Chocolate(s) of the Day
Public Chocolatory
70% Cacao Dark Chocolate with Ginseng (bar)
Good +++
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 200 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $21.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA
55% Cacao Dark Milk Oat bar
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 199 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $18.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA
Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Horses Theme Week, with items ranging from chocolate ponies and horseshoe novelty chocolate confections to bean-to-bar chocolates.
Both today's 70% Dark Chocolate with Ginseng bar and 55% Chocolate with Oats bar were from Public Chocolatory, a small batch bean-to-bar chocolate maker in South Korea (Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do, Republic of Korea).
The company's founder and head chocolate maker Emily Paek works with local farmers in the Chuncheon area that grow potential flavor additions, e.g. high-quality gingseng.
Dark Chocolate with Gingseng bar
The 70% Dark Gingseng bar cover art showed a woman galloping on a horse toward dark green (forested) mountains in the distance. And the 55% Dark Oat bar showed a woman seated at an easel in the middle of a field of oats peacefully painting the fields, birds in the air, and a house in the distance. These two illustrations conveyed characters on a journey. The horse was perhaps a nod to tradition.
The complex and intriguing aroma for this dark chocolate was lovely -- herbal (licorice) and forest notes (deep dark pine forest with an uplifting, almost sweet, woody note).
The flavor captured all of the above--and revealed a few more sweet woodsy, earth, root and spice notes.
The texture was smooth, almost silken, with a slightly hearty, even melt.
Ingredients: Cacao Beans, Organic Cane Sugar, Cacao Butter, Korean Wild Gingseng
Chocolate with Oats bar
The aroma and flavor of authentic and subtle oat, oatstraw/sweet hay and tea notes were fully incorporated into this very slightly lighter-hued chocolate. And these lovely grain-related notes persisted into the finish. It was a high-end version of an oat "milk" chocolate bar.
This Oat bar had the same smooth, polished, even texture that the Gingseng bar had.
Ingredients: Cacao Beans, Organic Cane Sugar, Cacao Butter, Oats
Both bars were thoughtfully and skillfully executed, and galloping with charm and local authentic Korean flavors.
