Chocolate of the Day
Hapa Chocolat
Spice Cake Ecuador (bar)
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 2.22 oz. (63 g.) in total bar
Calories: 344 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Hapa Chocolat, online order
Distributed for Sinwise Farms
Kathas Cocoa Cardamom Chai Coconut-Milk Latte
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 8 fl. oz. (236 mL) in 1 can
Calories: 100 calories in 1 can
Cost: $ Missing information
Purchased from: Missing information (local grocery store)
Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate & India Week; and Day #2 of Chocolate, Cardamom and Ginger Theme Week.
Today's thoughtfully-produced and delicious duo: 1.) Spice Cake Ecuador (bar) from Hapa Chocolat, LLC (Los Gatos, CA), and 2.) Cocoa Cardamom Chai tea latte beverage distributed for Sunwise Farms (Oakland, CA), contained high-quality ingredients sourced from at least three continents.
Spice Cake bar
Aroma and flavor notes include: Boston brown bread--a sweet cake-like moist (steamed) bread typically made with molasses, flour and corn meal and raisins); smooth and subtly flavorful dark chocolate (made with cacao from Camino Verde, Ecuador); and fresh salted butter. It was very tasty.
Texture: well-tempered; this bar broke with a hard snap. There was a slight granularity (finely ground spice brittle) in the mouthfeel. It was similar to a well-executed, very slightly rougher, stone-ground chocolate, where everything melts down smoothly together by the finish. There was no spice "grit" or other residual texture once that happened. Best of both worlds -- all the flavors; but, without distracting tiny particles in the final melt phase.
I enjoyed the texture arc, the spices, the short list of ingredients, and the match between the Ecuador cacao and the rich, warm spice flavors.
Ingredients: Chocolate (organic cacao, cacao butter, sugar), Spice Brittle (organic sugar, cinnamon, cloves, salt, ginger)
Allergen-related information: "Soy Free, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free"
Kathas Coconut
For decades I searched to find items that blended cacao/chocolate with chai tea flavors. Happily, there are more options now. But, I still rejoiced recenlty when I saw this can in the refrigerated section at a local grocery store.
Today's Kathas Coconut-Milk Latte - Cocoa Cardamom Chai with Black Tea and Spices was a chilled chai beverage in a can that was locally(Oakland, CA) distributed for Sinwise Farms.
The tea and cardamom used to make this chai beverage were sourced from Kerala, India. (The Kathas makers obtained the cardamom from their family farm.)
Aroma and flavor notes included: beautifully aromatic sweet cardamom and chai tea and mild cocoa (high-grade chocolate milk). (Note: there was no dairy milk in this bar, just a touch of coconut milk.)
Note: this beverage can be consumed hot or cold. (I drank it cold.)
I liked: 1.) the well balanced flavors; the authentic and nuanced cardamom and other spices; 2.) the addition of the chocolate (cocoa) that added very complementary flavor depth); 3.) the delicate use of coconut milk; 4.) the sweetness level (sweet, but not too sweet); and 5.) the fact that the black tea was there, but the overall astringency and bitterness levels for tea and cacao were quite low--making this a friendly, comforting as well as refreshing spiced tea coconut milk latte.
While the list of ingredients for this chai was long (I'm not a fan of phosphates, gels and gums), the overall flavors tasted smooth and full-bodied and very delicious. The cardamom was the star of the show.
Ingredients: Spiced Black Tea Concentrate (Water, Black Tea, Spices including Cardamom), Water, Sugar, Organic Coconut Milk, Contains 1% of less of the following: Organic Tapioca Maltodextrin, Cellulose Gel, Cocoa Powder (processed with alkali), Sunflower Lecithin (an emulsifier), Salt, Tripotassium Phosphate, Dipotassium Phosphate, Cellulose Gum, Natural Flavors, Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Molasses.
Allergen-related information: Contains Coconut.
