the big Bariloche Chocolate test

Bariloche. Famous for chocolate and Mountains. I was already in the mountains, now the chocolate. They are pride for ("capital of chocolate") their brown gold and for easter, they build up a 4 tons heavy easter egg on the main square. The egg was already eaten but in the main street B. Mitre the chocolate shops lines up. Paradise for a cycling chocolate friend. But what is the best? If you ask the locals, the answers are as numerous as the shops. Somebody has to investigate that. I accepted (reluctantly!) the challenge and started the big Bariloche chocolate tasting. That you don't need overeat, here are the results.

To prevent myself of bursting, I limited the test to the central stores on B. Mitre and also on shops with fresh counter. Who knows how old the boxed chocolate is. In 11 shops I bought one white, milk and dark chocolate and ask for their one or two specialties. All over I had more than 45 peaces of chocolate. To reduce influence of knowing the manufacturers name, somebody placed the three standard peaces on a plate and numbered it randomly. I tasted them in one row, noted the number, my impressions and a grading from (theoretical) o to 100. They didn't print the weight on the receipts and before I recognized that, the most was eaten. So an objective price comparison was not possible any more. I hope that my highfaluting talk gives you a small idea of the local chocolate.

White chocolate

Mamuschka	very fine lemony note, slightly dry melting, sugar little pushy	65
Rapa Nui	little creamy, initially dull, finish beautifully intense, sweetness appropriate	65
Frantom	something sugary melting, beautiful cacao notes, sweet, creamy melt	60
Tante Frida	slightly sugary cream, initially latent pungent sweetness, very fine, creamy notes in the finish	60
Torres	quite dry, then very creamy. Strong but still pleasant sweetness	60
Turista	dry cream, pleasant sweetness, taste unexcited, somewhat flat	55
Abuela Goye	with nut, very dry, almost creamy, pleasantly sweet, little flavors	55
El Reino	quiet dry, strong sweetness	50
Havanna	intrusive sweetness, a little creamy, boring cocoa note	50
Dolce Rama	strange note, a little grainy and creamy, barely cocoa notes	40
Bonifacio	unpleasant taste in the beginning, very sugary cream, too sweet	40

Vollmilchschokolade

Mamuschka	quite creamy, interesting, slightly smoky note, not too sweet and pleasant	70
El Reino	nice and creamy, pleasant sweetness, delicate cocoa notes	70
Frantom	nice and creamy, very sweet, nice cocoa notes in the finish	65
Tante Frida	beautiful creamy, slightly sugary, interesting aftertaste	65
Abuela Goye	quite dry, slightly grainy, slightly creamy, fine cocoa flavors in the aftermath	60
Turista	only briefly creamy, pleasant little sweetness, taste does not remain long in the mouth.	55
Rapa Nui	slightly dry, slightly creamy, very sugary, leaving unsightly	55
Torres	moderately creamy, also very late, something dusty and dry	50
Dolce Rama	quite grainy, moderately creamy, very strong sweetness	50
Havanna	too dry, almost creamy, little chocolatey	50
Bonifacio	disconcerting entry, sugary cream, virtually no cocoa flavors	40

dark chocolate

Mamuschka	quite creamy, interesting whiskey on the finish, little sugary sweetness, nice cocoa flavor	70
Frantom	creamy melt, very good cocoa flavor, moderately sweet	70
El Reino	very creamy, delicate touch, pleasant dark note	65
Torres	pretty sweet. moderately fine cocoa notes	60
Rapa Nui	Melting beautiful, harmless cocoa flavor, very sweet	60
Dolce Rama	delicately bitter, pleasant creamy, nice cocoa note	60
Tante Frida	pleasant cream, a little bit sugary, short very nice notes of cocoa, leaving unfortunately rather uncomfortable	55
Turista	short creamy, nice cocoa flavor, a little too sweet, very short taste	55
Abuela Goye	pleasant cream, cocoa notes rather dull, quite grainy and rough	55
Bonifacio	strange entry, pleasant creamy but too sweet, cocoa too profound	50
Havanna	(Chocolate candy wrapped rather than pure dark chocolate)	-

