Best chocolate in the Dominican Republic

My daughter sent us some Dominican chocolate from the UK, go figure!

I would speak with frank12 our chocolate guru!!

Toblerone.. mmmm

I'm eating--as i speak--chocolate from the chocolate store in Agora mall. On the package it says "Xocolate"--"Barks Carmelo y Nueces.""

I have both the dark chocolate variety and the milk chocolate. they are absolutely fantastic and orgasmic. Wait...i feel something like an earthquake coming on right now!

PS. There are many different varieties at the store, and they cost $70 pesos per ounce.

The "Xocolat" store is on the second floor of Agora mall.

Frank

frank12 said:

I'm eating--as i speak--chocolate from the chocolate store in Agora mall. On the package it says "Xocolate"--"Barks Carmelo y Nueces.""

I have both the dark chocolate variety and the milk chocolate. they are absolutely fantastic and orgasmic. Wait...i feel something like an earthquake coming on right now!

PS. There are many different varieties at the store, and they cost $70 pesos per ounce.

The "Xocolat" store is on the second floor of Agora mall.

Frank

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Yes thanks for that Frank, I'm sitting in my office, as I speak, salivating over my keyboard!

Xocolat is excellent, so is KahKow...they have stores in Blue Mall and Galeria 360:

Products | Kah Kow | Gourmet Chocolate El Dominicano

Any stors in santiago ?

DavidZ said:

Xocolat is excellent, so is KahKow...they have stores in Blue Mall and Galeria 360:

Products | Kah Kow | Gourmet Chocolate El Dominicano

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thanx for the link, signed into Kah Koh, great chocolate, bought 3 each 1 kg bars, imagine that deliver to the house for US$70.00........

These are the two best chocolates made in the DR. Xocolat is run by Diana Munne and KahKow is produced by the Rizek family and sold locally so far. Most of the "Dominican" chocolate is produced in North America and Europe. Remember, after you have the dried beans or seeds, there are about 10 steps or so before you have fine eating chocolate. Probably somewhere in the 25-33% range are fermented and dried properly and sold as fine flavor or aroma cacao. The rest is sold into the bulk and cosmetic markets. There is quite a bit of slow and positive change in the cacao world concerning quality and proper handling. Capacity is a huge issue being 80% of the crop is harvested in the month of May.

Tom F. said:

These are the two best chocolates made in the DR. Xocolat is run by Diana Munne and KahKow is produced by the Rizek family and sold locally so far. Most of the "Dominican" chocolate is produced in North America and Europe. Remember, after you have the dried beans or seeds, there are about 10 steps or so before you have fine eating chocolate. Probably somewhere in the 25-33% range are fermented and dried properly and sold as fine flavor or aroma cacao. The rest is sold into the bulk and cosmetic markets. There is quite a bit of slow and positive change in the cacao world concerning quality and proper handling. Capacity is a huge issue being 80% of the crop is harvested in the month of May.

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Here is the Master of Chocolate making from "Bean to Bar":




Tom knows everything about chocolate making. Everything!

Tom F (from Above) brought me in a gallon of chocolate wine. Yes, you heard correctly: "Chocolate Wine!"

Thanks Frank, I do not consider myself a "master", but am working on it. The chocolate world is an interesting place and lots of things going on in relation to fine chocolate. My focus for now is to learn as much as I can about what is happening with Dominican cacao and chocolate.

oh WOW.. I love this FLAVOR map that they have

Kah Kow 50gr. Chocolate Bar 70% | Kah Kow

This is indeed great chocolate. Whenever I go over to Piantini or wherever the rich folks live I buy it. Somehow, it has not made it to my little La Cadena in Gazcue. I wonder why not?

But wouldn't it be great to have an international Chocolate Festival here? With great chocolatatiers like Godiva and the Mozart Vienna and Perogina competing? Against well, you could not put them in the same CLASS as Hersheys or Mars..

We would have to have different classes .. price points.. classes and tastings.. melt points for the tropics..

