Friday, May 24, 2019

Hogarth Chocolate Makers - Rose and Vanilla Tea bar - May 24, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Hogarth Chocolate Makers
Rose and Vanilla Tea bar
Good ++
Weight: 1.235 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 194.6 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA


Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate, Coffee and Vanilla Theme Week and Day #1 of Chocolate and Flowers Theme Week (and is the second of two posts today).

Today's Rose and Vanilla Tea bar was from Hogarth Chocolate Makers (Nelson, New Zealand).

This 70% cacao (Madagascar) dark chocolate was infused with Dilmah Tea rose and vanilla tea, and was a New Zealand collaboration between chocolate maker Karl Hogarth and chef Simon Gault.

After opening the inner gold pouch that contained this dark bar, the smell of rosewater wafted up, with light fermented leaf/plant and vanilla notes in the background. If I was blindfolded, doing a taste test, I might not have guessed initially I was smelling a chocolate bar. However, it was early morning and the room was cold. Once it warmed up a few degrees, the dark chocolate aroma came to the forefront.

Meant to conjure images of a "high tea in a rose garden," this chocolate did just that. I also imagined fleeting images of Alice in Wonderland and a lost white rabbit, but that's another story.

The base dark chocolate was flavorful, slightly fruit-acidic, and not too sweet. The rose flavor continued to perfume the tasting experience from beginning to end. If you like floral flavors and scents, this light lingering rose note will be a lovely trait.

The Hogarth team hand mold their bars. And the mold design for this vegan, gluten free and soy free chocolate bar—with an "H" (for Hogarth) signature "block" in the center—was beautiful. We hesitated to break a piece off to taste, thus ruining the design.






Enlightened - Cold Brew Coffee Chip ice cream bars - May 24, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Beyond Better Foods, LLC
Enlightened Cold Brew Coffee Chip bars
Good
Weight: 3.75 fl. oz. (110 mL) (70 g.) in 1 bar / 15 fl. oz. (440 mL) in box of 4 bars
Calories: 90 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $3.79 for 1 box of 4 bars
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate, Coffee and Vanilla Theme Week, and Day #1 of Chocolate and Flowers Theme Week.

Today's Enlightened Cold Brew Coffee Chip frozen bars were manufactured for Beyond Better Foods LLC (Bronx, NY). Small espresso chips with a hint of chocolate were embedded in a smooth coffee ice cream base.

This cool, frozen bar had a mild coffee-mocha flavor without a lot of chocolate to it. (In fact, the second entry for today was a 70% cacao chocolate bar with rose and vanilla (see post that follows this one). And this second bean-to-bar chocolate entry supplies the chocolate and vanilla flavors that are less present with this ice cream bar while providing a segue into a chocolate and flowers theme week.)

The Quest for a Lighter, Better Ice Cream
The Enlightened Cold Brew Coffee ice cream bar exemplified the perennial quest of suppliers to come up with good tasting, yet somehow healthier//better ice cream. In fact the tagline for today's bars read: "The Good-For-You Ice Cream."

Recent iterations of light ice cream often have more protein, fiber and less sugar. A step in the right direction (or back to basics) one might conclude—even if the ingredients* list is quite long.

One of today's bars contained 7 grams of protein and only 5 grams of sugar (plus erythritol and monkfruit extract). And, if one is counting calories, this bar contained only 90 calories in 1 bar.

*Ingredients: Skim milk, milk protein isolate, erythritol (natural sweetener), non-GMO soluble corn fiber, coffee, cream, cane sugar. Contained 2 percent or less of vegetable glycerin, dutched cocoa, coconut oil, carob gum, guar gum, mono and diglycerides, monk fruit extract, natural flavor, ghee, corn starch, soy lecithin


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