Specialties 1

Frantom	Rectangular chocolate with fine dulce de leche filling, good balance between filling and chocolate, nice creamy chocolate, sweetness pleasant	70
El Reino	3 layered chocolate bar with peanut butter, very nutty, nice and creamy, not too sweet, fine glaze	70
Abuela Goye	Shaped praline with liqueur cream, very nice liqueur notes, not too pushy, fine cream, good finish	70
Torres	Layered chocolate bar, fine aroma, nutty cream, slightly grainy finish	65
Turista	Chocolate roll of white, milk and dark chocolate, Christmas flavors, nice and creamy but tend sticky, a bit too sweet but still within	65
Mamuschka	4 layered chocolate bar with marzipan cream, sugary grainy rough melt, little creamy	55
Tante Frida	Layered chocolate bar with dulce de leche filling. Filling very sugary and grainy, much too sweet, too-heavy filling	55
Rapa Nui	layered chocolate bar, nice and creamy, a little too sweet, little cocoa flavor, filling meaningless	50
Dolce Rama	flat praline with "puffed rice" and dulce de leche. Chocolate sugary, highly granular fill, too sweet	50
Bonifacio	layered chocolate bar, very sugary-grained cream, very short finish, very sweet and too dry	45
Havanna	Praline. Hardly creamy, sugary filling and very dusty	40

Specialties 2 (if available)

Mamuschka	Chocolate with macadamia and dulce de leche filling, very good nut, fine stuffing, great chocolate flavor	75
Frantom	square praline liqueur filling, bit sugary and grainy consistency, fin and surprisingly changing flavors	65
Havanna	Role of white, milk and dark chocolate, very nutty flavor, grainy but pleasant creamy, long finish	60
Abuela Goye	shaped praline with walnut filling, good cream, unpleasant aftertaste, leaving quite idiosyncratic taste	45
Rapa Nui	Walnut on chocolate praline, nut musty, strange filling, unpleasant finish	40

conclusion and infos

	Ø
Mamuschka	67	Big store with huge fresh counter and attached café. Cakes and sweet pastries are also offered.
Frantom	66	Big store with a connected cafe, rather smaller fresh counter, some other local specialties such as jams.
El Reino	63,75	Very small, fancy store, very little fresh counter with a small selection. Various other local specialties
Tante Frida	58,75	medium size, attached cafe with cake counter, other local specialties and WiFi.
Torres	58,75	very small store - but at least two stores, a large fresh counter, barely boxed chocolate
del Turista	57,5	two very large stores, in addition to the large fresh counter a lot boxed chocolate, attached cafe with cake and ice cream counter, many local specialties. (why do you create such a name?!?)
Abuela Goye	57	very small business, small counter with a small selection
Rapa Nui	54	large shop, large café in the back, selection of local specialties
Dolce Rama	50	small shop just outside of Bariloche with tea room, ice cream, only fresh counter. (The only exception to my restriction to the center)
Havanna	50	very small shop, deli counter and smallest selection, lots of packaged and also looked more like industrially made.
Bonifacio	43,75	very small with little selection, some local specialties

Henry says: "highfaluting talk, you nailed it! Well at least I get some calories to feed up my fat for the upcoming winter. I really can'T complain about quality, but Stefan has bought far too little. The next days, I'll try to sneak in somewhere for the night. Everything else is worthless."

next:
Luftpost Podcast II

blog

previous:
Place #700 reached!

5 comments

Michael.Boehm

Sauberer Test, Stefan !

Hoffentlich ist mittlerweile die Sache gut verdaut und sozusagen hinter Dir.

*hüstel*- bei übermäßigem Genuss von Schokolade kann zuweilen die Verdauung ins Stocken kommen.

Ich persönlich bleibe beim Testen von Bieren. Als bisheriger Fan vom Freiburger "Ganter" habe ich nunmehr - Martin ist da nicht ganz ohne Schuld- zum "Waldhaus Premium Pils"gewechselt.

Deine, die mir geschickte Auswahl, hatte bei mir auch einen gewissen "Wechselwunsch" ausgelöst- da man ja gerne- so wie Du- mal neue Pfade betreten mag- wenn auch auf anderer Ebene.

Liebe Grüße von A & M !

user details | 2013.05.06 20:53:07

Alexandros

Du bist schon ein klasse Blogger! Wirklich schön dich im Netz gefunden zu haben.

Alexandros

2013.05.08 11:13:32

Kristian Posse

Hallo Stefan! Sehr viel Aufwand um den Cheap Chocolate Ripper zu beeindrucken. Ich denke dessen nächstes Reiseziel steht fest. Viele Grüße, Kristian.

2013.05.10 18:09:06

Danielle

Thank you for the comprehensive assessment. In my very limited tasting (Mamuschka, Rapa Nui, Turista) I favored Rapa Nui. I guess I need to go back and give M another shot!

2013.06.13 18:32:26

showmetheworld

@Danielle: Yes, you have to go back! And then, don't forget to try Frantom also, they are very close to Mamushka :)

user details | 2013.06.16 17:08:51

next:
Luftpost Podcast II

blog

previous:
Place #700 reached!

countries