Monday, December 25, 2017

Stone Grindz Chocolate - Cinnamon Cayenne 70% Cacao bar - Dec. 24, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Stone Grindz Chocolate
Cinnamon Cayenne 70% Cacao bar
Good +++
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (56.6 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $7.95 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Stone Grindz Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate Holiday Spice and Maple Theme Week.

It's a cold December evening, and you're craving a hot drinking chocolate with a kick. What do you do?

Well, you could wrap your mittened hands around today's Cinnamon Cayenne 70% Cacao bar from Stone Grindz Chocolate (Scottsdale, AZ).

This bar's balanced aroma and flavor captured the steamy essence of spiced drinking chocolate: warming cinnamon with a slightly delayed hot sparkle of cayenne pepper, in a quality, 70% cacao, bean-to-bar chocolate base.

The Cinnamon Cayenne bar also had a pleasing texture, with a relatively creamy/buttery, even melt.

Happy Christmas Eve to all who celebrate. May all your holiday dreams come true.






Neo Cocoa - Sarsaparilla and Vanilla Toffee Brittle - Dec. 23, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Neo Cocoa
Sarsaparilla and Vanilla Toffee Brittle
Good +++ - Very Good
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total package
Calories: 225 calories (estimate) in 1/2 package
Cost: $10.00 for 1 package
Purchased from: La Cocina, San Francisco Ferry Building, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate, Holiday Spices and Maple Theme Week.

If you like unique, appealing herbal flavors, like root beer, herb/spice teas, vanilla creme soda, please do try this thin, delicious Sarsaparilla and Vanilla Toffee from Neo Cocoa (Belmont, CA).

Today's brittle was another well-executed holiday brittle from this San Francisco Bay Area chocolatier.

The brittle was composed of ultra-slim layers of 72% dark chocolate and toffee fused together. The resulting slim shards were infused with unique sarsaparilla (root) and vanilla flavor that tickled memories of old candy shops. (If you're old enough, you may remember horehound,* sassafras and root beer candy.)

Not to be confused with sassafras (derived from bark and leaves of a tree), sarsaparilla comes from a South American vine. Most edible botanicals and spices seem to harmonize well with chocolate in some form.

Sadly, this brittle disappeared so quickly, the photos taken (shown here) were rather sketchy.

*Horehound is an aromatic mint relative native to Europe and Asia that eventually was brought to the U.S. Although less common now, horehound herbal tea was often cooked with sugar to make hard candy and cough drops in the 1900s.


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