Binding: Misc. Feature: No sugar added. Ingredients: pure cocoa Label: Essential Pantry Manufacturer: Essential Pantry Publisher: Essential Pantry Size: 2.2 pound/1 kilo bag Studio: Essential Pantry
Features
No sugar added. Produced by the most premiere chocolate company in the world. Highest quality and optimum flavor. One of the best cocoa powders we've worked with. Ideal for making truffles, mousse or hot chocolate.
It all started in 1924 when a pastry chef from Tournon created a chocolate factory, which eventually achieved worldwide recognition, and in 1984 became the first to offer a chocolate with 70% cocoa. Valrhona in Tain l'Hermitage is considered by most pastry chefs and chocolatiers as the premier chocolate company in the world.
Their focus is solely on their chocolate, and to ensure the highest quality, and optimum flavor, they grow their own cocoa beans, their own cane sugar, and their own vanilla on plantations all around the world - now that's quality control.
Valrhona has finally begun to offer its professional products, cocoa and couvertures, packaged for the home pastry enthusiast, in a palette of subtle flavors, to create elaborate and delicious chocolate preparations.
This is an exceptionally fine cocoa powder; it has a very pure and powerful flavor and a beautiful deep mahogany color. With no sugar added, this mouth-watering chocolate powder is ideal for making truffles, mousse or hot chocolate. It's one of the best we've ever worked with.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: The best cocoa by far! Comment: This is by far the best cocoa I have ever used. The rich, dark mahogany color of the cocoa makes your cakes and frostings look and taste so decadent. The flavor is very sumptuous and really sticks out (in comparison with some other brands that blend in too much with the sugar and don't allow the flavor of the chocolate to stand out) After using such a fine quality cocoa, it has become impossible for me to use anything else! Customer Rating: Summary: Pricey but worth it Comment: I buy this stuff at the local Rainbow food co-op all the time. It's really the only place I can find it. I definitely should buy it in bulk more often. It's easily ten bucks for 250 g or a little over 8 oz. This is good, rich stuff. I find I don't even have to use as much of it in any recipe, and if you want hot cocoa... well there is nothing, nothing better, except for maybe a small artisan producer like Taza, which isn't in my city and I won't pay shipping for. I've already tried Scharffenberger. It doesn't compare, although I am considering Dagoba because it's cheaper, and let's face it, I'm poor. I was briefly concerned that it might be Dutch process (not necessarily a bad thing, but not what i'm looking for). Anyway, I've made thin mints with this stuff, and the dough actually came out too strong in chocolateyness, which was not to my family's taste but really good for me. I think it wouldn't be hard to make a very excellent oreo-type dough with this cocoa. As for the product itself, when you open the package, it's a lovely dark reddish brown, with that complex odor that good chocolate has. It actually melts, because it has some cocoa butter still contained in the powder. It sticks to EVERYTHING. I cry a little inside when I spill a bit over the edges of the bowl. My mom loves this stuff. She thinks I'm too snooty about chocolate but ha ha ha, she always steals my Valrhona to use, so jokes on her. She STILL doesn't know exactly how much it costs. I really, really think her brain would explode if I told her. She says she only likes white chocolate, but I think that she secretly does appreciate the good stuff, so I don't mind when I find my valrhona baking bars or cocoa powder half gone. In the end, we both win ... or lose, however you want to look at it. One more thing, I must mention. Good cocoa has fat in it. If you're on weight watchers, turn and run for the hills. No, no wait, come back. That was a little disclaimer. My mom's on weight watchers, and she's always cheating with this stuff. Bad daughter that I am, I never let her see the nutrition facts. because I, personally, think excessive sugar is worse than cocoa butter. One thing you should know about stuff with fat in it, is that it spoils. It's like wheat germ in wheat flour, or oils in nuts. Store it carefully, and use it within, say, three months, or don't be surprised that it went bad. If you're one of those people who lets stuff languish in the cupboards, store it in the fridge if you must. Argh, look at me getting all preachy. Valrhona hardly needs anymore advertisement. It's good, ok? Customer Rating: Summary: Best Cocoa I've found Comment: The is the best dark pure cocoa at the best price that i know of. Its protien, fat, carbohydrate, and fiber levels are ideal. This is the least bitter cocoa powder that i know of. Another poster said it may need salt to bring out the flavor. Letting the valrhona sit around too long definitely goes from good to bad somewhat like nut oils (never eat a nut whose white meat has turned opaque from oxidation - rancid).
When i first tried hersey's dark powder before it was not available hardly anywhere, i thought it was as good as valrhona. A month later, i bought some more hersey's and thought it was awfully bitter, not fit for consumption. I had assumed my taste had change from overdosing on cocoa.
