Sprouts Farmers Market - Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola (with honey) - June 26, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Sprouts Farmers Market

Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola (with honey)

Good - Good +

Weight: 1 cup (60 g.) (2 servings) / 12 oz. (340 g.) in total package

Calories: 240 calories in 1 cup (2 servings)

Cost: $5.99 for 1 package

Purchased from: Sprouts Farmers Market, Mountain View, CA

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate, Bees and Trees Theme Week; and Day #1 of Chocolate and Red Fruit Theme Week. (The red fruits featured today were cherries and red plums.)

Today's Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola was made for Sprouts Farmers Market(s) (based in Phoenix, AZ).

This granola had a light, satisfying crunchy texture and was full of sweet chocolate and oat flavors, with spikes of dried cherry. This granola also was sweetened with honey. (Thank you bees.) 

I enjoyed 1 serving of this dark chocolate granola for breakfast. Later in the day I enjoyed a second serving, in the form of a tasty homemade ice cream parfait with this granola as one of three layers. 

The other two layers were: 1.) vanilla, hazelnut and chocolate fudge ice cream with a touch of whiskey, and 2.) red plums--freshly picked from a tree, washed and simmered with pine tree honey to make a red fruit sauce/topping. (Thanks Bill for sharing your plum harvest/windfall.) Bees seem to like these plum trees as well.* The fresh, cooked red plums with pine honey was a great complementary flavor and added some rich magenta red color.

Add a few blueberries and you might enjoy this red, white and blue (and chocolate) all-American dessert next week as part of the 4th of July Independence Day holiday here in the U.S.  

*Insects (including bees) and the wind pollinate many fruit trees, including cacao fruit trees and plum trees. Caca trees are primarily pollinated by midges--small insects that resemble tiny flies or mosquitos.

5,000 Different Chocolates and Counting - Thank you all!

5,000 Different Chocolates and Counting

Last month I sampled my 5,000th chocolate. Thank you to all who have made this possible.
To put the number 5,000 into perspective, I've included some thoughts below.

Many chocolates, many hands - The 5,000 different chocolates I've featured, were products from more than 1,500 different companies or suppliers--ranging from large corporations to small craft chocolate makers.

5,000 cocoa beans - It takes approximately 5,000 cocoa beans to produce 10 pounds of chocolate. The 5,000 chocolates I've sampled weighed more than 313 pounds (141 kg.), meaning I may have consumed more than 156,000 cocoa beans over this past 13+ years.

Busy Bees - Since I've been talking about bees and honey this week, here's an interesting statistic that puts this my milestone number in perspective: Bees can visit up to 5,000 flowers--in one day.* It's mind-opening to think these important pollinators work this hard. By comparison, I look like a slow-moving slug. It took me more than 13 years to track down and eat 5,000 different chocolates.

Chocolate exports - Shipments of chocolate have gone up and down across the globe in the last few centuries, mostly up, as the shift from drinking chocolate to finished chocolate bars and confections progressed. Exports of chocolate from Switzerland to France increased from less than 1,200 tons in 1913 to nearly 5,000 U.S. tons by 1917.

A century later, Switzerland's chocolate exports (to the world) are north of 132,000 U.S. tons; 2018 estimate). In 2019, France still had a healthy trading relationship with its chocolate neighbor...France imported $106.4 million (USD) worth of chocolate(s) from Switzerland, despite growing imports from other European countries in this area over time.

5,000 pound candy bar - Earlier this year (Jan. 2020), Hershey's Chocolate Co. announced a record-setting chocolate-nut (Reese's Take 5) bar that weighed 5,943 pounds (2,695 kilos). It was 2.74 meters long--or 9 feet x 5.5 feet in size. That's a lot of chocolate, any way you slice it. I'm sure another large chocolate producer is already working to break this chocolate-nut bar record, if they haven't already.

$5,000 bills - Trivia item - At one time the U.S. printed $5,000 dollar bills. They are now collector's items. I am hoping I find one. That would almost cover a year's worth of daily chocolates and chocolate-related expenses. (Craft chocolate bars range from $8.00 - $14.00 each.)

*Source for the up to 5,000 bee visits per day to flowers number: beehealth.bayer.us website - Bee Facts - Bee Health.