Firetree Papua New Guinea Karkar Island 72%
Firetree - Single-Estate - Papua New Guinea - Karkar Island - 72% - Batch Apr 2024
Cacao origin/type:
Local cacao variety on volcanic soil
Ingredients:
Cacao beans, cane sugar, cacao butter, sun flower lecithin
Other facts:
Made in UK (Firetree Chocolate Limited, Peterborough)
https://firetreechocolate.co.uk
"With the cocoa trees' yellow, red and orange pods, from a distance it can look like a tree on fire, say the founders of Firetree Chocolate. Firetree Chocolate sources its cacao beans from the volcanic and rich soils of the South Asian Pacific. From the little island of Guadalcanal in the Soloman Islands, to the Karkar Island of Papua New Guinea, to the Malekula Island of Vanuatu. Firetree crafts its chocolate with cacao grown amidst these rich terroirs for the immense and dynamic flavour profiles they create on the palate. In some cases, the cocoa trees are still growing besides dormant volcanos." - Firetree
Firetree is one of those brands - like Utopick for me as well, for example - that you at least pick up because of its design, if not buy straight away. The lower part of the otherwise dark and elegantly designed packaging is always in different colored fire artwork. I love even more the 3 circles on the inside (see below) with further color-coded references to the tasting notes of the specific chocolate bar. The chic dark paper in which the bar itself is wrapped, the continuation of the fire artwork on the inside and then the elaborate casting of the bar itself make the aesthetics around Firetree almost perfect.
The bar is divided into individual, large and quite high, curved chambers, mixed with logo lettering and curved lines on them. Due to the curvature, the individual parts are unusually high for high-end chocolates, but due to the size of the chambers, you always bite through them anyway and then it fits perfectly. The casting is very high quality and in the top 10% of manufacturers. The specific Papua New Guinea here is silky matt and in a fairly neutral dark brown and breaks medium-hard.
Aroma:
Rather on the dark side, but delicately aromatic, some blackberries, walnut, dried woods, as well as some dates and plum
Taste:
The melt comes very slowly and is slightly dry, walnuts and generally woody and slightly mineral-volcanic notes come through, forest mushrooms, roasted nuts, dry woods, but then after a few seconds also dates and blackberries already dried, very subtle, dry smoke later
Finish:
The dry smoke is in focus, with some plum and roasted walnut, medium in intensity and still quite dry
Conclusion:
The truffles, which are listed everywhere as notes by the retailer and the brand, I didn't actually discover at all in the finish. Overall, it is a really high-quality Firetree, which also shows the dry, mineralic, volcanic soil. It's a chocolate bar for fans of dry chocolates who like earthy and nutty notes that are nevertheless elegantly framed.
