Chocolate of the Day
Chocolarder
Gingerbread 55% Milk Chocolate India (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 200 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order
Welcome to Day #14 of Chocolate and Spices Theme Weeks, and Day #1 of Chocolate and India Theme Week.
When I first started Chocolate Banquet in 2006 I could not find Indian cacao; and even Indian-inspired flavor additions (usually chai blends) to chocolates were rare. Happily, that's changed.
Today's well-tempered bar was made with ginger from the Kamthana Village in the State of Karnataka--located on the (south)western coast of India. Spices and India are forever linked in my mind. And what little flour this chocolate contained was gram (chickpea) flour--a possible nod to Indian cuisine.*
Today's Gingerbread 55% Milk Chocolate India (bar) was made by Chocolarder (Falmouth, Cornwall, UK).
This milk chocolate bar had an aroma with chocolate (cake) and authentic gingerbread spice (star anise, ginger, cinnamon, clove) notes.
The texture and flavor notes were also a thoughtful homage** to favorite ginger-spiced "breads" (more accurately, cookies/biscuits and cakes). Tiny grains of sugar and sea salt added interest to this smooth, spiced chocolate--reminding me of large, soft-ish, gingerbread people (cookies). Smelling of ginger and molasses right out of the oven, they were sprinkled with granulated sugar. If they lasted that long, sugar icing smiles and buttons were later applied.
Maker's tasting notes: "Flavours of fudge and brasil nuts with pockets of fiery ginger and dark molasses."
Ingredients: Cocoa beans, unrefined raw sugar, whole milk powder, gingerbread (oats, gram flour, butter(milk), ginger, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, sea salt).
Allergen-related information: (Contains milk/dairy.) "Made in a factory that also handles tree nuts."
* India produces the most chickpeas (garbanzo beans). Although they may have originated closer to the Mediterranean Sea. There are two main types of this legume (desi and kabuli). Gram flour (besan) is often made with the smaller, browner desi chickpeas. (We see primarily the larger, lighter-colored kabuli type in the US--unless you're enjoying some authentic Indian chana dal perhaps.)
**The inside (plastic-free) packaging for this bar contained the following gingerbread history and description of today's chocolate:
"It is believed that the first gingerbread recipe originated in Greece in around 2400 BC. From there, Chinese recipes were developed in the 10th century and by the late middle ages, Europeans had their own version of the biscuit.
The hard cookies, sometimes gilded with gold leaf and shaped like animals, kings and queens, were a staple at Medieval fairs in England, France, Holland and Germany.
Now in the 21st century, here is our own grown up take on Gingerbread, made exclusively in house, using exceptional ginger sourced from Kamthana village, India."
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