Thursday, June 16, 2022

Green and Black's - Organic Milk Chocolate with Almonds bar - June 16, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Green and Black's
Organic Milk Chocolate with Almonds (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.6 oz. (45 g.) / 3.17 oz. (90 g.) in total bar
Calories: 260 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $4.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA 

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Tea Theme Week. 

Today's Green and Black's Organic Milk Chocolate with Almonds (bar) was made in Italy and distributed by Mondelez Global LLC (East Hanover, NJ).

This bar had true, rich, creamy, sweet milk chocolate aroma and flavor with nutty and caramel notes. (I felt I could really taste the organic milk (24% milk content); and that was a good thing.)

Tea pairing experiments

As for (tea) pairings, it's a bit like mixing paint colors. You can mix two analogous (similar) colors (close to each other on the color wheel), e.g. yellow and orange. Or you can choose opposite colors (e.g. red and green) on the color wheel. Similar colors might be more harmonious. Opposing colors may clash, destroy/dull each other's best attributes, or they might complete each other wonderfully--e.g. adding a bright citrus or fruit note to liven up or add flavor depth to a dark, dense chocolate.

One form of analogous tea pairing might involve mirroring a chocolate's attributes. For example, for this bar: a full-fat, frothy creamy (dairy or almond) milk (black) tea latte with a hint of vanilla. Optional: few drops of authentic almond flavor (extract, liqueur) and splash of hazelnut milk and drizzles of caramelized sugar and chocolate syrups, and whipped cream.

A possible opposite/opposing, yet still somewhat complementary, tea pairing choice: Red Osmanthus Tea with light, bright fruity (apricot, apple) flavor notes. This herbal/Chinese medicinal tea is made with dried, tiny, pale golden, (gui hua) flower blossoms. 

Almonds are related to plums, apricots, peaches and apples. (They're all in the prunus genus.) While osmanthus flowers are in a different family, the aroma/flavor is somewhat similar to these fruits. Note: Brew the dried flower tea for a few minutes with hot water and then decant liquid/tea (discarding the blossoms/tea) soon after the water turns a pale golden color; otherwise the tea will have a slightly bitter taste.

I tried both tea pairing options mentioned above. Either one might work, depending on your taste preferences. 

That said, I would eat some of this chocolate by itself first before pairing it with anything else, as it had deeply satisfying milk chocolate, cream and nutty flavors. Yes, it was quite sweet, but it was also of substantially higher quality than you'll experience than most 37% cacao milk chocolate bars. And the cream and nuts helped balance the sugar.

Maker's description: "rich milk chocolate with whole roasted Mediterranean almonds for a full nutty flavor"

Ingredients: Organic milk chocolate (organic cane sugar, organic milk, organic chocolate liquor, organic cocoa butter, organic soy lecithin, organic vanilla extract), organic almonds.

Allergen-related information: Contains milk, soy, almond. May contain: other tree nuts.

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...