Bring in Mexico for the cooked mole sauces..
then have the tours of all the chocolate trees.

Is not the Dominican Republic the Number One producer of Organic Chocolate in the World?

Could we not just Declare ourselves to simply be the home of the

World Cup of Chocolate?

Think of the tourism.!!!!

so far in my life, here is my vote.
Mozart Chocolate - Chocolate Links

Tazo is a brand of gourmet chocolate. they use mostly dominican cacao. Their thing is they use stones to grind the bean, so there a small little nibs. it is not as creamy, but not grainy either. I buy it here in Boston. 7/8 bucks for a big bar.

nibs of chocolate or nibs of stone?

Something like 80% of the cacao harvested here is exported, so "Dominican' chocolate is ubiquitous. There is also that women's collective on the North Coast where they make high-grade chocolate and offer tours of the little factory.

mountainannie said:

But wouldn't it be great to have an international Chocolate Festival here? With great chocolatatiers like Godiva and the Mozart Vienna and Perogina competing? Against well, you could not put them in the same CLASS as Hersheys or Mars..

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ach, the mozartkugeln... miesposo is a huge fan. europe has lots of cheap yet decent chocolates like milka or cadbury. interestingly they are both owned by an american company yet their products are worlds apart from hershey (nasty).

and i think there is a chocolate/cacao fair in DR already.

Yesterday, Thursday, I had a nice surprise visit by one of our DR1 members and renowned chocolate gurus, Tom Forbes. Tom, if you remember, is the Willy Wonka of the DR. No joke. Tom is a one man traveling chocolate factory. He reeks of chocolate. He dropped off a whole bunch of dark chocolate bars--with varying degrees of chocolate percentages and orgasmic ecstasy--last month to me at the bar. Unfortunately, we have managed to miss each other over the last year, but my god (chocolate god) I was so happy to finally meet him in person.

Tom, and another chocolate maker from California, David Menkes, showed up with a gallon of chocolate wine. Yes, you read that correctly. Wine fermented from chocolate beans—it’s nectar of the chocolate gods!

1.

I am a very lazy person, prone to sloth, sexual experimentation (that doesn’t require too much energy), and flatulence, but there is a few times during the year where I really like working at a bar on the beach. Yesterday was one of those days.

Tom and David just spent the day at a 7000 acre cacao farm past Imbert (north-west of Puerto Plata). The farm makes its own chocolate and won an award for best cacao bean at some prestigious International Willy Wonka chocolate event recently. The fermented chocolate wine they brought with them yesterday came from this farm.

2.

Like Tom Forbes, David Menkes is also a chocolate maker. That means they do the whole process—from bean-to-bar—when making chocolate. This is not to be confused with 99% of every other chocolate company in the world who simply purchase the chocolate or coco butter and then melt it down and make fancy chocolate pieces or bars. Nope. These guys, Tom and David, buy the bean, crush, ferment, massage, talk to, make love to, and turn the bean into something so heavenly and delicious that the chocolate gods shower them with ecstasy for their efforts and skills. And it does take skills (a lot of skill) to make good chocolate. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

A little background about these guys. Tom is married to a Dominican from San Francisco de Macoris. They live in the New Jersey/New York area. His chocolate company is called La Chorena (Chocolate Quisqeyano). Tom is fluent in Spanish and has been married to his Dominican wife for 23 years. He has been coming to the DR for a long time.

3.

David works for Dreamworks Animation in Hollywood, California. He is a lighting Animation artist and is working on Kung Fu Panda 3 right now. He and Tom are what is known in the chocolate industry as “Chocolate Makers” or “Chocolate Artisans.” There are less than 60 chocolate—bean-to-bar—makers in all of United States. Only 60 people in all of the U.S!! David owns a small chocolate company in California called, “Little Brown Squares.”

Tom and David are the real deal. They know chocolate.

4.

Frank

in 2016 DR will host world cacao conference:
La Rep?blica Dominicana ser? sede de la conferencia mundial de cacao en 2016 - DiarioLibre.com