In Devon England, Willie’s World Class Chocolate makes their chocolate the old fashioned way – the one hundred year-old way.
According to their website, www.williescacao.com, the equipment used to make their chocolate bars are antiques from the early 1900’s.
Each package of their Delectable bars claims that antique machinery brings out the subtle and unique flavors of cocoa beans better than modern equipment which is designed to be fast and efficient.
To find out if the age of a roaster really makes a discernable difference, I bought two of Willie’s chocolate bars.
First I tasted the 69% Java Dark Chocolate. I enjoyed the soft caramel notes and delicate chocolate impact. Unfortunately, the chocolate was course which diminished my enjoyment a bit.
Next, the Peruvian San Martin 70% Dark Chocolate. It was very good, with fruity notes and a bold chocolate aftertaste.
At the end of day, I still don’t know if the antiques contributed all that much to the flavor development of the chocolates. Without making the same recipe twice, once with the antiques and once with modern equipment, there’s really no way to know for sure.
But it doesn’t really matter. Good chocolate rarely has to be questioned.
