Purissima Maxima by Tiroler Edle, cocoa with no added sugar
Purissima Maxima by Tiroler Edle is a dark cocoa bar with milk; it contains naturally occurring sugar. The ground bean is followed by powder from the Tyrolean Grey cattle, and this simple recipe creates a melt-in-the-mouth texture that one would hardly expect from such a dark chocolate.
Purissima Maxima is the purist variety from Tiroler Edle in Landeck in the Upper Inn Valley, a fifty-gram bar with at least 70 percent cocoa. The rest consists of whole milk powder, which softens the bitterness and gives the chocolate a creamy tone.
Dark in snap, soft on the palate
The Purissima snaps dry and dark, and within a few moments in the mouth, it becomes soft and velvety. The snap sounds bright and clean, which speaks for a well-tempered mass.
The high cocoa content provides a deep, spicy foundation. The bar contains naturally occurring sugar, but because there is no added sugar to buffer the bitter compounds, the milk fat takes on this role. It coats the finely ground particles and rounds off their edges, so that the chocolate tastes dark without scratching the throat.
What remains afterwards is a dry, roasted note, in which the bean becomes distinct once more. The sweetness recedes and allows the fruit to take center stage.
The bar that is officially called something else
Strictly speaking, the Purissima Maxima cannot be called chocolate, and the reason for this is printed in small letters on the back of the packaging.
The official definition of chocolate requires added sugar, and this recipe leaves exactly that out; the bar contains only naturally occurring sugar.
Rio Caraibe, the bean behind the Purissima
For the raw mass, Tiroler Edle works with a cocoa called Rio Caraibe, whose warmth comes from a long roasting process.
The more cleanly a bean is fermented, the less a recipe needs to mask later on, and that is what the Purissima builds its entire profile on. In Landeck, the mass is hand-scooped and spread into the mold, which is why the edges are slightly irregular. Many hours go into the roasting, rolling, and conching, during which the acidity diminishes and the spice comes to the fore.
The milk for this comes from the Tyrolean Grey, a small, robust breed that spends the summer on alpine pastures and whose milk is correspondingly rich.
With espresso, with red wine, properly stored
At room temperature, the dark base opens up most fully; straight from the fridge, the Purissima seems firmer and more closed. A strong espresso holds its own against it well, as does a mature red wine, and two pieces are enough after a meal.
Store an opened bar in a cool, dry place, but not next to spices, as the fat in the bean readily absorbs foreign odors. Giving it as a gift is a perfect choice for anyone who likes it dark, and the black packaging makes no fuss about itself.
Things get fresh with the Purissima Maxima Mountain Mint, alongside which you can find other Purissima varieties and the entire Tiroler Edle assortment.
