Chocolate of the Day
Castronovo Chocolate
Sacha Inchi Bark
Good ++
Weight: 3 oz. (85 g.) / 4 oz. (113 g.) in total bar
Calories: 455 calories (estimate) in 3 oz. (85 g.) serving
Cost: $12.00 for 1 package
Purchased from: Castronovo Chocolate, online order
Welcome to Day #15 of Chocolate and Peru Theme Week.
Today's dark chocolate covered Sacha Inchi Bark was from Castronovo Chocolate (Stuart, FL).
Thank you to chocolate maker Denise Castronovo, who is currently offering bars and confections made with cacaos from at least three different growing locations in Peru. She has also been developing chocolate offerings with today's indigenous Amazonian flavor inclusion--sacha inchi--to help introduce these tasty South American seeds to U.S. consumers.
Aroma notes included: roasted nuts/seeds (similar to roasted pumpkin seeds + roasted peanuts); faint dark chocolate.
These thick mini slabs of flavorful dark chocolate bark were chock full of whole, roasted sacha inchi* seeds. The seeds contributed a "roasty", nutty flavor and texture that complemented the dark chocolate nicely.
Flavor notes included: rich dark chocolate with faint tropical fruit (citrus, cacao fruit, berry) notes, and roasted sacha inchi seeds (similar to a blend of roasted large squash/pumpkin seeds + peanuts).
Note: this bark may no longer be available; but chocolate-covered sacha inchi were on the website. I look forward to trying other sacha inchi and chocolate blends from Castronovo in the future.
Ingredients: "dark chocolate (cocoa beans, organic cane sugar, cocoa butter), Sacha inchi (roasted)"
Allergen-related information: Made in a nut-free facility.
*Sachi Inchi (Plukenetia volubilis) seeds come from six-pointed star-shaped seed pods (that look a bit like tiny green pumpkins--hanging off vines) in the Amazon rainforests of Peru and Northern Brazil. (Sacha Inchi are also found in Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.) These seeds are also known as Inca peanuts, Peruvian peanuts, jungle peanuts and mountain peanuts.
