Well, I've been experimenting, tasting, pawning off sub-par chocolate and repeating for many months. I've said before that I don't want to sell a bar until it was something I would eat, perhaps prefer over a Ghirardelli, and as of tonight, the chocolate has arrived.

Yesterday I posted a photo of the latest modifications to the grinder, which you can see here. The PVC modifications were made a month ago, and they help, but the addition of insulation to keep the temperature high enough to evaporate acetic acid, part of the conching process, was key. Another thing that was done was to keep the additional cocoa butter out of the mix until I felt that the batch was conched adequately. Adding cocoa butter is like putting oil in your engine. It cuts the friction, viscosity and drops the temperature of the mass inside the grinder.

Unlike previous batches, I am not puckering up and crossing my eyes after biting into some pure, dark chocolate. I enjoyed the previous chocolate when it covered confections like nougat, or caramel, but never really enjoyed the chocolate by itself. For you dark chocolate snobs, this is a 72% dark bar, with a little sea salt added. Will try to smuggle some into the USA later this year.

Aside from the normal chocolate taste and texture, this bar has a fruity taste, without the "wang", to quote Mrs. C. So the new formula is:

Good cacao + conching - wang = good dark chocolate