Started this tasting two weeks ago (!) and am just getting around to finishing it today. I love my chocolate, but it's not a high-volume or high-speed affair! Anyway, here are two bars from a Manitoulin Island maker I encountered at the @winter_show.

I started with the maple-sweetened bar. I find maple sugar more intensely sweet than other sugars, and so often overwhelming in bean-to-bar chocolate, but this maker ( @finniachocolate) made it an 80% bar so I suspected that might balance the intensity.

It's a beautiful mold, and the bar is so fragrant! Forest aromas, like earth and trees, a bit of pine, a touch of smoke. Incredible. You can smell the maple, too, just a hint of sharp golden sweetness. In the mouth, a firm opening note of charcoal smoke and burnt sugar.

It mellows into some creamier flavours, much like a bitter chocolate mousse. It has all the deep, vibrant richness of a single long note played on a cello. This chocolate holds your soul for a moment from right there on your tongue. It's really exceptional. Wow.

No wonder I paused after that tasting. I felt hushed. It didn't feel right to add another experience onto my palate directly afterwards!
Fast-forward to today. It's cool and rainy, a quiet holiday Monday, with dim grey skies and dripping green trees. A good day for tasting.

This one's a blend of beans from three places. I find blends almost more interesting than single-origins, because this is where makers really play the characteristics of the beans off each other.
Here, the nose is earthy, with mild notes of almond milk and cream cake.

In the mouth, it's caramel right away, then cake, with a pleasant yeasty character and a mild yogurt finish. Delicious, but without the gravitas of the first bar. I noticed only afterward that the best-before date was May, and it does have the faintest beginnings of bloom...

So maybe I missed the peak of its flavour. Still, wonderful. Sometimes I wonder if tasting more than one bar invites comparison unnecessarily. Establishing a fave can be fun, but ranking isn't always necessary. Anyway I enjoyed both and will look for more from @finniachocolate!