Krakakoa came across my radar several years ago. It was near Christmas and they were selling beautifully packaged gift boxes of flavoured chocolates at a fair. I ordered a couple as gifts and was lucky to have a personal delivery by Sabrina Mustopo, founder and CEO of Krakakoa. (I might add that I was a very popular gift-giver that year.)
Sabrina and I hadn’t caught up again until this year. Over coffee, we enjoyed a lovely chat and at the end, she gave me a bag filled with beautiful Krakakoa chocolate. Thank you, Sabrina!
It was my pleasure to conduct a tasting of their special single-origin bars and I encourage you to find out How to Taste Chocolate and download our Chocolate Tasting Sheet to help you out.
You can find Krakakoa on Redmart/Lazada.
About Krakakoa Chocolate
Not just bean to bar, Krakakoa produces farmer to bar chocolate, taking the chocolate-making process one step further. Working directly with farmers in Indonesia, Krakakoa Chocolate ensures the cacao is sustainably grown and each bar is crafted with passion and purpose. They train, harvest, ferment, dry, sort, roast, winnow, grind, temper, shape and wrap their chocolate, completing the cycle of farmer to bar.
In addition to their Single Origin bars, Krakakoa still produces the flavoured chocolates that I was first introduced to several years ago. They also expanded their range to chocolate snacks like Chocolate Bark and Blinkies.
For those who want to explore chocolate at various percentages, the have bars varying from 45% milk chocolate to 100% dark chocolate. I made chocolate ice cream using their 85% and 70% bars and the result was sensational. A recipe post for another time!
These bars in their varying percentages are unique because they only use Arenga palm sugar harvested in Sulawesi. Arenga palm sugar is rich in vitamins and minerals, has a lower GI and is harvested in an environmentally conscious way while supporting the community. A feel-good bar of chocolate for sure.
So let’s taste some chocolate!
I’m starting with the bar that contains the most sugar but in actuality, we tasted these in order of highest percentage of cocoa to lowest. I got some tasting help from a couple of coffee connoisseurs as I knew their palate would be highly sensitive to these flavours. Thanks for the help, Paul and Serena (also Aza and Mark) at the Perk Coffee office!
70% Cocoa Single Origin Sumatra Sedayu
This 70% bar started with a big hit of malt, melting slowly to a honey finish. A dark caramel colour, we found it to have a crisp snap and a dry, smooth mouthfeel. While the chocolate is sweet, the sweetest of all due to it’s 70% cocoa, we could discern flavours of raisin and berries. It’s faintly creamy. Light, spicy notes come through and there is only a hint of bitterness and tanginess at the end.
A fantastic bar for someone just starting out with bean to bar or farmer to bar chocolate.
75% Cocoa Single Origin Sulawesi Saludengen
Of all the bars, this one contained the most interest for us. It had complex flavours ranging from rum, liqueur and dried fruit. Deep molasses in taste, it was slightly tangy with soft acidity. Dark almond in colour, it snaps crisply. Another slow-melting bar, the Sulawesi had tea-like characteristics and was slightly astringent to the mouth. Dried fruit and smokiness adds additional flavour notes to a very interesting bar to taste.
This is a great bar for anyone who loves chocolate and especially for the discerning palate.
85% Cocoa Single Origin Bali Pulukan
The bar containing the most cocoa at 85% was also the most bitter. At a start, we found a burst of tanginess that was quickly overpowered by the deeply bitter taste. For those of us who love tastings, bitterness is actually a good thing. While dark and deep, the flavour was light on the palate with notes of earth and wood. The bar from Bali was a dark mocha colour and hard to snap however the dry astringency of the chocolate, once nibbled on, gave beautifully prune and dried fruit flavour.
A bar for the true dark chocolate lover.
Thanks so much, Sabrina and Krakakoa for these amazing bars of Single Origin, Farmer to Bar chocolates. It was a pleasure to taste them!
Find Krakakoa at their website krakakoa.com
Facebook: krakakoa
Instagram: @krakakoa
While they are predominately based in Indonesia, you can also find them at the following locations in Singapore:
The Social Space (Kreta Ayer and Marina One)
The Moon
Naiise (Katong, Wisma Atria, Suntec and Jewel)
The Capital Kempinski Hotel
You can also find Krakakoa on Redmart/Lazada.
We were not paid to write this story and our reviews are honest. The chocolate was gifted to us under no obligation. Thank you so much, Sabrina and Krakakoa!
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