Tag Archives: tangerine

49th Parallel: where coffee meets chocolate

A while back, I wrote about Soma Chocolatemaker‘s microbatch bars. A few Vancouver readers mentioned that they would love to try the Dark Science Papua New Guinea bar (tastes like toast!) or the Green Tangerine bar (tastes like, erm, green tangerine).

Well, huzzah! You can get select Soma bars at 49th Parallel in Vancouver. They even had some microbatch bars that I didn’t see in Toronto. They also have a nice selection of Askinosie chocolate bars, which I tasted last month and have been meaning to review. I better get on that, eh?

(They also happen to have some lovely coffee, if you’re into that sort of thing.)

49th Parallel Coffee Roasters
2152 4th Avenue West
Vancouver, BC

Green tangerine, where have you been all my life?

A quick Google search of “green tangerine” turns up a scrapbooking store, a spa, and a whole bunch of media companies. I just want to know where to get the damn things so I can try to reverse engineer Soma Chocolatemaker‘s green Tangerine chocolate bar.

Of course, that’s silly. I don’t have a grinder or a conch, or a reliable supply of cacao beans from Madagascar. But, in my dreams I have all those things – and granite countertops, too.

This microbatch chocolate bar is called Dark Fire, and rings in at 66% cocoa content. And it made me say wow. It tastes like 7 am on a beautiful spring day when you went to bed early the night before, and now you’re awake and ready to spring out of bed.

This chocolate is actually refreshing. There’s an immediate kick of bright, acidic lime that mellows to a darker orange-y flavour and just hints at the bitterness of lime zest. Thankfully, it never quite gets there. Chocolate from Madagascar is notorious for its full-on red fruitiness, but I don’t get that from this bar. I’m not sure if the red fruit is just not apparent (whether accidental or intentional) or if it’s just masked by the strong citrus flavours.

I don’t really care, actually. I just want to have another piece.