The Lithuanian sauna is anything but a spa procedure. It's an esoteric experience where bathers "die and resurrect". In pagan times people used the sauna for bathing, giving birth, preserving and worshipping. Pitch black walls, hot stones and steam enable bathers to build the spiritual bond with basic elements of fire and water while a heady aroma of Siberian fir whisks and wormwood leaf rustle opens up their consciousnesses. As a black sauna enthusiast and chocolate maker, Domantas from Naive was tempted to interpret his black sauna experience through chocolate. Would you like to taste how? To the old Gods!
FACTS. In the deciduous forests of Lithuania, tiny log cabins layered with moss dot the countryside. These are the smoke saunas - places to bathe bodies and cleanse spirits. The aroma of alder wood and stripped birch, burning below hot stones, wafts through the air. Once the stones reach peak heat, the smoke is vented. The ceremony begins with salt rubs, followed by tree twig whisking and finished with a cold plunge. The oldest written references to the practice date back to the 13th century, and Unesco includes the tradition as a part of "the intangible cultural heritage of humanity."
This chocolate is made in-house with organic specialty cacao, which is mixed in certain proportions to form a clean, rich and flavorful base.
ABOUT FORAGER COLLECTION. The Forager collection concept is mildly experimental and multilayered. At first, they deconstruct all ingredients and then combine them back to create of chocolate bars with 'patented' flavours. With this collection Naive has created a new way of introducing flavours into the chocolate by using locally sourced and intense ingredients refined into the chocolate bar allowing them to naturally extend the complex chemical flavour composition of cacao.
Features
FLAVOUR NOTES. Initial punch of strong and smoky flavour followed by sweet and aromatic pine notes. Biting bitterness of the wormwood at the finish.
PAIRING SUGGESTIONS. Try it with herbal tea. mint or chamomile tea.
Ingredients
smoked cacao*, cane sugar*, pure cacao butter*, Siberian fir (2%)*, activated birch charcoal*, wormwood (1%), sea salt. May contain traces of milk, wheat, tree nuts or peanuts. Cacao min. 70%. *wild or all-natural farming!
Weight: 57 g
Maker Description
In a little town on the Eastern side of Lithuania, Naive Chocolate makes outstanding bean-to-bar chocolate. Each and every morning, the chocolate master carefully roasts fresh cacao beans whose delicious aroma gently awakens the residents of the town. Just as they were hundreds of years ago, cacao beans are slowly rolled and conched to release their extraordinary bouquet of fruits, nuts and flowers in a delicately finished chocolate bar. These handcrafted bars are later stored to mature and form a complicated array of tastes and seasonings. Two key principles are most important to Naive. First, the maker only works with the best ingredients in the world. Second, they seek to become world-class craftsmen in working with this type of exquisite production. Naive makes chocolate in ways that help to reveal the character of a particular cacao bean. The chocolate is finally born after a meticulous analysis of taste, colour, smell and texture.
