Hogarth Chocolate Makers - Gianduia Dark Hazelnut (bar) - Mar. 20, 2024

Chocolate of the Day

Hogarth Chocolate Makers
Gianduia Dark Hazelnut (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 206.62 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $11.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #12 of Chocolate and Hazelnuts Theme Week, and Day #1 of Chocolate and New Zealand Series.

Today's Gianduia Dark Hazelnut 45% Cacao (bar)--made with New Zealand hazelnuts--was from Hogarth Chocolate Makers (Nelson, New Zealand). 

Founded by Karl (a former fisherman and sailor) and Marina Hogarth, the eponymous small-batch, bean-to-bar company offers a wide range of bean-to-bar chocolate bars with interesting and thoughtful flavor inclusions, and some single origin bars.

This "Kiwi style Gianduia" chocolate was made with toasted and ground New Zealand hazelnuts.

Aroma notes included: mild dark milk* chocolate with peach green tea and very faint nut and butter.

Texture: soft, smooth and relatively creamy/buttery. 

Flavor notes: lightly roasted, fragrant dark chocolate with green tea, stone fruit (peach, very faint sweet red berry jam), nut butter, very faint green tea and dairy milk.* 

The ground hazelnuts (30% of bar) had become one with the chocolate, creating an almost seamless fusion between relatively mild and nuanced cacao (think Criollo variety) and hazelnut chocolate (gianduia) flavors. The 45% cacao chocolate was also low in bitterness and acidity.

Ingredients: Cocoa Solids 45% (Cocoa Beans, Cocoa Butter**), Cane Sugar*, Hazelnuts (30%).

Allergen-related information: Contains Nuts. May Contain Traces of Milk. 

*Aroma or flavor notes do not necessarily track with actual ingredients. For example in this case, there are no milk ingredients, but there were like dairy-like/buttermilk-like notes.

Dude, Sweet Chocolate - "Crack in a Box" Chocolate Bark - Mar. 19, 2024

Chocolate of the Day

Dude, Sweet Chocolate
Crack in a Box Chocolate Bark
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 2.75 oz. (78 g.) / 5.5 oz. (156 g.) in total box
Calories: 426 calories (estimate) in 1/2 box/serving
Cost: $14.75 for 1 box
Purchased from: Dude, Sweet Chocolate (online order)

Welcome to Day #11 of Chocolate and Hazelnuts Theme Week.

Today's Crack in a Box Chocolate Bark was from Dude, Sweet Chocolate (Dallas, TX). Thank you to Chef Katherine Clapner for producing so many delicious and fun chocolates to try.*

Aroma notes included: dark chocolate and roasted nuts (hazelnuts) and seeds. (There were no seeds, except for the cacao seeds (cocoa mass and nibs), aka cocoa beans.**

A neat stack of bark-squares fit nicely inside a simple, small box. But this offering had big texture and taste experience. Roasty, toasty hearty crunchy texture and rich yet smooth dark chocolate flavor.

The well-executed treatment of the candied, salted nuts (and the addition of Valrhona cocoa nibs) created texture and flavor depth. Roasted hazelnuts were joined by almonds and macadamia nuts. And a touch of vanilla and sea salt rounded out these square slabs very nicely.

Warning: addictive

Ingredients: Republica 70% guittard 72% (cocoa mass from Peru and Ecuador, sugar, cocoa butter, natural vanilla), candied nuts (hazelnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts, powdered sugar, egg whites, sea salt), Valrhona cocoa nibs.

Allergen-related information: "Contains: Eggs, Tree Nuts (Hazelnut, Almond, Macadamia)."

*Chocolate salami anyone? (It does look like a salami, but it's all chocolate.)

**Yep, that's right. We keep calling cacao seeds..."beans". Just like we call some foods "nuts" when they're really drupes (macadamia nuts), legumes (peanuts), seeds (pistachio nuts), or something else. You'll be happy to know that the hazelnuts that have appeared in all the chocolates this past week are considered true nuts. 

We call coffee seeds (coffee cherry pits) "beans" too, because they sort of look like beans. By that logic, I could come up with lots of creative names for items (and animals/people)--if I wasn't already busy hunting for new chocolates, and becoming fully theobromine-ated 365 days a year.