Intrigue Chocolate
Raspberry + Black Tea + Allspice 60% Cacao (bar)
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 1 oz. (28) in total bar
Calories: 155 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $6.00 for 1 bar + shipping
Purchased from: Intrigue Chocolate, online order
Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate, Tea, Herbs and Spices Theme Week.
Today's Raspberry + Black Tea + Allspice 60% Cacao (bar) was made and distributed by Intrigue Chocolate Co. (Seattle, WA), in collaboration with Aluel Cellars (Seattle, WA) - the supplier of Aluel's 2021 "Coat of Arms" flagship Bordeaux-style red wine.
Origin story: The cacao used to make this chocolate was from Uganda (Region: Rwenzururu - Semuliki Forest (Type: "Mostly Trinitario and Amelonado"; Year: 2024). (Batch No.: 000000091024). The tea used to flavor this chocolate was Assam black tea.
Aroma and flavor notes included: dark chocolate (dark ganache with ripe red fruit (authentic red raspberry, red grape); slight roast-y black tea and warm spice (fragrant allspice*, very faint red licorice).
Texture: smooth and relatively buttery.
Sweetness level: sixty-percent cacao is normally a bit sweet for me (I'm a dark fan). And the raspberry (and red wine) gave it a rich, sweet, bright red berry/fruit boost, while the black tea and cacao provided a balanced, grounded base. I enjoyed the nuances of flavor. This bar had a slight mulled wine taste to it--making it a pleasing winter warmer (and likely a good Valentines Day bar as well).
I enjoyed Intrigue's similar but a bit bolder cousin--Smoked Tea + Allspice bar (featured yesterday) a smidge better. I tend to like smoke-y, almost umami flavors, and I liked that the Jamaican allspice had a chance to shine a bit more in yesterday's bar. (I'll never enjoy plain old grocery store allspice again after tasting the allspice in that bar.) Both tea bars were very tasty.
Like other chocolates from Intrigue, I appreciated the short list of high-quality ingredients, the lack of emulsifiers or other additives, and the use of raw cane sugar.
Makers tasting notes/description: "...Aluel's (red wine) has a deep fruity complexity, and plays well with the red berries, sweet earthy tea, and subtle spice in this chocolate bar."
Ingredients: "Roasted cacao nibs, raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, freeze-dried raspberry juice, Assam black tea, Jamaican allspice."
Allergen-related information: None listed on packaging.
*Allspice (dried, unripe berries that grow on trees) is native to the Americas (West Indies [Caribbean island nations], Central America and Mexico). The earliest drinking chocolates and confections in the Americas included ground cacao beans, flowers, spices (such as allspice), peppers, honey and/or other local flavor inclusions--but not cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg or ginger--spices brought to the New World by spice traders much later.
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