Micro Batch Dirty White Chocolate from Askinosie

Weight of Dirty White Chocolate Bar

I got an announcement from Askinosie about the second bar from their new micro batch line of chocolate, the 1098 Line. Why is it called that? Two reasons. First, the founder of this company, Shawn Askinosie, is a Family Brother at Assumption Abbey, a Trappist Cistercian monastery here in the Ozark Mountains and the Cistercian Order was founded in 1098. Second, in honor of that date they will only make 1098, one at a time when you order one. After that (I have #811) you won't be able to buy it again for the foreseeable future. This bar is called "Dirty" White Chocolate + Vintage Cocoa Gravel is created from a single origin white chocolate, made with first-press cocoa butter and topped it with chocolate covered, aged cocoa nibs. So go check that out but come back and finish this post, too. I was sent a free bar of "Dirty" White Chocolate Vintage Cocoa Gravel bar in exchange for testing it and writing about it here on The Chocolate Cult; no other form of compensation was received for this honest and as objective as possible post.


The bar came wrapped in recycled and biodegradable material and then enveloped in a canvas bag with the title and number of the bar stamped on it. The bag was made at the Assumption Abbey, a Trappist Cistercian monastery in the Ozark Mountains.

Askinosie Dirty White Bar, 1098 Line

Inside was a bar with the "A" on the white chocolate side

Chocolate Side of Dirty White Askinosie Bar

and the chocolate covered cacao nibs on the other.

Isn't it pretty? Yeah, but you want to know how it was with the other four senses, right? The bar measures 4.25 X2.75 X 2/5th inches to the chocolate not the nib thickness. Once I take the bar out of the plastic wrapped around it, my nose smells a creamy vanilla fragrance with a hint of cocoa from the white chocolate side. The nibs side has a nice cocoa scent with hints of sweetness. The chocolate melts against my fingers as I hold it. A few of the nibs come loose so I taste those alone -- strong, bitter chocolate, the light coating melts off in my mouth. Taking a bite from the nib side against my tongue that nib and chocolate fade lingers to a nice dark chocolatey bitterness that I love. Flipping the bar of makes a very different flavor, one that is very creamy, strongly vanilla, sweet, but with a strong edge of darker chocolate, too. Personally I prefer eating it nib side against my tongue but your preference may be different. I really loved it and I usually am not a fan of white chocolate.

Askinosie has an admirable mission and business model, working directly with farming and channeling some of the profits back to those farmers. Most of their bars and products identify those farmers and the projects that are possible through the sales but not this bar. However it is a high quality product from a quality company and thus rightly earns Sacrament Status!  If this bar looks yummy to you, you need to hurry and order yours before all 1098 bars have been made and we must wait until the next Askinosie Micro Batch comes out and we discover a new creation.

Notes:
Words in Italics are taken from the materials I received with and about the bar.