Thursday, December 19, 2013

Askinosie - Gingerbread Dark Chocolate bar - Dec. 19, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Askinosie Chocolate
Gingerbread Dark Chocolate bar
Very Good
Weight: .75 oz. (21.25 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 115.5 calories in 1/4 bar
Cost: $14.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate and Holiday Spice Theme Week. Another day, another great Limited Edition bar with warm and inviting holiday spices. (This bar even came with crayons to color in a gingerbread factory on the packaging.)

Today's choice: the Gingerbread Dark Chocolate bar from bean-to-bar chocolatemaker Shawn Askinosie, of Askinosie Chocolate (Springfield, MO). This bar tasted "darker" than other chocolates featured this week, in part due to the single origin cacao selected.

The chocolate was made with (Trinitario) cacao beans from Tenende, Tanzania; "minimally processed" and organic cane sugar; cocoa butter (from Tanzania beans); and spices: "ginger, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, clove."

Gingerbread and chocolate is a match made in heaven, especially for winter holidays. Gingerbread and ginger spice cake have been valued as far back as the days of William Shakespeare:

"And I had but one penny in the world. Thou should'st have it to buy gingerbread." 
-- William Shakespeare, Love's Labours Lost

If Shakespeare had been better acquainted with hot drinking chocolate with gingerbread spices (the more likely exposure to cacao in his day), he might have penned a snappy, quotable tribute to the cacao bean. 

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