The Xocolate Bar
1.) Chocolate Dipped Ginger
Good++
Weight: .5 oz. (14.1 g.) (estimate) in 1 piece
Calories: 70 calories (estimate) in 1 piece
Cost: $2.50 (estimate) for 1 piece
Purchased from: The Xocolate Bar
2.) St. George Absinthe Truffle
Good - Good +
Weight: .4 oz. (11.32 g.) (estimate) in 1 piece
Calories: 60 calories (estimate) in 1 piece
Cost: $2.50 (estimate) for 1 piece
Purchased from: The Xocolate Bar
It's Day #22 of Chocolate, Fruit and Botanicals Month. I'm moving away from fruits and into spices today, with a short series of chocolates blended with ginger. The ginger we eat is from a rhizome* of the ginger plant, although it's commonly referred to as ginger root.
Today I enjoyed two bonbons from The Xocolate Bar (Berkeley, CA). One was a generous round slice of candied ginger, partly dipped in dark chocolate. And the second was infused with Absinthe (a botanical based spirit) from St. George Distillery (Alameda, CA).**
The dark chocolate-dipped ginger piece had a great, natural sweet and spicy ginger kick and a slightly chewy texture. The ginger was a great match with the rich, dark chocolate.
The attractive Absinthe chocolate was a shimmering turbaned man's face (Aladdin or a genie perhaps?) and had a creamy dark chocolate melt and faint Chinese five spice flavor (fennel/anise) notes.
*A rhizome is actually a stem that spreads out horizontally in the ground. Both roots and shoots can grow from rhizhomes. I'm growing ginger in my kitchen. I started this plant from a piece of ginger I bought at the store. I hope, by next year if all goes well, to be able to harvest my own crop of fresh ginger.
**Note: I was tempted to re-sample the company's Cardamom Truffle (a spice made from the seeds of a plant from the ginger family). I'd tasted this Cardamom Truffle in 2010, and it was also came in a face-shape form (Ramses or King Tut perhaps?).
