Naive - Milk Chocolate - Imperial Stout 62%

Story

The Forager collection is madly experimental and multilayered. At first, Naive deconstruct all ingredients and then combine them back to form one of a kind chocolate bars with 'patented' flavours. With this collection, Naive has created a new way of introducing flavours into the chocolate by using locally sourced and intense ingredients refined into a chocolate bar for them to naturally extend the complex chemical flavour composition of cacao. 

Last time Domantas Uzpalis made a promise to himself to stop with new recipe R&D because he thought he already developed everything he wished for. But this recipe patiently waited for its moment. It was calibrating, brewing and quietly finishing in the oak barrels sitting there in the dark for two long years. Domantas was refusing to touch it as deep in his heart he knew that he will break his promise. Ladies and gentlemen, let us present to you the alpha and omega of beer chocolate. The hedonistic Imperial Stout chocolate recipe is the zenith of Domantas' career as a chocolatier. Cheers!

Features

FLAVOUR NOTES: Distilled sweetness with a hint of coffee, burned caramel, hazelnuts, vanilla and mushrooms. Very complex and dynamic with numerous hidden nuances. Impressive aftertaste. 

This particular chocolate was born in 2015, and it took two patient years to develop the full bouquet of flavours present in this bar. The beer was brewed in a brewery est. 1784 by the master brewer himself, and then aged in Bourbon oak barrels to form its extravagant identity. Then they took over to morph this beer into something completely new again. 

A few obvious options come to mind for pairing this chocolate: the first and most obvious one is to pair it with Imperial Stout itself (tip: serve the beer at room temperature for the best flavour experience). Second, try whiskey. Smooth, sweet whiskeys pair best with this chocolate bar.

Ingredients 

Speciality cacao, sugar, cocoa butter, grass-fed milk powder, imperial stout (malt, hops, barley). 

Weight: 57g

Maker Description

In a little town on the Eastern side of Lithuania, Naive Chocolate makes outstanding bean-to-bar chocolate. Each and every morning, the chocolate master carefully roasts fresh cacao beans whose delicious aroma gently awakens the residents of the town. Just as they were hundreds of years ago, cacao beans are slowly rolled and conched to release their extraordinary bouquet of fruits, nuts and flowers in a delicately finished chocolate bar. These handcrafted bars are later stored to mature and form a complicated array of tastes and seasonings. Two key principles are most important to Naive. First, the maker only works with the best ingredients in the world. Second, they seek to become world-class craftsmen in working with this type of exquisite production. Naive makes chocolate in ways that help to reveal the character of a particular cacao bean. The chocolate is finally born after a meticulous analysis of taste, colour, smell and texture.