Loon Chocolate - Lion's Mane Dark Chocolate (bar) & CacaoTeca - Rum Truffles - Dec. 25, 2024

Chocolate(s) of the Day

Loon Chocolate
Lion's Mane 70% Dark Chocolate (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) / 2.25 oz (64 g) in total bar
Calories: 180 calories in 1 oz. (28.3 g.) of bar
Cost: $9.00 for 1 bar + shipping 
Purchased from: Loon Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and Mushroom Week + a bonus holiday chocolate with rum. And Merry Christmas to all who celebrate this festive, winter holiday.

Lion's Mane 70% Dark bar

Today's Loon Chocolate Lion's Mane 70% Dark Chocolate (bar) (Batch #924-74) was manufactured in small batches by White Birch Living LLC (Manchester, New Hampshire).* 

Lion's Mane mushroom powder was from Dunk Mushroom Products and Foraging LLC (Brentwood, NH)--a farm, processing facility, retail store and education center.

Aroma and flavor notes included: smooth dark chocolate; ripe berry; faint graham cracker; and barely detectable, pleasant woodsy umami.

Ingredients: Organic Cacao, Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Cocoa Butter, Lion's Mane Mushroom Powder

Allergen-related information: "Produced in a Facility That Uses Almonds and Milk. Gluten-Free, Soy-Free, Vegan" 

*Lion's Mane mushroom powder was from Dunk Mushroom Products and Foraging LLC (Brentwood, NH)--a farm, processing facility, retail store and education center.

Cacaoteca Rum Chocolates

Cacaoteca
Chocolate Rum Truffles
Good + - Good ++
Weight: .58 oz. (16.6 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total box of 12
Calories: 88 calories (estimate) in 2 truffles
Cost: $21.00 for 1 box of 12
Purchased from: Bar & Cocoa, online order

Today's box of Cacaoteca chocolate rum truffles were made with cacao and rum from the Dominican Republic.

Aroma and flavor notes included: sweet (milk-y, chocolate-y, fudge-y) filled chocolate with faint, warm spirits (rum) flavor that wasn't too boozy.

Texture: smooth "rum paste" in the center (4% alcohol) surrounded by relatively sweet, creamy smooth chocolate.

Ingredients: Cacao Mass, Powdered Milk, Cane Sugar, Cacao Butter, Rum 

Allergen-related information: Contains Milk.

Raaka Chocolate - "Mellow Moon" - Functional Dark Chocolate 64% (bar) - Dec. 24, 2024

Chocolate of the Day

Raaka Chocolate
"Mellow Moon" - Functional Dark Chocolate 64% (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. 28 g.) in total bar
Calories: 120 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $4.25 for 1 bar + shipping 
Purchased from: Bar & Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Mushroom Week.

Today's "Mellow Moon" Functional 64% Cacao Dark Chocolate (bar) made by Raaka Chocolate (Brooklyn, NY).

Aroma and flavor notes included: the smells of freshly cut wood stacked by a fireplace, with a winter mulled, warm chocolate and spice beverage in my hand wafting up steam. Amazing how evocative smells and taste can be.

Additional flavor notes included very faint, authentic menthol/peppermint and very faint wood and umami.

Texture: smooth, almost creamy texture--with no detectable mushroom powder/grit. (I've made this comment in most of this week's mushroom chocolate bars. We've come a long way from the very first mushroom chocolate I ever tasted years ago.) 

I enjoyed the diverse blend of ingredients that somehow all harmonized well together, and the base cacao that contributed a smooth yet flavorful base, and the faint, fleeting and unlikely graham cracker (brown sugar?) note in the finish.

Cacao origin: Semuliki Forest, Uganda. 

Maker's description: "Mellow out with this soothing, floral dark chocolate infused with seven adaptogenic herbs and 530 mg of mushrooms, carefully crafted for the after hours."

Ingredients: "organic cacao beans, organic coconut sugar, organic cacao butter, organic lion's Mane mushroom extract, organic reishi mushrooms, organic peppermint, organic holy basil, organic lemon balm, organic lavender, organic ashwaganda"

Allergen-related information: Contains coconut sugar. "gluten free, vegan"