Olive and Sinclair
Duck Fat Caramels
Sea Salt and Vinegar Caramels
Smoked Nib Brittle
Bourbon Nib Brittle
Mexican-Style Cinnamon Chili Chocolate Bar
Sea Salt Chocolate Bar
Coffee Chocolate Bar / Salt and Pepper Buttermilk White Chocolate Bar
Having seen the words Olive and Sinclair, or O+S, on almost every menu in Nashville over the course of more desserts than most would dare to try in just a five day span, it was at the Chocolatiers factory that Saturday afternoon found us and with the admission fee easily reimbursed on items in the giftstore where samples of no less than five chocolates were offered in limitless quantity one would be hard pressed to name a better way to spend an hour, let alone five bucks.
Originally a bean-to-bar outfit, but recently making its name with brittles and caramels oft named amongst the nations ‘best-of,’ Olive and Sinclair is a far smaller operation than their Whole Foods reach would make one guess yet at the same time certainly larger than spots like Dandelion or Tcho, let alone the newly hatched HeXX back home in Nevada.
Utilizing old stone grinders, admittedly for show according the owner Scott Witherow, before proper milling, blending, tempering, and more the tour at O+S takes the visitor literally from bean to bar and allowing for tastes of dried cacao, black liquor, and the milkfat white chocolate in their purest forms a sense of passion is clearly perceived, the final station showing off Brittle made of smoked cocoa from nearby purveyors of cured meats.
Clearly playing on Southern themes with bars that include everything from buttermilk to bourbon it warrants mention that Olive and Sinclair’s chocolates are not the typical flavors one would associate with purity, region, or terroir, yet with flavors that pop and smoothness almost incomparable in the market the decision of which is ‘best’ largely becomes one of personal preference – the dark sea salt a bit too ‘fruity’ for my preferences while the cinnamon chili was admittedly a shocker in its subtleties, both brittles pleasant in their slowly evolving flavor profiles beneath bold topnotes while a duo of caramels rivaled the best on this side of the Atlantic, the acidic finish likely not to everyone’s taste but lightly reminiscent to that of a Chess Pie and all the better for it in my eyes.
http://www.oliveandsinclair.com/our-factory/