My parents have a friend who travels to Nicaragua and helps build schools, or something like that, and along the way he has developed his own recipe for homemade chocolate. It comes in little mason jars like jelly, with names based by different numbers, I guess the percentage of cacao to whatever else goes in there. You have to heat the jar of chocolate in a pot of boiling water, and then once it's melted, pour it in a baking dish and put it in the fridge to harden. Then you can break it up into pieces like a Hershey bar. A rich, bittersweet, earthier Hershey bar. The best is to put a piece or two on top of the coffee in the filter before it brews. Take note, Starbucks.
So I had heard about Olive and Sinclair Chocolate for a while, but it wasn't until my friend and I were at Mitchell's Deli that I decided to buy a bar. They do stone-ground artisan chocolate with crazy flavors like Sea Salted and Cinnamon Chili. But when I saw Coffee Bean, I knew that's exactly what we needed.
The chocolate was not sweet at all -- just the way I like it. There was a distinct coffee flavor, not really mocha but something along the lines of chocolate-covered espresso beans, but not waxy. Just like the Nicaraguan chocolate, except much less work.
The stone-ground aspect intrigues me, and they also have these unique stamps that make their chocolates little works of art. You can watch their videos on Facebook to learn more about the whole process. One of our freelancers who is very much into eating locally also profiled them on her Local Table blog.
I have heard rumors of them getting a storefront in East Nashville, but in the meantime I've seen their chocolate bars at various places around the neighborhood. The chocolate bars run at a couple bucks apiece, but it's totally worth it.
Next time, I'll try the ultimate homemade chocolate test: brewing it in my coffee.
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