Chocolate of the Day
KanVela Chocolate
Honey Milk Chocolate with Riceberry Cracker (Thai) (bar)
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 2.12 oz. (60 g.) in total bar
Calories: 180 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order
Welcome to two overlapping theme weeks. Today was Day #6 of Chocolate, Flowers and Honey Week, Day #2? of Chocolate and Thailand Theme Week.
Today's Honey Milk Chocolate with Riceberry Cracker (bar) was from KanVela Chocolate (Thailand).
Organic riceberry crackers (made with a unique purple Thai rice) from Chang Rai--a famous rice-producing city in Northern Thailand-- and Chiang Mai Longan* flower honey provided wonderful, subtle and very complementary aromas and flavors.
Aroma notes included: chocolate; faint aromatic rice/cracker; and faint floral (honey) and spice (similar to white pepper).
Flavor notes included: mellow, yet subtly flavorful 50% cacao dark milk chocolate infused with honeyed, crispy/crunchy rice cracker spirit. The Chang Mai Longan flower honey yielded some very pleasing honey-ed sweet notes. There were also very faint cracker and white pepper notes. (Think white pepper taste, without the heat).
Yes, this chocolate was sweet, but the honey, rice cracker and a faint almost fruit-floral note, managed to balance the sugar sweetness and add flavor depth. This was the best use of rice in chocolate I've tasted in a very long while.
Ingredients: Cacao nib 50%, Milk powder 18%, Sugar 18%, Honey 8%, Riceberry cracker 6%
Allergen-related information: "Contains milk. Made in a facility that processes wheat, sesame, soy and tree nuts."
*Longan are small oval shaped, pleasing, almost delicate, sweet fruits with light-colored, almost tranlucent, flesh (similar to a lichee) with a dark-colored pit at the middle. These fruits are covered with a thin beige-to-brown skin/shell that can be peeled off. The fruit is pleasant to eat, and it is also used to flavor teas. Native to Southern China and near Myanmar, longan fruits are widely cultivated in Southeast Asia (including northern Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam). You can also find them in markets in Hawaii as well as in Chinatown districts and small Asian markets in the U.S., e.g. in San Francisco and elsewhere in the SF Bay Area near where I live).
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