Stay tuned as we post selections from Ari’s list in the coming weeks!

Marou Artisan Chocolate Bars from Vietnam

Made by a pair of Frenchman, Vincent Morou and Samuel Maruta, who, despite a complete lack of formal career training in cacao, have studied and struggled and finally successfully put together some of the tastiest chocolate bars I’ve had in a really long time. A quick look at their life paths early on would hardly have led you to believe that they’d be bringing these amazing chocolates to the world. They have backgrounds in banking and marketing, not food, and definitely not chocolate, and neither is from Vietnam, so their story is a rather unlikely one. Vincent and Samuel have been working for six years or so to put this project together. Cacao obviously is not indigenous to Southeast Asia. It originated in South and Central America and was taken to Europe, and then Asia and Africa, by Europeans. But South Vietnam, it turns out, is an ideal climate in which to grow cacao.

photo from: http://marouchocolate.com/

As Vincent explained to me, “The French colonialists had tested cacao in the 19th century with success but switched to coffee since they could not compete with the Philippines and Indonesia in the cacao market. What I realized initially,” he went on, “was that no one was making chocolate in Vietnam from the cacao that is grown within a 2 hour radius from Saigon. Almost all the Vietnamese cacao is sold to commodity traders like Cargill for export. What I realized later,” he said, “was that only a few chocolate makers in the world are making artisanal export quality chocolate locally from within the country of origin. Most mass producers or even artisans prefer buying from traders or farmers and shipping the beans back to their native country. This has been the tradition for hundreds of years. Some traditions,” he concluded, “are meant to be broken.”

We have three of the Marou bars at the Zingerman’s Deli. The first is the 75% cacao bar made from beans from Ben Tre province on Vietnam’s southeast coast. Remarkably cinnamon-y (and yet no cinnamon or other spice has been added) and also hints of cloves, or maybe nutmeg. Margot Miller, who used to manage the chocolates so well at the Deli, said the same thing. “It reminds me of a German spice cookie,” she said as we struggled to describe the bar’s
unique deliciousness.

photo from: http://marouchocolate.com/

The second bar is equally excellent. It’s made from cacao that
comes from farms in the Tien
Gang region, just a bit to the
north of Ben Tre. The Tien
 Gang bar is a touch lower in
cacao content and just a bit
sweeter as a result but both are
definitely dark chocolates and both
are definitely very good. This one is deep, dusky, sensual, long lingering with a lot more low notes and a finish that I swear is a bit smoky and that gets me thinking of Chinese green gunpowder tea.

The third, Lam Dong is made from cacao beans grown in the country’s Central Highlands. Lam Dong province is unusual in Vietnam because it doesn’t have a border with any other country. The region is made up of both mountains and plateaus and is the source of seven major river systems. The chocolate bar is, as are all the Marou bars, pretty majestically marvelous. 74% cacao so it’s quite dark, it’s very creamy, almost fudgy, on the tongue. The flavor is clearly cacao, but with hints of dark fruit. It has a touch of dark black cherry, so much so that it’s almost juicy and a sensual spicy finish with maybe a snippet of cinnamon.

photo from: http://marouchocolate.com/

Aside from all that, Vincent and Samuel have designed packaging for their bars that’s as unique as the flavors. Based on beautiful old Vietnamese rice paper designs, printed on silkscreen by a local print shop, they really are incredible. They’ve actually won awards for the packaging—the Academy of Chocolate called them “beautiful enough to frame,” and I agree. The chocolate itself as been winning awards as well, and for good reason—it really is terrific.