Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate - Candied Almond with Cinnamon 73% bar - Oct. 12, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate
Candied Almond with Cinnamon 73% Northerner Blend 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: $7.20 for 1/2 bar
Purchased from: Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate (online order)

Welcome to Day #12 of Chocolate and Almond Theme Week.

Today's Candied Almond with Cinnamon 73% Northerner Blend bar was crafted by Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate (Eureka, CA).

Packaging is the first level of a chocolate tasting experience. And in the case of Dick Taylor, seeing this bar was like coming back to an old friend. The duo behind Dick Taylor (Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor) has focused with great attention to detail on all aspects chocolatemaking, from outer packaging to the bar inside.

What a great bar to warm up an early fall morning.

This bar had an intriguing aroma, with a hint of malty nuttiness and faint fresh bread (freshly baked and toasted rye bread). This bar might pair quite nicely with a beer. (In fact, there is a note on the Dick Taylor website that suggested a Dick Kukmin IPA was enjoyed with this bar.)

Upon biting into the bar, one was greeted with sweetness and chocolate with flavor depth (with balanced stone fruit acidity and true cacao notes). A well-made bar will have few ingredients, but will have the multi-layered voice of a choir.

This four-ingredient bar (organic cacao, organic cane sugar, organic almonds and organic cinnamon) was relatively thin, making flavors very accessible. The flavorful dark chocolate (73% cacao) was interspersed with bits of finely chopped California almonds, "candied" with sugar and cinnamon.

The base chocolate, Dick Taylor's own Northerner Blend, was made from a combination of Madagascan and Brazilian cacao.