The Chocolate Library Experience by Chef Jeffray - Guided Tasting Collection

Story

This is where the journey begins.

Ube, a vibrant purple yam beloved across Southeast Asia, brings a naturally mellow sweetness and gentle earthiness that feels both familiar and exotic. Paired with soft milk chocolate notes and brownie-like richness, this bar invites your palate to relax, open up, and trust the experience ahead.

This bar was co-created by Chef Jeffray and Filipina race car driver Bianca Bustamante as a celebration of heritage, joy, and shared curiosity. It reflects the idea that chocolate can be both playful and meaningful, approachable yet layered with story.

Chocolate should first feel joyful, comforting, and welcoming before it becomes analytical or intense. Think of this bar as the handshake before a deeper conversation begins.

This bar reminds us that curiosity begins with pleasure.

Tasting Cues
• Aroma: vanilla pastry, warm milk, subtle nutty sweetness
• Texture: creamy melt, soft brownie body
• Flavor: gentle sweetness, roasted grain notes, mellow purple yam
• Finish: clean, comforting, lightly sweet

Why It Comes First
Sweetness resets the palate and builds confidence. Starting here allows your senses to wake up gently before moving into deeper cacao intensity.

Take a sip of water between bars. Let the sweetness linger.

This bar reminds us that curiosity begins with pleasure.

**Bar Two | 55% Goats Milk Chocolate - The Velvet Turn

Story

Now the experience deepens.

This bar showcases one of chocolate’s most misunderstood ingredients: milk. But not just any milk. Goat milk brings a naturally lighter body, gentle sweetness, and a clean finish that allows the cacao to speak more clearly. The result is a chocolate that feels rich without heaviness, creamy without cloying, and deeply satisfying without overwhelming the palate.

Months of careful iteration shaped this recipe. The goal was simplicity that reveals complexity. As the chocolate melts, layers unfold slowly. First cream, then cacao warmth, then subtle caramel and nut tones that linger across the tongue. It is the kind of chocolate that quietly earns your attention rather than demanding it.

For guests who believe they already know milk chocolate, this bar gently rewrites that assumption.

Tasting Cues
• Aroma: fresh cream, light caramel, warm cocoa
• Texture: ultra-smooth melt, silky and round
• Flavor: balanced sweetness, soft dairy richness, gentle cacao depth
• Finish: clean, lingering cream notes with subtle toast

Why It Comes Second
After the playful sweetness of the Ube Brownie, this bar introduces refinement and structure. It teaches the palate to slow down, notice texture, and recognize layered flavor development before moving into higher cacao intensity.

Take a small sip of water or a neutral cracker if available. Let the creaminess fully fade before moving forward.

**Bar Three | 74% Sapphire Bar - The Personality

 Story

Now the cacao begins to speak in full voice.

Named Sapphire for its rich depth and sparkling character, this bar channels the essence of an icon — much like the historic Columbia Eastern Building in downtown Los Angeles, one of the most photographed Art Deco marvels in the city. Just as the architecture reveals detail the closer you look, this chocolate reveals nuance the longer you taste.

At 74% cacao, sugar no longer masks flavor; it frames it. This is where origin, fermentation, and roast profiles emerge distinctly. You may detect warm fruit notes, floral tones lifted by acidity, toasted nuts, or subtle spice depending on the harvest and bean. Each square carries the story of sun, soil, and careful craftsmanship.

This is the moment chocolate becomes expressive, revealing why bean-to-bar truly matters. This is where personality appears.

Tasting Cues
• Aroma: deep toasted cacao, faint fruit brightness, spice lift
• Texture: firm snap, slow, structured melt
• Flavor: layered complexity, brightness balanced with depth and cocoa warmth
• Finish: long-evolving notes that continue after the swallow

Why It Comes Third
By now your palate is awakened and refined. After sweetness and silky creaminess, your senses are ready for structure, nuance, and expression. This bar invites attention — not just enjoyment — and prepares the palate for even deeper intensity ahead.

Pause. Let the finish unfold before moving on.

Bar Four | 89% Maple Pacifica – The Ocean’s Echo & Maple Kiss

Story

Here is a bar that balances intensity with poetry.

Maple Pacifica exists at the intersection of wild cacao rhythm and pure north-country sweetness. At 89% cacao, it carries strength, depth, and the earthy voice of the bean — but then it does something unexpected and elegant: it sings. Real Quebec maple syrup, aged and rich, weaves sweetness through the matrix of cacao without dulling it. Pacific Ocean salt — hand-harvested near Carpinteria, California — lifts and clarifies flavor, accentuating cacao brightness while echoing the ocean.

