Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Andy's Orchard - Chocolate Baby Crawford Peach, Apricot-Rum Butter Sandwich - Mar. 30, 2022

Chocolate(s) of the Day

Andy's Orchard

Chocolate Baby Crawford Peach
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (56.6 g.) (estimate) in total package
Calories: Unknown
Cost: $2.75 for 1 package
Purchased from: Andy's Orchard, Morgan Hill, CA

Apricot Rum-Butter Sandwich
Good +
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (56.6 g.) (estimate) in total package
Calories: Unknown
Cost: $2.50 for 1 package
Purchased from: Andy's Orchard, Morgan Hill, CA

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate Snacks Theme Week.

Today's Chocolate Baby Crawford Peach and Apricot-Rum Butter Sandwich chocolates were from Andy's Orchard (Morgan Hill, CA).

Chocolate Baby Crawford Peach

Sweet milk chocolate surrounding a wonderfully flavorful, moist, dried peach (think excellent, slightly tart, sweet peach jam). 

Many heritage varieties of fruit (including cacao) have more nuanced and delicate layers of flavors. You can almost pick out a faint/delicate floral, citrus or even tropical (mango) fruit notes in certain varieties of apricots and peaches.

The peach was the star of the show in this confection, and rightly so.

Ingredients: Not listed on label (includes dried Baby Crawford peach prepared with sulphur dioxide and chocolate)

Allergen-related information: None listed on small (1-piece) package label

Apricot-Rum Butter Sandwich

Slice this confection open and it looked similar to the above milk chocolate covered peach with a plump, golden-orange fruit center. However, this "sandwich" also had a caramel-colored layer. And it had a rich, caramel cookie aroma. 

The combined sweetness and chew of this generously-sized tart apricot fruit and caramel, stimulated the senses and jolted me awake.

I enjoy complexity within a single origin chocolate or a single heritage fruit, but too many multi-faceted flavors (and too much sugar) can make it difficult to enjoy higher quality ingredients with layered flavors, like today's tart-sweet Blenheim apricot. 

There was a slight rum-butter flavoring in this sandwiched confection, but I preferred to enjoying the pure, special flavors in the apricot, when I could enjoy that separately in one bite.

Again, the locally grown fruit (apricot)** stole the show today.

Ingredients: Dried Blenheim apricot prepared with sulphur dioxide, glace apricot, chocolate, caramel, and rum-butter flavor.

Allergen-related information: None listed on small (1-piece) package label

*Baby Crawford (freestone) peaches are relatively small peaches with fine-grained texture and fairly intense (heirloom) peach flavor.

**Apricots hail from Asia originally, but were spread west via trade routes, and eventually reached California in the 1800s. 

Plums, apricots and cherries were widely cultivated in the San Francisco (South Bay) Area in the 1900s, but eventually prime agricultural land and fruit tree orchards were paved over to make way for houses and technology companies--that would become Silicon Valley. 

Special thanks to Andy's Orchard in Morgan Hill, one of the few remaining operating orchards within an hour's drive (from where I live). Andy Mariani and team operate a small store on-site, where one can find wonderful varieties of fruits. Fresh fruits (including cacao fruit/pulp) are my favorite snacks, other than a well-executed, single origin/heritage variety chocolate.


 

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