A warm welcome and hello in this new year everyone. I have quite a bit to let you know about so I hope you can take a few minutes to dig in.
A few months back I was approached to write a moderate length article for Brew Your Own about making chocolate beers. To do it justice I ended up brewing over 16 different beers with different additions of chocolate, beans, nibs, in a ton of variations. In short I kind of failed at keeping it moderate and it went long. It is published here too with some PS additions.
Brewing with Cocoa and Chocolate
With the information I garnered from all those tests I’ve created a new Brewing Blend and Ancillary Darkness is also now available as nibs, meant for beer brewing.
Onto stock updates:
The most exciting thing for me is that both Wild Bolivia crops are back in stock, although we are already going through Tranquiladad pretty fast.
Wild Bolivia Tranquilidad 2021- There is light raisin with its deep sweetness and delicate tangy acidity. The finish is long and sweet, redolent of dark dried fruits and a smooth, soft, lingering lighted roasted pine nut suppleness that goes on and on.
Wild Bolivia Itenez 2021 - The chocolate aroma is mouth wateringly bold fudge and clear chocolate with undertones of well tanned leather and burnt sugar. In short, this is a chocolate bomb. Think a chewy, thick, heavy mouthfeel with layers of that caramelized sugar.
We have been getting some requests so have expanded the milk options for our Milk and White chocolate kits to include Oat and Goat’s milk powder.
In addition to those options (sold separately), we have also added a really lovely Buttermilk powder that I find lends a distinct depth of flavor to milk chocolate, and at a fraction of the price of whole milk powder.
We have been out of stock a while (thank you COVID supply chain issues) of Organic whole milk powder but it is available again and in good supply
Last but not least, the new Ecuador Costa Esmeraldas is also back in stock.
And for those of you who made it to the end, the new crop of Fiji Rakiraki is on the way and should be available next week. We literally brought in all we could but it isn’t nearly as much as I wanted. Stay tuned.