Amano Ocumare Milk Chocolate Bar

Posted by Edmund in Chocolate, Gourmet Chocolate Bars, USA | 0 comments

30% Milk Chocolate. Beans from Ocumare.
About $7 for 2 oz.

The presentation of the Amano Ocumare Bar is very nice. It comes packaged in a very sturdy, tight box, rather than a wrapper. The bar itself is presented in 15 little even squares that are pretty easy to snap off, given the low cocoa percentage. I also like that when you open up the Ocumare Bar from the back, the bar has already been reversed for you so that you don’t have to take it out of the wrapper or turn it around again.

The taste is on the lighter side, as I’d expect from something with only 30% cocoa, nor does it have much length. Still, for such a light chocolate, this one has lots of complexity to it. As I ate it, I got a lot of very earthy and spicy tones. I started picking up some coffee and smokiness which eventually gave way to a lot of pepper. There was also some nuttiness, as well as a bit of plums and soil.

The Amano Ocumare really isn’t meant to drive the taste buds wild with its complexity, though, but rather with its endless creaminess and balance. While the bar is a mere 30%, it’s never cloyingly sweet or rich in any way, showing itself to have a much more mature sophistication to it—more balance, a fuller body, a bit more roundness (though it’s hard to get much out of 30%), and an extremely smooth, easy melt. It’s really that melt that gets me with this bar. As I’d expect from a 30%, it’s extremely easy to eat, but here the bar has such a creaminess to it that it practically melts on its own, though it never feels muddy or waxy. Since it doesn’t use lecithin, the melt comes off as natural, and it occurs in a very gradual, constant fashion, so that you can really savor the bar.

That doesn’t mean the bar is perfect. Again, the length isn’t much to note, from the start leaving only a light mark on the palate and for the most part dissipating within a minute. Part of that is simply the cocoa percentage, and part is the lack of a really bold flavor here. And that’s probably my second complaint. This chocolate definitely plays it safe, with a soft flavor that nevertheless can get dull and monotonous.

That said, the Amano Ocumare Bar is a great milk chocolate, with very few noticeable flaws. While it can be a bit boring to some, it displays a technical excellence with its creaminess, smoothness, and downright elegance.

Presentation: 3.3/5.0
Length: 1.0/5.0
Melt: 4.0/5.0
Taste: 3.3/5.0.
Value: 2.2/5.0
Verdict: 3.0/5.0