Barlovento Chocolates

My supercreative good friend Ros is back from her 2-year Masters in Educational Theater for Colleges and Communities at NYU. Having travelled coast to coast in the US, she brought for me chocolates from Oakland, California. She went to Oakland Grand Lake Farmer's Market and gave me for "pasalubong" Barlovento Chocalates.

Last Sunday,  we met at the house of a friend (Diane) of our common friend (Fides)  in Makati to do some  housewarming. It was fun doing some ritual house blessing and energizing with chanting and  impromptu percussion and ethnic dancing. Then we had a nice salu-salo (snacks), Diane served a liter of homemade natural juice  and the endless kwentuhan (stories and updating).

The house/condo unit for a single-nester like her is new so the energy is positive. We just hope that our housewarming effort will create and sustain more positive energy to the place as potential venue for some weekend get together.

She gave our host Diane a small box of chocolate which was Barlovento's original chocolate creation the Cheries and exchange several with what was given to me.  According to the creator of Barlovento, "Cherries: This is what started it all. Excellent dried bing cherries from Smit Ranch and fine Venezuelan chocolate. A match made in heaven." And for myself I received a Chipotle almonds in a small plastic cylinder container.

REVIEW of Cherries and Chipotle Almond


Barlovento Chocolate boasts that their chocolate product is made from the best Venezuelan cacao. Barlovento in Venezuela produces the rarest cacao that of Criollo and Trinitario.  The variety grown in the cacao plantation of Barlovento is considered to be the sweetest, most complex variety unlike the more prevalent Forastero variety that is more bitter.

So for this chocolate,  Chipotle Almond, it is an almond covered chocolate that is chili flavored. The aroma of the cacao is sweet since the outer coating is covered with cocoa dust. The main coating is the chili flavored chocolate that is silky. The chili taste is a bit strong with saltiness when nibbling it.  When eaten together the unroasted nutty taste of almond complements well with the chili flavor chocolate that freshens up the mouth.  My score, a prized Criolo it is,  I gave it a 7/10.

And for the chocolate covered cherry, it has sweet cocoa aroma, the chocolate is sweet that have a bitter hint but the  texture is silky. I made two ways of tasting it, clearing the cherry with its chocolate cover and then eating it as is. Eating it as is, the sour taste of cherry is less pronounced as it mixes with the silkiness of the cocoa so it is like leaving the mouth free of any single taste dominant taste of cacao or the cherry. For the cherries I rate it 7/10 as well.

Thanks to Ros for these  Barlovento chocolates. Also, I take this opportunity to invite those who are planning to visit Camiguin to check my friend Ros place,  the Enigmata Treehouse Ecolodge - link here
http://hotels.lonelyplanet.com/philippines/camiguin-r1974204/enigmata-treehouse-ecolodge-q2360585/

Daghang Salamat Ros...

Related Read:

http://www.barloventochocolates.com/barlovento.html
http://pinterest.com/rahonpete/barlovento-chocolates/