Sunday, January 31, 2021

Rowe of Venice - Coconut Organic Gourmet Super Snacks - Jan. 31, 2021

Chocolate(s) of the Day

Rowe of Venice
Coconut Organic Gourmet Super Snacks
Good +
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42 g.) in total package
Calories: 240 calories in 1 package
Cost: $5.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Farm Fresh To You CSA box delivery service, online order

Welcome to Day #11 of Chocolate and ABCD Theme Week, and Day #2 of Chocolate and Coconut Theme Week.

Covid-19 has made travel to chocolate shops and destinations more challenging. So, I was happy to learn that my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm-to-home delivery service offered chocolate items, including craft (bean-to-bar) chocolate (from Theo Chocolate, Cru Chocolate and others) that I've featured previously, as well as several chocolate-related snacks.

Today's first of two chocolate and coconut snacks was from Rowe of Venice Super Snacks (Venice, CA/Los Angeles, CA). Rowe of Venice is the "nutritional love child" of Rowe Samieian, who, inspired by autoimmune issues, consulted with Ayurvedic, Chinese and other medical practitioners to create a series of natural snack offerings.

Today's Rowe of Venice's Organic Coconut Gourmet Super Snacks were vegan dairy free and gluten free. They had a refreshingly authentic, real coconut and almond aroma, flavor and chew with a rich carob flavor note, accented with a faint hint of Himalayan sea salt. Coconut oil and blue agave nectar provided cohesiveness, a touch of healthy fat (satiation) and bit of sweetness. (Note: do watch for nut shell fragments.)

There was one "missing" ingredient here...cacao or cocoa! 

Carob can be a good substitute for people wanting to avoid cacao. Understood. But clearly, Chocolate Banquet welcomes all things cacao. And, more to the point, to qualify for a daily chocolate entry on this site, an item must include some form cocoa solids. 

Thankfully, I'd ordered a second snack item from Farm Fresh To You (with cocoa solids). Both were from the L.A. area. And I've added this item (below). Close call. Cacao withdrawals avoided.

Ingredients: Organic raw almonds, Organic carob powder, Organic unsweetened shredded coconut, Organic raw blue agave nectar, Organic cold-pressed, virgin coconut oil, Himalayan Pink Salt. 

Foodstirs Keto Chocolate Chip Cookies

Foodstirs
Keto Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
Good 
Weight: Portion: 2 small baked cookies / 7.94 oz. (225 g.) in total package of dry mix
Calories: Approximately 110 calories in 2 small cookies
Cost: $7.00 (estimate) for 1 package of mix + cost of additional, required ingredients
Purchased from: Farm Fresh to You, CSA box delivery service, online add-on

The second item sampled today was a finished cookie made from a Keto Chocolate Chip Cookie mix created by Foodstirs (Santa Monica, CA). The company, founded in 2015, sells baking kits, mixes and baked goods. One of the three founders was actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.

I added the required ingredients to this gluten-free cookie dry mix: a generous, lump of butter, almond milk and vanilla extract, and baked them in the oven. 

The resulting cookies didn't taste too sugary sweet which was a plus. There was, however, a noticeable non-sugar, sweetener flavor--from the erythritol used as a sugar replacement, that made the Keto label possible. (The mix also contained stevia, and a bit of organic cane sugar in the chocolate chips.)

The small chocolate chip cookies hung together and browned up fairly nicely (thank you butter). A cookie fresh out of the oven is a pleasure on a cold wintery day.

Ingredients: Organic almond flour, organic erythritol, organic pea protein flour, organic chocolate chips (organic cane sugar, organic cocoa liquor, organic cocoa butter), organic coconut flour, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), sea salt, organic cacao powder, organic stevia extract, organic chocolate extract, organic vanilla extract.

Sahale Snacks - Cherry Cocoa Almond Coconut Snack Mix - Jan. 30, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Sahale Snacks 
Cherry Cocoa Almond Coconut Snack Mix
Good
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) / 10.5 oz. (297 g.) in total box of 7 bags
Calories: 240 calories in 1 bag of snack mix
Cost: $3.99 for 1 box of 7 bags
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #10 of Chocolate and ABCD Theme Week, where I've been featuring chocolate items with flavor inclusions starting with the letters A, B, C and/or D.

Today's Cherry Cocoa Almond Coconut snack item from Sahale Snacks, Inc.* (Seattle, WA) served as an alphabetic trifecta, and provided a lead-in to Day #1 of Chocolate and Coconut Week.

In recent years, chocolate and coconut snack items have multiplied and are easy to find in California. Many of these offerings reflect current food trends (organic, less refined sugar, keto, paleo, grain free, "healthier" snacks with simplified ingredients lists, fewer/no artificial ingredients, etc.). 

Sahale Snacks is known for trail mixes with "nuts, fruits and spices." Many of these, like today's mix, are glazed with a light layer of extra sweetness and flavor (e.g. cashews with a pomegranate coating, or a nut mix with a maple glaze).

Today's glossy snack clusters had a coconut candy aroma and a texture with uniform, optimal crunchiness--from the larger toasted coconut and almond pieces. 

Tiny cacao nibs provided a soft chewy crunch and faint rich flavor accent (although their cocoa flavor was all but eclipsed by other elements). And dried cherry bits added tart sweet fruit sweetness with a softer chew.
 
The flavors were fresh-tasting, sugar-sparkled, and naturally brightened further by a faint hint of citrus and vanilla. The ingredients were relatively high-end and thoughtful. (There were no artificial ingredients and preservatives.) 

However, the glaze that welded small bite-sized confection clusters together contained at least three sweeteners (cane sugar, organic invert sugar and tapioca syrup). The end result was too sweet for me, but this snack mix may appeal to those with a sweet tooth.

Ingredients: Toasted coconut, almonds, organic cane sugar, organic invert sugar, dried cherries (cherries, sugar, sunflower oil), organic tapioca syrup, cacao nibs, sea salt, cocoa, organic extra virgin coconut oil, dried orange peel, natural vanilla extract, pure ground vanilla beans.

*J.M. Smucker Company, a large food company, agreed to purchase Sahale Snacks, Inc. in 2014. The two men who founded Sahale were/(are) outdoor enthusiasts and mountain hikers/climbers who worked at NBC--and who, after an outing on Mount Rainier (a large mountain in Washington State), felt inspired to create a better trail mix.
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