Goodnow Farms Asochivite Chocolate with Maple Sugar – Sure to Delight

The Goodnow Farms Chocolate Single Origin, Small Batch, 70% Cacao Asochivite Premium Dark Chocolate from Guatemala with Maple Sugar, was a gift from a beloved family member this holiday season. We’re so thankful.

Maple sugar?! We’d never had chocolate with maple sugar. What kind of decadence awaited our taste buds?! This was simply too exciting. The chocolate packaging featured two layers — a beautiful, textured paper with the branding label on the exterior, and on the interior, a golden wrapper hugging the cocoa.

The bar’s label showcased a winter scene of a snow-covered house set in the woods, and a glass bottle of maple syrup in the foreground. We delighted in the design of the packaging, and quickly noticed the sticker on the bar: Academy of Chocolate Bronze Winner 2018. After some quick researching, we discovered that this bar also won the 2018 International Chocolate Awards, World, Alternative Sugar, Silver. The bar won the same award for the Americas region. Imposing trophies!

Goodnow Farms Chocolate is based in Massachusetts, we learned, after turning over the label and reading more text. The bar’s branding read:

“Here at our New England farm, we carefully roast, grind, and conche small batches of these beans to highlight their full depth and complexity.”

And reading more, yielded:

“Our maple sugar is sourced locally from family owned and operated Severance Maple in Northfield, MA. The blend of New England maple with Guatemalan cacao makes this bar extremely fruit forward, with a sweet maple finish.”

It was finally time to unveil the bar. Unwrapping it quickly showed us the pretty molding of “Goodnow Farms Chocolate” written across the dark chocolate. The bar’s thickness seemed to be exemplary; not too heavy but not to thin, and breaking off a piece, the snap was absolute.

Smelling the bar was captivating; warming, happy aromas of raspberry, prunes and pine trees swirled in our minds. Nibbling into the chocolate, the bar’s integrity held quite firm, neatly breaking off into pieces on the tongue and yet hesitating before melting away into chocolate oblivion.

After savoring this bar for a few minutes, we realized that this chocolate delivers flavor notes that expand immediately into the cheek pockets of one’s mouth; it’s like a chocolate snap and then burst of fresh fruit flavor in the sides of the cheeks. What we mean is, there’s a sweetness that pops into tangy citrus and expands “outward” as the chocolate melts over the taste buds. Incredible.

All in all, this bars’ flavor progression is absolutely lovely. We think of this bar’s whole tasting experience as a sort of symphonic/visual/video.

Ergo, here’s what this Goodnow Farms Chocolate 70% Asochivite would look, sound (and taste) like in a movie clip:

Crisp snap, bite, deep dark chocolate brownie unfolding slowly, expanding cymbal music, burst of citrus/lemon squeeze, red fresh raspberries, clean blankets of white snow, and, a slow, drizzling maple syrup to bring in a flurrying of dark cocoa as the finale. Delicious. We wish we could quickly create a chocolate flavor video for you for this bar, reader. Alas, perhaps next time. Better yet, pick up this bar for yourself or a friend.

To conclude, did this bar provide a time cupsoul? You guessed it! 100%. We haven’t seen these bars sold in DC, yet, and as we mentioned, this bar was a gift to us. It seems that the Asochivite bars are sold for approximately $9, on their website, here.

Wishing you many time cupsouls and serene, inspired time with family and friends this holiday season,

Time Cupsoul