Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Licious Organic Honey Cookies - Oct. 2, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Crystal River Organics
Licious Organics Honey Cookies
Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor
Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) / 8 oz. (224 g.) in total package of 8
Calories: 130 calories in 1 cookie
Cost: $9.49 for 1 package of 8 cookies
Purchased from: Abe's Market (online order)

Today was Day #2 of Chocolate and Honey Theme Week.

Today's package of Licious Organics Honey Cookies (Crystal River Organics, Boulder, CO) contained 8 individually-wrapped, organic, unbaked oat cookies that were sweetened with Organic Raw Honey -- and flavored with organic peanut butter and chocolate chips.

The cookie packaging pictured a drowsy-looking cartoon bear dipping a paw into a honey jar, with a healthy hive of bees suspended nearby. Also included on the bag were interesting honey-related facts such as:

  • Honey bees fly 80,000 miles to 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey.
  • In her lifetime, a honey bee will produce 1/12 teaspoon of honey.
  • We rely on honey bees to pollinate 80% of our crops, from almonds to berries.
These hard-working bees deserve our support. Honey is a sweet, natural by-product of bee labor that we enjoy. Honey is also tasty when paired with chocolate and nuts, and is great drizzled over some flavors of ice cream. My favorite blends include: vanilla ice cream with saffron honey and pistachios; lavender lemon ice cream with saffron honey and lavender buds; or, chocolate ice cream with orange blossom honey and orange liqueur and almonds. I now prefer honey and/or olive oil over traditional ice cream sauces that can be too sweet and heavy.

Torn Ranch Organic Dark bar - October 1, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Torn Ranch
Organic Signature Dark Chocolate bar
Good - Good +
Weight: .5 oz. (14.1 g.) / 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) in total bar
Calories: 70 calories in 1/3 bar
Cost: $ N/A - sample
Purchased from: N/A

Today was Day #7 of Chocolate and Quinoa Theme Week, and Day #1 of Chocolate and Honey Theme Week.

Earlier this year, I noticed that Torn Ranch (Petaluma, CA) was offering a line of Organic, "Signature" chocolate bars. I tried the milk chocolate version earlier and found it to be well balanced, and very good for a milk chocolate bar.

Today's Organic Signature Dark Chocolate bar was also good, with a dark, slight earthy flavor profile. I enjoyed today's chocolate bar by itself for breakfast, and also made good use of part of this same bar to flavor a bowl of cereal.

Quinoa cereals have grown more popular, including this single serving, ready-to-eat pouch of Honey Almond Quinoa Cereal from Cocomama Foods (Boston, MA). It was very convenient to make and tasted good heated up a bit. However, I thought it was even better, topped with a bit of extra toasted almonds, honey and shaved dark chocolate. 

Alter Eco Noir bar - Sept. 30, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Alter Eco
Mini Dark Noir bar
Good - Good +
Weight: .71 oz. (20 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 105 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: N/A - gift
Purchased from: N/A - gift

Today was Day #6 of Chocolate and Quinoa Theme Week.

Today's organically grown, fairly traded, 60% cocoa (minimum) Mini Dark (Noir) bar was another bar from a company with a mission that included socially-driven goals.

Alter Eco (San Francisco, CA in Americas) is a company that makes chocolate bars, and also sells quinoa, rice and sugar. What's the connection? Alter Eco supports an economic model that includes organic farming, family farms, and production on a "human scale" for all these crops. The company's line of chocolate bars included one that contained quinoa.

However, I'd already eaten Alter Eco's dark bar with quinoa in the past. And, since I've been eating a different chocolate every day for the past seven years, I enjoyed the Alter Eco Noir Mini bar with a Gluten Free, crunchy Quinoa Bar (three crispy, thin "bars" in 1 package) from Oskri (Lake Mills, WI), made with rice syrup, sesame seeds, quinoa and date syrup.

The bar was described on the label as "fruity and malty" ... "smooth and rich." I thought it had a more uniform "dark" taste, with a very faint glimmer of the flavor notes mentioned.

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