Our Exotic Bar Armoire spotlight this week is on the cherished Tuscan bean-to-bar chocolatiers of Amedei. Their “Amedei 9” bar is a sensuous and exquisite blend of cacao from 9 different plantations and it has won the prestigious “Golden Bean” award from The Acadamy of Chocolate. This phenomenal offering has high tasting notes of citrus mellowed with undertones reminiscent of toasted nuts and hints of cedar. Wowwie, indeed!
One of the many reasons Amedei is so successful is that this dynamic brother and sister team (Alessio and Cecilia Tessieri) insist on monitoring and controlling a long fermentation and drying process – this is so very crucial in reducing bitterness and developing complex and deep flavor notes. Many times, fermentation is rushed in order to get the beans to market quickly. The Tessieris are also acreddited for saving many rare cacaos from extinction with their careful attention to cacao agronomy and working closely with the farmers. They were once learning and working in conjunction with Valrhona, but there was a bit of a hulla baloo split and the Tessieris set up shop outside of Pisa in the early 90’s. Through very hard negotiations and an ensuing diabolic price war with Valrhona, Amedei secured most of the cacao production form Chuao, a tiny village located in the northern coastal range of Venezuela, where beans of a very rare quality are harvested. Valhrona used to be the main purchaser of the Chuao yields until Amedei squeezed out Valrhona from Chuao and obtained a monopoly on the most desirable cacao beans in the world. In fact, in the world of chocolate, it is still unclear where other brands get their beans from for their own signature Chuao bars considering Amedei’s presence there.
It may have taken a few months to get Amedei into PL&C, but, let me assure you, it will be well worth your wait! Come in and share our amore di cioccolato! Prego!