Kasama Chocolate - 55% Goat's Milk, Philippines (bar) - Jan. 13, 2025

Chocolate of the Day

Kasama Chocolate
55% Goat's Milk, Philippines (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.94 oz. (55 g.) in total bar
Calories: 318 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Kasama, online order

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and The Philippines Theme Week.

Today's 55% Goat's Milk, Philippines (bar) was from Kasama Chocolate (Vancouver, BC, Canada).

Aroma notes included: smooth, dark milk chocolate with very faint, clean floral and light hay.

Texture: smooth dark milk chocolate with a clean, light mouthfeel and melt.

Flavor notes included: dark milk chocolate with a very small hint of goat milk (with no game-y or off notes). Think goat milk (metaphorically wrapped in freshly washed silk and) blended with rich cocoa.

Thank you to the makers for the short list of quality ingredients, and for the opportunity to try chocolates made with cacao from the Philippines.

Ingredients: Cacao Beans, "Unrefined Cane Sugar*, Cacao Butter*, Goat's Milk Powder (* = Organic) 

Allergen-related information: Contains Goat Milk. "Made in a facility that contains nuts." 

Theo & Philo - 65% Dark Chocolate with Labuyo Chili (bar) - Jan. 12, 2025

Chocolate of the Day

Theo & Philo 
65% Dark Chocolate with Labuyo Chili (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: .7 oz. (20 g.) / 1.59 oz. (45 g.) in total bar
Calories: 110 cals. for 20 g. serving
Cost: $7.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar & Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and the Philippines Theme Week.

Today's 65% Dark Chocolate with Labuyo Chili (bar) was from Theo & Philo Chocolate Factory (Metro Manila, Philippines). 

Aroma notes included: dark chocolate (ganache), and very faint red chili/bell pepper and even fainter brown sugar/maple syrup.

Texture: smooth texture, with a firm but creamy fudge aspect.

Flavor notes included: chocolate (dark, slightly fudge-y, ganache) with some heat from the Labuyo chili kicking in now and then.

I appreciated the short list of ingredients and overall flavor in this well-balanced bar. I also found it oddly addicting. 

The sweetness level was relatively high, but I enjoyed the brown sugar-like complexity that may have come with the choice of sugar.

Ingredients: "Cacao Beans, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Chili"

Allergen-related information: "Processed in a facility that also processes peanuts, tree nuts, milk, and other dairy products." Halal.

*Labuyo chili (Capsicum frutescens 'Siling labuyo') is a small chili pepper cultivar that developed in the Philippines. The fruits and leaves are used in traditional Philippine cuisine. How hot is this pepper?  Approximately 80,000-100,000 Scoville units. (The hottest scoring chili peppers in the world (so-called "super hots") can score over 1,000,000 units.)