Bar Review- Mitzi Blue Rainforest

I had the great pleasure to sample a new bar from a relatively old name in chocolate making. Josef Zotter from Austria has created a new artisanal chocolate bar line called Mitzi Blue (after a car he owns) with 16 new bars out now and 8 more bars slated for this Fall. From simple, single origin bars to soy milk with goji berry bars, this is a wonderfully eclectic and intriguing collection. I am especially looking forward to the sheep’s milk chocolate bar coming out in November. The bar I chose was the 65% dark chocolate from Brazil called Rainforest.

Here is the breakdown:
Manufacturer: Mitzi Blue by Zotter
Origin: Brazil Cacao Solids: 65% (Amazonas)
Cocoa Butter: Not listed
Ingredients: cocoa mass, raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, salt

Packaging: 5 Carbon-neutral paper and biodegradable ink gives this wrapping a great look and gives a load of information on the interior.

Mold: 5 I love my chocolate thinly molded and this was ideal. No more than a couple millimeters thick, the surprisingly round mold was beautifully done. Zotter claims to have a special process for this and it shows! (Also: there are 13 different molds used on various Mitzi Blue bars.)

Start: 4 Slow to start and slightly chalky at times. Some subtle spikes of flavor, perhaps from the added salt.

Melt: 5 It has a different shelf than most chocolate melts. It stays fairly solid until the last few moments, then it all melts at once. It is conched for 26 hours and is yet very smooth with only a hint of any grittiness. If this is a modern conch machine, 26 is about twice the time used to conch other chocolates. If Zotter uses a traditional or classic conch, then 26 hours is considerably less than half the time most chocolate is conched. But the smoothness may actually come from their five-fold rolling mill grinding process.

Finish: 4 I am a fan of both short finishes (those flavors that leave my mouth quickly) and long finishes (those that I can still taste an hour later) depending on my mood and what I’m eating with it. This bar has a quick finish with a couple sparkling embellishments from the now noticeable salt and fruity, tart notes from the cacao.

Total: 4.6 All around, a great piece of chocolate. I was stuck on the fact that the salt was added to the bar, but it may be simply for the better. Brazilian chocolate has been slightly malty and plain compared to their northern or western neighbors. Regardless, it was a great experience and it makes me look forward to trying more from Mitzi Blue and Mr. Zotter.