Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Coco Polo - Toasted Coconut Chia bar - March 4, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Coco Polo
70% Dark Chocolate Toasted Coconut Chia bar
Good
Weight: .564 oz. (16 g.) / 2.82 oz. (80 g.) in total bar
Calories: 76 calories in 1/5 bar
Cost: $5.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Fresh Market, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #4 of Chocolate and Coconut Theme Week.

The desire for chocolate with less sugar (for both health and taste preference reasons) has resulted in many different offerings over time, ranging from 100% cacao chocolate bars (with no added sugar) to chocolates with artificial sweeteners and lower-glycemic "natural" sweeteners.

Today's sugar-free, Toasted Coconut Chia bar was from Coco Polo (Highland Park, NJ). The company offers a line of bars made with fair trade cocoa and sweetened with Reb A (an extract of stevia*) -- and they've worked out a formulation where there is little or no stevia aftertaste.

The bar had a much less "sugary" flavor than most chocolate bars. Less sweet is usually good for me, as I like to taste the underlying chocolate and inclusions. And others may like the slightly lower caloric count and lack of sugar spike. The coconut in this bar was subtle and natural tasting. Added cocoa butter made this gluten-free, Non-GMO and vegan bar a little richer and smoother.

*Stevia comes from a plant native to South America. The leaves of this plant (Stevia rebaudiana) are naturally very sweet, and have been used for a very long time by the peoples of Paraguay and Brazil in teas and as a sweetener.
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