By Marou Faiseurs de Chocolat, [http://marouchocolate.com/post/58397164815/products]
Amid the booths of world-class chocolatiers, I found Marou Faiseurs de Chocolat and I was able to better understand the mystery that is terroir.
The first chocolate that oozed on my tongue had been grown on Tan Phu Dong, a small island that makes it’s home in the middle of the Mekong Delta. The cacao had traveled along the river and over land until it reached Saigon. There, it was refined and crafted into a chocolate bar. The chocolate then traveled across the Pacific Ocean to the grey North known as Seattle. The chocolate bar was unwrapped at 2:05pm on a Saturday and eaten at minute later. It tasted of coconut and cinnamon, of humid days and long boats.
The second chocolate that I tasted came from the Ba Ria district of Vietnam. Although this chocolate was grown less than 200 kilometers from the MeKong Delta, it was as though I was savoring an entirely different food. This chocolate was fruity instead of earthy. It tasted of flowers, not spice. This chocolate was the jungle, while the first had been the desert.
These two chocolates were the results of almost the same processes, the difference being the location of cacao trees, yet they yielded vastly different flavors. As I tasted the second chocolate, I found that I did believe in terroir and the possibilities that could be.
