I'm ready to be excited again

I'm ready to be excited again

Carmine Rhino, copyright Sarah Soward 2021. She's pink. She's bold. She's happily raising her head as she walks toward you.

Once upon a time, I worked at a chocolate factory. Part of my job was giving tours of the factory. I got to taste test just about everything that wouldn't hurt me so that I could give the best descriptions possible.

One bar still haunts my food-allergenated-daydreams. It was solid dark chocolate with cacao nibs in it. The first batches were made by hand instead of in the melanger. This made for a greater diversity in the size and distribution of cacao nibs. It also made for a pleasantly grittier sugar experience. The difference in size of the nibs was particularly delicious. It created a variety in flavor impacts as well as texture. To eat a bite of that bar was to taste cacao-born explosions of fruit, berries, and sunshine wrapped in silky dark chocolate coffee notes broken on the shoulders of sugar crystals.

Those first batches were so confoundingly delicious that I would sometimes work myself into such a frenzy of exposition during a tour that I'd pull out a chair, kick off my shoes, and lunge up to deliver the rest of my nib-praising speech.

I'm ready to be that excited again.

Back to blog