Finca Tres Marías is a family owned estate with 350 hectares located in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains in the northwest side of Honduras.To gain experience in growing cocoa the Finca Tres Marías team worked in partnership with The Honduran Agricultural Research Foundation (FHIA) who are the country’s most respected agricultural research institute with years of experience in cocoa farming. Within four years the plantation was producing a crop of predominantly Trinitario beans, with some small amounts of Criollo and Forastero. You can read more interesting information about the farm on Pump Street Bakery’s website http://www.pumpstreetbakery.com/chocolate/honduras, once grown and shipped they arrive in the small Suffolk coastal town of Orford, to a bakery for processing into one of Pump Street’s single origin chocolate bars. Where Pump Street Bakery have added to their bakery series by adding breadcrumbs and milk powder to create a ‘Bread & Butter’ inclusion bar.
I’ve tried Pump Street Bakery’s Honduras 80% before, so I’m aware a little of the taste I’d expect from this bar. This is however a 58% with milk, so I’d expect some change to the flavour, the last line of my previous review was ‘I have a feeling that this bar would be quite a flexible ingredient in food and desserts’ which bodes well for a ‘Bread & Butter’ creation for this bar. I picked up some dark citrus notes last time, but some smooth creamy and buttery notes, which lent itself well to some more dessert like flavours. This time I’m hoping that the chocolate can be made better for the inclusion, be more well rounded and make some better use of its sweetness. Opening the bar it’s the increasingly familiar 4×4 simple block mould that I’ve become accustomed to, breaking off a piece there’s a mellow aroma, but it’s unmistakeably bread & butter, with background notes of vanilla custard, honey and rose, it’s honest and it’s what I would expect for a ‘Bread & Butter’ bar. Placing a piece in my mouth, there’s the great smooth buttery mouthfeel from last time and to taste this bar reminds me of chocolate spread on toast or a chocolate chip bread and butter pudding. There’s a mixture of dark sugars, dairy, savoury wheat and cocoa that blends well here into pudding like flavours. The sweetness is a bit darker this time and the acidity is lessened and less distinct, but the flavour is much improved, with endless indulgent patisserie notes that are bold, deep and honest. Notably the length and finish here are excellent, something I struggled with last time and the bar is particularly well balanced. I’ve enjoyed plenty of Pump Street’s single origin bars, but I’m tempted again to suggest that they’re at their best when they’ve got bread in them, they are after all a bakery. This is a great example of how to improve both the chocolate and the inclusion by creating an amalgamation of both, it is a blend that is greater than the sum of its parts. Best enjoyed indulgently in plce of early morning pastries or after dinner desserts. Unless you’re inside Pump Street Bakery of course.
Ingredients: Cocoa beans, cane sugar, breadcrumbs, milk powder, organic cocoa butter
Appearance 8.5/10
Colour: Medium brown, light purpling
Texture: Dry sandstone
Mould: 4 x 4 mould
Snap: Crisp
Temp/Shine: Glossy matte
Aroma 9/10
Intensity(0-10): 7
Notes: Bread & butter, vanilla custard, honey, rose
Quality: Honest, mellow
Melt/Mouthfeel 9.5/10
Length: Long
Evenness: Even
Texture: Smooth, buttery
Quality: Full
Acidity 8.5/10
Intensity(0-10): 3
Notes: Full fat soured milk/cream
Quality: Balancing, uplifting
Sweetness 9/10
Intensity(0-10): 8.5
Notes: Treacle, honey, burnt sugar
Quality: Developed
Flavour 9.5/10
Intensity(0-10): 9
Type: Sweet, bitter, salt
Notes: Treacle, crème patisserie, butter, bread & butter pudding, milk chocolate
Quality: Bold, deep, honest
Length 9.5/10
Flavours are dramatic, bold and long, rounding well with the creamy tones
Finish 9/10
Notes: Bread & butter pudding, milk chocolate, burnt sugar
Quality: Bread & butter pudding flavours fill the end, before a milk chocolate finish that leaves lingering burnt sugar notes to linger
Balance 9.5/10
Bar is overtly balanced, chocolate and inclusion match up perfectly and big bold flavour and sweetness are nicely rounded out by the acidity, firm structure provides decent stability
Overall 9.5/10
Bar has tonnes of depth and good levels of dimension, complexities are well balanced and structure is uniform, expression is honest, while an amalgamation of ingredients, processing has provided a wonderful buttery smoothness
Pump Street Bakery’s Tasting Notes: Continuing our bakery series; the rich, creamy, caramel flavour of this Honduran bean bar melds into tones of malty, hot buttered toast.
