Monday, October 17, 2022

Siddha Chocolate - Clean Cacao 70% Cacao + Vitamin D3 - Oct. 17, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Siddha Chocolate
Clean Cacao 70% Cacao + Vitamin D3 
Good ++
Weight: 1.6 oz. (45 g.) in total package
Calories: 240 calories in 1 package
Cost: $4.00 (sale) for 1 package
Purchased from: Safeway, Mountain View, CA

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate and Botanicals Theme Week.

Today's Siddha Chocolate Clean Cacao 70% Cacao + Vitamin D3 was from Siddha Remedies (Oxnard, CA). The company offers flower essences and remedies "to elevate your nature" including a line of chocolates with different botanical inclusions.

This chocolate, made with organic cacao, had a naturally sweet (slightly floral) and cocoa (light chocolate cookie) fragrance.

Smooth dark chocolate flavor was accented with a very slight dose of coconut sugar, vanilla salt (pink salt), and very faint floral (12 flower essences) and citrus (lemon peel) touches. I also experienced barely there chocolate malt and diffuse red fruit notes.

Additional sweetness in this keto-friendly, vegan chocolate was provided by erythritol and yacon. 

Overall this genteel, floral chocolate offers something for most health-conscious chocolate lovers, particularly those enamored with all flowers and all things botanical.

Ingredients: Organic cacao mass, organic cacao butter, organic coconut sugar, organic VitaFiber(tm), (IMO; prebiotic fiber), organic erythritol, organic yacon, organic sunflower lecithin, organic vanilla, organic lemon peel, pink salt, Vitamin D, cabbage rose flower essence, chestnut rose flower essence, china rose flower essence, damask rose flower essence, Kamchatka rose flower essence, old rose flower essence, rose alba flower essence, rosa hardii flower essence, rosa horrida flower essence, rosa macrophylla flower essence, sulphur rose flower essence, virginia rose flower essence.

Allergen-related information: Contains coconut (sugar)

Dr. Bronner's - Magic All-One Chocolate - Peppermint Cream Dark Chocolate 70% (bar) - Oct. 16, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Dr. Bronner's 
Magic All-One Chocolate
Cool Peppermint Cream Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa (bar)
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 1.93 oz. (54.78 g.) / 2.93 oz. (83 g.) in total bar
Calories: 340 calories (per label) in 2/3 bar
Cost: $ N/A - company supplied and sent samples
Purchased from: N/A - company supplied samples

Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate and Botanicals Theme Week.

Today's Magic All-One Chocolate - Cool Peppermint Cream Dark Chocolate 70% Cocoa (bar) was made in Switzerland and distributed by Dr. Bronner's (Vista, CA).

Dr. Bronner's is a U.S.-based, family-owned company ("family soapmakers since 1858"), best known for their organic soaps, that (full disclosure) I have used at home for many years. One of their most historically popular soap scents was peppermint. 

In 2021 the company introduced a line of six Organic, fair trade (fair for life) certified chocolate bars, with an emphasis on regenerative farming and ethical supply chains. (Cocoa is from Ghana and the Ivory Coast.)*

But, there was no mint, specifically peppermint, flavor in the initial Dr. Bronner's 2021 Magic All-One Chocolate line-up. This fall (2022), an eagerly anticipated Peppermint bar has become available; and it was worth the wait.

Peppermint Cream Dark Chocolate 70% 

Aroma notes for this organic, gluten-free bar included: a harmonious blend of rich, chocolate (fudge brownie, very faint lemon herb (oxalis)), very faint coconut and maple (tree sap), and menthol (peppermint).

The aroma immediately put me at ease that this was not going to be an overly sweet chocolate bar with a blast of amped up, sugary mint flavoring. Nor was the relatively bold 70% chocolate going to be overly sharp/bitter. And these first impressions were all true. 

The smooth, but relatively flavorful dark chocolate (made with what tasted like a milder, well-balanced Forastero variety of cacao) held a natural caramel-colored filling that was judiciously sweetened (with organic coconut sugar). And, it was infused with the perfect amount of authentic peppermint--enough to impart a little warmth and authentic botanical mint glow-- without the after-dinner-mint or mint toothpaste-level of sweetness. 

The gentler, harmonic flavor complexity showed what more subtle, authentic mint can offer. And the judicious use of the less buzzy (lower glycemic) coconut palm sugar reminded me why I've used Dr. Bronner's soaps all these years. They offer all of what I do want, and none of what I don't want or need. (Thank you!)

Ingredients: Fair trade organic cocoa beans, fair trade organic coconut sugar, fair trade organic cocoa butter, organic sunflower oil, organic peppermint oil, fair trade organic bourbon vanilla bean. 

Allergen-related information: "Made on equipment that processes almonds, hazelnuts, milk, coconut and soy." 

*The company's work with cocoa farmers in West Africa was a natural extension of work already underway with sustainably harvested palm oil (used in soaps). The current Bronner management team also continues in honoring their grandfather's (founder Emanuel Bronner's) philosophy--bits of which are printed on Dr. Bronner soap and chocolate labels.

"....we are all-one or none" appeared on the pieces of chocolate I enjoyed today. Still as relevant a sentiment today as it was in the 1900s.

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