K+M Chocolate - Milk Chocolate Truffle Fries 55% Bean to Bar - June 28, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

K+M Chocolate
Milk Chocolate Truffle Fries 55% (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: .95 oz. (27.5 g.) / 1.9 oz. (55 g.) in total bar
Calories: 148 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Sweet Shop, Los Altos, CA 

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

Today's Milk Chocolate Truffle Fries 55% Bean to Bar (bar) was from K+M Chocolate (Napa, CA). The company was formed by Chef Thomas Keller and Armando Manni.

This Truffle Fries bar was inspired by the namesake side (dish) at Chef Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bistro (Yountville, Napa County, CA).

My two favorite foods, potatoes and chocolate, both originated in South America. Today's chocolate was made with cacao grown in Ecuador and Venezuela, and contained bits of potato ("truffle fries") (terroir not known).

Full disclosure: I really enjoy trying chocolates with savory/umami flavor inclusions. Today's bar included flavors that were not only an homage to a chef's signature dish, but were also flavor notes naturally found in cacao (slight vegetable/potato and earth).

Aroma notes for this 55% dark milk included: dark milk chocolate; subtle, savory potato dish; and very faint truffle. 

The melt and mouthfeel were creamy; and the tiny pieces of shoestring potato added a lightly salted, crunchy textural element.

Flavor notes included rich and satisfying dark milk chocolate malt with faint potato and even fainter slightly loamy earth (similar to some cacaos and black or white truffles).

I'd hoped for a fun and delicious tribute to two of my favorite foods. And this well-executed, balanced blend in a chocolate bar delivered.

Ingredients: Cacao, organic cane sugar, RBST-free whole milk powder (milk), organic cocoa butter, truffle oil (pure olive oil, white truffle aroma), shoestring potato (potato, cottonseed oil, salt), organic sunflower lecithin, sea salt.

Allergen-related information: (Contains milk.)