Warning: I know that this chocolate has been heavily denatured in terms of consistency, due to the whitening phenomenon. So in this article I try to overlook this, until I get another bar for a more complete review.
Sometimes there are little mysteries that spice up everyday life. For example, the fact that I waited until February 9, 2022 to write about this chocolate, which is a classic for me, and a first choice for gift giving. It was while doing the translations that I realized this!
I wasn’t sure what to expect with Arawi, which can be found everywhere, but which I had never heard of. I was happily surprised: it’s a light chocolate, whose cinnamon-like taste is balanced by the slightly malty bitterness of the cocoa beans. The consistency of the bar follows a certain dynamic: it starts rather smooth, but very quickly the cocoa nibs give it a sandy side, until the chocolate melts and only the crunch remains.
The chicao is a small bird, called yellow-backed oriole in English, from the cloud forests of South America. There are similarities with the chocolate bar of the same name: light, fruity, joyful. In more detail, the flavor begins with a passion fruit and mango note, which remains on the palate for a long time. The taste then evolves towards a rather light fudge, ending quickly. There is almost nothing left once the chocolate is swallowed. The texture is like the heart of a chocolate fondant cake: a little floury at the beginning, it becomes smoother when the chocolate warms up on the tongue.
I’m a little disappointed, because the chocolate bar I received is in bad condition. You can tell right away: the surface is whitish, which means that the cocoa butter or sugar has separated from the solids, and the texture is severely altered. I bought it at the end of December and it’s January. I’m usually very careful about storing the bars - and the other ones do not have any problem. Without being sure, I assume that this is the condition in which Kallari sent it to me. In short, this, combined with the difficulty to order the chocolate in Quito with Kallari (delays and wrong products), gives a bad impression of their customer service. Anyway, the goal is to evaluate the quality of their chocolate. It’s a bit tricky in this case, but I’ll make an effort and focus on the taste, which shouldn’t be changed, rather than the texture.