Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Raaka Chocolate - Green Tea Crunch Unroasted Dark Chocolate 66% (bar) - Feb. 23, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Raaka Chocolate
Green Tea Crunch Unroasted Dark Chocolate 66% (bar)
Good +
Weight: 1.8 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 238 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $6.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Raaka Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and EFGHI Theme Week, where I am featuring chocolate items with flavor inclusions that begin with the letters E, F, G, H and/or I.

Today's Green Tea Crunch Unroasted Dark Chocolate 66% (bar) was made by Raaka Chocolate (Brooklyn, NY).

Tea and chocolate blends can be wonderful. Today's vegan and gluten-free bar incorporated genmaicha* green tea. 

This well-tempered and skillfully-executed chocolate had a dark, faintly green, aroma. 

The base dark chocolate was smooth with tiny crunchy bits from puffed quinoa. Adding a grain of any type (rice, oats, quinoa, etc.) tends to mellow/complement sharp, bitter or earthy notes sometimes found in ultra-dark or bolder chocolates. This bar contained both brown rice* and quinoa.

The bar had a faint pleasant almost floral, grassy, green tea flavor with medium fruit (mild, citrus/tangerine with honey) acidity. The finish had a light, lingering malt/grain flavor, and a relatively long tail with a fleeting, faint uptick of green tea.

The deep, dark, unroasted cacao used to make this bar was from Reserva Zorzal, a cacao-producing private reserve, located in the mountains of Duarte Province in northeastern Dominican Republic.

Ingredients: Organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar, organic cacao butter, organic puffed quinoa, organic genmaicha* green tea.

*This bar was made with genmaicha green tea. Genmaicha ("brown rice tea", also known as roasted rice tea or popcorn tea) is popular in Japan, and is made with green tea and roasted, popped brown rice.

Bear Naked - Cacao and Cashew Granola - Feb. 22, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Bear Naked Granola, Inc.
Cacao and Cashew Butter Granola with fair trade chocolate
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.9 oz. (54 g.) / 11 oz. (311 g.) in total package
Calories: 250 calories in 1/2 cup serving
Cost: $3.78 for 1 package
Purchased from: Walmart, Mountain View, CA (see receipt for price)

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and EFGHI Theme Week, where I'm featuring chocolates that include flavors, or foods that contain chocolate, that begin with the letters E, F, G, H and/or I. 

Today's Cacao and Cashew Butter Granola with pepitas, sea salt and fair trade chocolate was "distributed for" Bear Naked Granola, Inc. (Solana Beach, CA).

There are now many packaged granola cereals that contain bits of chocolate or cocoa. Some of these are so sweet, they taste like broken oat chocolate chip cookie pieces. Others hew closer to the 1960s take on European oat cereals (muesli + brown sugar, etc. with chocolate chunks).  And a delightful few, like today's granola, add a few new elements to arrive at something new and improved.

Today's Cocoa and Cashew granola had a traditional pleasing oat-y aroma and flavor. It also had just the right amount of crunchiness, enhanced by rice crisps. Pepitas (pumpkin seed kernels) added nutritional content (protein, vitamins and minerals), natural color and a soft crunchy chew. The cashew butter and cashew bits added a satisfying, light nutty flavor. And a faint hint of ginger added some warm spice.

And last, but not least, fair trade and semi-sweet chocolate pieces provided rich hints of dark chocolate flavor.

The added sugars were balanced by almost all the other ingredients, oats, rice, semi-sweet "dark" chocolate pieces, nuts, seeds and a touch of sea salt. The resulting sweetness level seemed just right.

I enjoyed this granola three different ways: by itself, with just a little water, and with a little  Genius Mocha Coconut beverage (instead of milk). 

Ingredients: Whole grain oats, semi-sweet chocolate (cane sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla extract), invert cane syrup, rice crisps (rice flour, cane sugar, salt), cashew butter, expeller pressed sunflower oil, cashews, pepitas, whole oat flour, brown rice syrup, cane sugar, sea salt, ginger, rosemary extract for freshness.

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