Fjak Sjokolade - Sour Cherry Milk Chocolate; 50% Milk Orange & Almonds (bars) - Aug. 3, 2023

Chocolate(s) of the Day

Fjak Sjokolade
Sour Cherry Milk Chocolate (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: .935 oz. (26.5 g.) / 1.87 oz. (53 g.) in total bar
Calories: 155 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar & Cocoa, online order

Fjak Sjokolade
Mountain Trip - 50% Milk Chocolate Orange and Almonds (bar)
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: .935 oz. (26.5 g.) / 1.87 oz. (53 g.) in total bar
Calories: 96.5 calories (per label) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar & Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and Fruits Theme Week.

Today's Organic Sour Cherry Milk Chocolate and Mountain Trip 50% Milk Chocolate with Orange and Almonds (bars) were both from small-batch chocolate maker Fjak Sjokolade (Hardangerfjord, Norway).

Sour Cherry Milk Chocolate

The Sour Cherry Milk Chocolate was a seasonal bar--part of Fjak's Nordic Collection. It was made with cacao grown in Tanzania (Kokoa Kamili in the Kilombero Valley). 

Aroma and flavor notes for this bar: sweet floral (vanilla, berry candy), fruit (subtle sweet cherry), and faint milk chocolate and caramel.

Note: There were cocoa beans/solids (or cacao %) listed in the ingredients--just cacao butter, sugar, milk, sour cherry and vanilla. This could have been an omission on the label; or sour cherry fruit provided the look of a darker (milk) chocolate.

I've tasted berry and coffee bars with a high concentration of dark berry mass (or ground coffee) that looked like milk/dark chocolates. They contained cacao butter, but no cocoa solids. A neat visual trick that requires knowledge and skill to pull off.

Those with a sweet tooth will likely enjoy this bar. I confess, I like cocoa solids, and this was a bit too sweet for me.

Ingredients: Cocoa butter*, cane sugar*, milk powder*, sour cherry*, vanilla* (*Organic)

Allergen-related information: (Contains milk)

Mountain Trip

The 50% Mountain Trip Limited Edition bar was also a Fjak milk chocolate bar (with more cocoa bean solids) as well as orange and almonds flavor inclusions.

This "100% Organic" milk chocolate was made using cacao from Hispaniola, Dominican Republic.

Aroma notes included: dark milk chocolate, subtle sweet citrus (orange) and nut.

The base milk chocolate had a delicious, creamy sweet texture interspersed with softly crunchy almond bits and small chewy candied orange pieces.

The flavors were very complementary and well balanced. This delicious chocolate fueled a version of a mountain trip -- a hike along the San Francisco Bay Trail, complete with views of the mountains that ring the edges of this large estuary on the West Coast of California. 

Ingredients: Organic cocoa beans, organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, powder milk, organic almonds, organic candied orange peel, salt and organic orange oil (less than 1%).

Allergen-related information: (Contains milk and almonds.)

*Kokoa Kamili buys "wet" (freshly harvested) cacao (beans, still with some surrounding fresh cacao fruit pulp) from cocoa farmers. They ferment and dry the cacao (beans)--critical first steps in flavor development, and in the journey that eventually results in chocolate.

Fortunato Chocolate - Dark Chocolate Dates with Sea Salt - Aug. 2, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

Fortunato Chocolate
Dark Chocolate Dates with Sea Salt 
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 1.02 oz. (29 g.) / 8 oz. (226 g.) in total package
Calories: 120 calories in 1 serving (2 dates)
Cost: $9.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Fortunato Chocoalate, online order

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and Fruits Theme Week.

Today's Dark Chocolate Dates with Sea Salt were from Fortunato Chocolate (Issaquah, WA).

The company is a family-owned business that specializes in rare Fortunato* Pure Nacional cacao from Peru. 

Aroma notes for these dark chocolate dates included: nuanced, dark chocolate with very faint cacao fermentation, fruit, and spice. 

A relatively thin layer of subtly flavorful 68% dark chocolate surrounded large, plump, almost fluffy,  medjool date fruit. Extra points on the fruit inside the chocolate today. For a moment, I thought this exceptional fruit (date) might eclipse the high-end Fortunato dark chocolate. Fortunately the chocolate flavor experienced during the first bite returned in the finish.

I did not taste any sea salt. (The salt grains may have settled to the bottom of the package.) But I'm sure a few judicious sparkles of salt would have been a good fit, helping to balance the sweetness just a bit.

Ingredients: "68% Fortunato Dark Chocolate (organically grown cacao and cocoa butter 68%, cane sugar 32%), medjool dates, sea salt."

Allergen-related information: "May contain traces of hazelnut and almonds."

*These rare Fortunato Nacional cacao beans contain a relatively high percentage (40%) of "white" cacao beans (If you cut open the seeds (aka beans), they look white inside.) 

Fortunato is the name of the farmer in Peru who is growing these trees. The company "discovered" these beans in 2008. 

Nacional is a type of "heritage" cacao that is subtle but certainly not dull. The 68% Fortunato dark chocolate was relatively sweet. More important, it lacked the bitterness and stronger, acidic or earth flavors one might find in other cacaos.