This bar is a tribute to roots and routes: your palate travels from the forests of Québec’s sugarbushes to the sandy shores of the Pacific. Sweetness isn’t a mask here — it’s a lens. It refracts complexity, revealing nuance without hiding strength.

This is a place where sweetness and power meet with intention.

Tasting Cues
• Aroma: deep roasted cacao, warm maple sugar, saline whisper
• Texture: full-bodied melt with slow, rich flow
• Flavor: bold cacao backbone, layered maple warmth, balanced briny lift
• Finish: long, evolving sweet-salt cadence with cocoa resonance

Why It Comes Fourth
At this stage of the tasting, your palate is seasoned. You’ve already experienced sweetness, creaminess, and mid-level cacao expression. Maple Pacifica bridges structure and nuance by introducing a restrained sweetness that doesn’t soften intensity but clarifies it. This bar prepares the senses for the ultimate expression — the pure, unadorned truth of cacao itself — by showing how sweetness and salinity can deepen insight rather than distract from it.

Pause. Let the lingering finish settle before the finale.

 Bar Five | 100% Crystal Bar – The Truth

 Story

This is where the conversation stops and the truth begins.

One ingredient. No sugar. No flavoring. No safety net. Just cacao in its purest form, patiently transformed over more than six months of roasting, refining, aging, and tempering. Every decision shows up in the final bar. There is nowhere for shortcuts to hide.

We believe this may be the first 100% chocolate that isn’t bitter. Prove us wrong. Or better yet, let the chocolate speak for itself.

Among chocolate makers, this bar has earned a quiet nickname: the truth serum. It reveals technique, restraint, and respect for the bean in a way no sweetened chocolate ever could. You taste the fermentation choices, the roast profile, the discipline of time itself. It’s bold, structured, alive. But never aggressive. Never punishing.

This is chocolate stripped of performance and pretense. Just craft, clarity, and honesty on the tongue.

Bold. But not bitter.

Tasting Cues
• Aroma: toasted cacao, subtle florals, warm earth
• Texture: firm snap, slow and precise melt
• Flavor: deep cacao intensity, natural sweetness emerging with warmth
• Finish: long, clean, resonant, quietly complex

Why It Comes Last
Your palate has been trained for this moment. Sweetness softened you. Cream refined you. Structure sharpened you. Contrast prepared you. Now comes clarity. This is the summit of the tasting experience. Sit with it. This final bar removes all distraction and lets cacao speak in its native language. Let the chocolate finish speaking. 

FINAL EXPERIENCE (Not Bar Six — The Nibs!)

The Nibs | 100% Organic Cacao Nibs – Back to the Beginning

Story

After you’ve traveled through five bars of chocolate, your curiosity naturally circles back to one simple question:
Where does all this magic actually begin?

Right here.
With cacao in its raw, honest form.

Each cacao pod carries roughly forty beans. Each tree carries dozens of pods. Those beans are fermented, dried, roasted, cracked, and winnowed until only the pure cacao heart remains. These nibs are the starting point of every bar you just tasted. No sugar. No polish. Just the soul of the bean.

We search relentlessly for cacao that actually tastes good on its own. Not cacao that needs to be rescued by sugar or buried under flavor tricks. Great chocolate starts with great beans, or it doesn’t start at all.

Take a few nibs in your hand. You don’t need many. Chew slowly. You’ll taste brightness, crunch, earth, fruit, sometimes even a little wildness. It’s cacao telling you exactly who it is before it ever becomes chocolate.

And when you’re done tasting? You’ll probably still have 3/4 of a jar left. You can sprinkle them into hot or cold cereal. Toss them into smoothies. Use them instead of pine nuts in a salad for a little rogue brilliance. Perfect for your next Trail mix. They even melt into liquid chocolate under heat and pressure. Not magic. Just good science and beautiful beans.

This is the circle closing.
You’ve tasted the destination. Now you meet the beginning.

Hope this tasting sparked a few chocolate daydreams, a few good conversations, and maybe even a photo or two. Moments like this deserve documenting. Chocolate has a funny way of making memories stick. Share your group tasting photo if you like at info@marsatta.com and we'll include your photo in our Marsatta Tasting Circle on our website.