Valley Isle Chocolate - Kona Hawaii 70% Dark Chocolate (bar) - Nov. 12, 2024

Chocolate of the Day

Valley Isle Chocolate 
Kona Hawaii 70% Dark Chocolate (bar)
Good ++
Weight: .7 oz. (20 g.) / 1.41 oz. (40 g.) in total bar
Calories: 109 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Hawaii Theme Week.

Today's Kona Hawaii 70% Dark Chocolate (bar) was from Valley Isle Chocolate (Kahului, HI). The company is a bean-to-bar, small-batch chocolate maker located in Maui.

Aroma and flavor notes for this bar included: dark chocolate (dark ganache, fudge brownie); faint malt; diffuse, ripe (almost fermenting) fruit (sweet red berry); faint and balanced earth (loam); and a strong sense of natural sweetness--that I sometimes taste with certain less processed (organic) sugars; honey; or other sweet fruit and/or green botanical notes.

Texture: Smooth, with a very, very faint light astringency.

The sweetness for this 70% dark chocolate was relatively (naturally) high, but the organic cane sugar did not diminish the pleasingly subtle and balanced complexity.

Maker's tasting notes: "Raspberry, Malt, Winey"

Ingredients: Cacao, Organic Cane Sugar*, Organic Cocoa Butter* 

Allergen-related information: "Manufactured in a facility that also processes: Milk, Peanuts, Tree Nuts"   

Chocolove - Hawaiian Sea Salt in Strong Dark Chocolate (bar) - Nov. 11, 2024

Chocolate of the Day

Chocolove 
Hawaiian Sea Salt in Strong Dark Chocolate 72% Cocoa (bar) 
Good ++
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar 
Calories: 225 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $2.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Piazza's, Palo Alto, CA 

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Hawaii Theme Week.

Today's Hawaiian Sea Salt in Strong Dark Chocolate 72% Cocoa (bar) was from Chocolove (Boulder, CO). 

Timothy Moley founded Chocolove in 1995. Chocolove chocolates and flavors inclusions have evolved over the years; but since I started Chocolate Banquet in 2006: they've continued to make bars using Belgian chocolate and there have been love poems* of different sorts printed on the inside of their wrappers.

Texture: smooth, creamy (in part due to a bit of added cocoa butter (not dairy)) dark chocolate interspersed with small, almost crunchy crystals of salt.

Aroma and flavor notes included: very smooth, uniform dark chocolate (cocoa, ganache, brownie with vanilla and very faint raspberry jam) and substantial sparkles of embedded Hawaiian sea salt. (Don't worry, there wasn't strong acidity or bitterness in this "strong" dark chocolate.) A touch of vanilla helped evoke that smooth chocolate baked goods taste and/or cocoa flavor.

Ingredients: Cocoa Liquor, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin And/Or Sunflower Lecithin, Vanilla), Cocoa Butter, Hawaiian Salt. 

Allergen-related information: "Contains Soy. Made in a Facility That Also Processes Milk, Eggs, Peanuts, and Tree Nuts." 

*Today's love poem was from "I Will Tell Thee What It Is To Love" by Charles Swain.