The folks working with Christopher Elbow are clearly prepared to indulge those of us who want to use chocolate to relive recent trips to Hawaii. Not only do they make a nice coconut bar, but their No17 bar offers roasted macadamia nuts and Hawaiian red sea salt in a 63% cocoa dark chocolate base.
It’s like they have me pegged. My salt and chocolate obsession is no secret, and macadamia nuts…particularly well-roasted macadamia nuts with a soft texture. Just like those in this bar.
The nuts aren’t quite as well chopped as I normally prefer – I generally dislike bars with mix-ins so large that the bites aren’t uniform – but because the nuts are soft, the bar was nicely blended. Unsurprisingly, with this ratio of nuts to chocolate, the bar had a nutty aroma.
It was apparent immediately that some of the fat from the macadamia nuts resulted in a softer chocolate, and it was also immediately apparent that the salt was well-distributed and concentrated enough to cut through any bitterness of the chocolate. The salt, in fact, was perhaps a bit overwhelming, to the point that the experience was similar to eating a blend of pure cocoa butter and salt.
Which, frankly, sounds kind of delicious. But it’s not chocolate, and I’d like to see more evident chocolate flavor in this bar to declare it to be a top-notch salt and chocolate bar.
Would you eat pure cocoa butter and salt blended together? Or am I the only one?
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