, can be traced back to the Maya and their cultivation of vanilla as a chocolate spice. It is thought to have arrived in Tahiti via the Philippines. Good Tahitian vanilla has delicate floral and fruity aromas. Solkiki have combined Tahitian vanilla with Madagascan cocoa butter ground with redskin peanuts and a touch of pink salt to produce their Tahitian Nougat Salty Peanut or 'Exotic Salty Peanut' bar. It has the allure of the exotic, and also the feel of pulling your favourite woollen scarf around you as you watch the glorious sunset on your island of paradise. The heady florals and creamy sweetness of the vanilla and cocoa butter take you travelling across the time zones but then for me, the redskin peanuts brought me right back home to my childhood. As the peanut notes become more resonant, I look around again and I realise it is my mother's scarf around me and I am munching on monkey nuts while watching the exotic animals in the zoo. Great memories both! 🙏 @solkiki_chocolatemaker My bookshelves, sadly lacked a pairing for this bar, so I ordered one and can't wait to read Celestine Hitiura Vaite's tale of love, life and family Tahitian style life in the novel Frangipani, making TTTT not just an inspiration to explore new tastes but also to seek out new reads. 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫📖📖📖📖📖 #tttt_2022 #tahitianvanilla #tahiti #redskinpeanuts #monkeynuts #whitechocolate #chocolatetasting #chocolatememories https://www.instagram.com/p/CdGHboWDPhl/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[solkiki]

Check this out!👇 📖 🍫 I'm in a different time zone from everyone in the TTTT community this week as I am still...and will be for a while...wrestling with the idea of colour and what it signifies and brings to our perception, interaction and experience. Today, I'm twinning with all the Philippines bars from last week's #tttt_timezonep8 and tasting the @solkiki_chocolatemaker Red Pod and Yellow Pod bars from Kablon farms, an experiment also performed by @dormousechocs which sadly I didn't get the opportunity to taste. The opportunity to taste these bars coincided with the arrival of a short story I have been waiting to read: Toni Morrison's Recitatif. Recitatif tells the story of Twyla and Roberta growing up in a 1950’s US orphanage. We know that one is white and one is black but we don't know which is which. Their race is never disclosed. We are left to speculate and examine our own preconceptions. I am as hungry to read this as I was to taste these bars. My eagerness to consume this book, however, I felt influenced my approach to the tasting. I found myself focusing not on the differences between the bars and what sets them apart but on what unites them and holds them together. Yes, there were perceived differences in astringency, the timing of flavour release, the mellowness, the ripeness of the banana, the depth of the central chocolate notes, the accents of wood or balsamic, the levels and character of the buttery and cereal notes but the bars sang the same song, just in different ways. I was left just wanting to find out more about the journey these beans had taken, the reasons for their convergence and divergence and how others perceived these differences and similarities and what they meant to them. Sometimes I wonder about the wisdom behind pairing books and chocolates and the journeys they take us on but the fortuitous coming together of these two bars and this book, have reinforced my commitment to the cause. I can't wait to take the experience of both to share at our next book club meeting. #tttt_2022 #mondrian #tonimorrison #recitatif #philippines #beantobar #booksandchocolate #craftchocolatebookclub #goodreads #bookstagram #bookclub https://www.instagram.com/p/CbaNMRnNHC7/?utm_medium=tumblr