{"id":29488,"date":"2022-02-21T15:12:43","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T23:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/?p=29488"},"modified":"2023-12-28T15:30:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T23:30:59","slug":"birds-of-a-feather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/outsidechocolate\/chocolateroundtheworld\/birds-of-a-feather\/","title":{"rendered":"Birds of a feather"},"content":{"rendered":"

This site\u2019s origin story starts with a tai chi group that Cacaopod and I have participated in for about 15 years now. (And we still feel like beginners.) In the group, we found a couple of others with similar interests in art and chocolate, and we 4 created Chocolate By The Bay.<\/p>\n

\"Cap-Haitien
Hummingbird bars proudly display their awards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CBTB has expanded to 5 art & chocolate lovers; and while I write the majority of the articles, we get together occasionally as a group to taste and rate chocolate. That is where our 3\u20135 cup recommended<\/a> chocolatiers and chocolate makers come from.<\/p>\n

While the rest of the tai chi group are not official members of CBTB, they have been game for tasting chocolate and are not shy about their opinions. Some claim they don\u2019t really taste the difference between different origins, while others have very nuanced takes, so it makes for interesting tastings.<\/p>\n

Our instructor has recently taken up bird watching, so our emails are now enlivened with bird pix; and since we meet outdoors, our tai chi routines are occasionally stopped to notice a particular bird. (We all seem to be in agreement that this is more interesting than his previous interest in the wood chips we practice on.)<\/p>\n

In appreciation of our instructor, I wanted to get some chocolate with a bird theme. I asked Jack at Chocolate Covered<\/a> if they carried any such items, and he answered with\u00a0Hummingbird Chocolate,<\/b><\/a>\u00a0a craft chocolate maker in Ontario, Canada.<\/p>\n

Hummingbird makes a variety of single origin bars, that include different cacao percentages, some with inclusions. They also make other chocolate treats, like barks, molded filled chocolates, and drinking chocolate. I got 3 plain single origin bars and one flavored single origin bar for us to try.<\/p>\n

The bars\u2019 packaging featured the company logo, which looks like a hummingbird drawn in the style of a North American First Nation\u2019s tattoo. The packages were chock full of info \u2014 and in 2 languages cuz Canadian, eh? \u2014 including required stuff like ingredients and nutritional info, expected stuff like the cacao source and soy free\/vegan\/fair trade labels, and then serendipitous but potentially helpful stuff like tasting notes and how to make chocolate.<\/p>\n

\"Hummingbird
Chocolate tasting after tai chi usually includes tea (infamous wood chips visible beneath picnic table)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hispaniola<\/h2>\n

The first bar we tried was the one we liked best, and it seems other groups do too. The Hispaniola single origin, made from 70% Dominican Republic cacao has won a slew of awards (helpfully listed on the label) including a Golden Bean from the Academy of Chocolate in London.<\/p>\n

The Hispaniola had a good snap and chocolatey aroma. It tasted strongly fruity, and just like the package described, it was mostly cherry notes. It was a\u00a0little drying at the end, but not at all unpleasant. The tasters got kind of silly saying it had an interesting flavor for a hummingbird and a high MOR \u2014High Modulus Of Rapture (vs. the real meaning of MOR<\/a>). They settled down and took the rest of the tasting more seriously.<\/p>\n

Tumaco<\/h2>\n

The Tumaco single origin, made from 70% Columbia cacao was our least favorite. It was the hardest bar with a strong snap, and was more savory and fermented tasting. The tasting notes were plum, whiskey, and honey, but I really only caught the whiskey reference.\u00a0The tasters\u00a0pointed out that the bar was a<\/span> little grainy, and the flavor took longer to release. Someone described it as having a\u00a0dark flavor; nothing perky\u00a0to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cap-Ha\u00eftien<\/h2>\n
\"Hummingbird
Something to read while savoring single origins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Cap-Ha\u00eftien single origin, made from 70% Haitian cacao, was the 2nd favorite bar of the batch. It was interesting because while Haiti and the Dominican Republic\u00a0share the same island, the chocolate from the different sides of the island tasted different.<\/p>\n

It had a high MOR\u00a0(as in Modulus of RUPTURE) like the Hispaniola bar and a hard melt. It was more savory and raisiny initially, melting into the berry notes and fudge described in the tasting notes. Everybody liked this one, and someone described it as a comforting taste.<\/p>\n

Fleur de Sel<\/h2>\n

The flavored bar we tried, the Fleur de Sel single origin 70% cacao, did not list on the package where the cacao was from, but it did note the salt was Canadian. The MOR was not as high as the other bars \u2014 people joked that maybe the salt made it softer and that the chocolate melted faster than the others because of the salt.<\/p>\n

It was a very fruity chocolate with berry notes, and not salty tasting. Comparing it to the Cap-Ha\u00eftien, people said it was not\u00a0as subtle. They liked it, but not as much as the Cap-Ha\u00eftien or the Hispaniola bar.<\/p>\n

Turns out, according to Hummingbird\u2019s website, the bar is made with cacao from the Dominican Republic, just like the Hispaniola bar, maybe it\u2019s even the same cacao, I\u2019m not sure. If that\u2019s the case, I would have to attribute its lower ranking to the flavor the salt added. Usually adding salt is a flavor plus, but in this case we preferred the unsalted version.<\/p>\n

We liked all 4 bars, just some better than others. And even the ones in the group who said before we tried the bars that they couldn\u2019t tell the difference between chocolates turned out to have opinions on the different bars\u2019 flavors.<\/p>\n

Easy DIY tasting<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re interested in doing a single-origin comparison tasting, the Hummingbird bars would make for a good set. They also make another single origin bar with cacao from a bird sanctuary in the Dominican Republic to try with these. Just comparing their Haitian and Dominican Republic single origins would be interesting to see the differences in such a small geographic range.<\/p>\n

You can buy Hummingbird chocolate online<\/a>, at their factory store in Almonte, Ontario, and at some retail locations like Chocolate Covered<\/a> in SF. Check their website for locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

🎶 If you think all chocolate tastes the same, Hummingbird is gonna change your mind\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":29515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1404,20,169],"tags":[282,172,573,419,1406,1405,271],"class_list":["post-29488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadian-chocolate","category-chocolateroundtheworld","category-reviews","tag-bean-to-bar","tag-chocolate-covered-sf","tag-columbia","tag-dominican-republic","tag-haiti","tag-hummingbird-chocolate","tag-single-origin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29488"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41169,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29488\/revisions\/41169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}