Cru Chocolate
Spicy - Cacao Drink (wheel)
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (56.6 g.) in total package of two
Calories: 155 calories (estimate) in 1 serving/wheel
Spicy - Cacao Drink (wheel)
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (56.6 g.) in total package of two
Calories: 155 calories (estimate) in 1 serving/wheel
Cost: $8.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Farm Fresh, add-on to produce delivery service
Purchased from: Farm Fresh, add-on to produce delivery service
Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Mexico Theme Week.
Happily it's been easier to find fine, bean-to-bar chocolates from Mexico and chocolates with authentic Mexican or Mexican-inspired flavors in the last several years.
Today's Cru Spicy Cacao Drink from Cru Chocolate (Roseville, CA) was characterized as "Chicano" style. (Cru also offers a tasty Purple Corn Pinole "Mesoamerican" style drinking chocolate.)
Cru founder, Carla McNeil Rueda, in her description of this drinking chocolate, paid homage to "The Adelitas" who were "the brave fighter women of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)." She notes: "They probably invented this delicious recipe..." And, yes, "Rueda means "wheel" in English, and this package contained two, foil-wrapped "wheels" of drinking chocolate.
Aroma notes included: rich cocoa and aromatic spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves).
Texture: A small bite from the (unprepared) wheel had a pleasing, slightly grainy (stoneground cacao/crystalline panela*) chocolate texture with finely ground, authentic spices. Much of this hearty, textural quality melted/dissolved when mixed with heated whole milk. The end result was a hearty, smooth and creamy, and flavorful drinking chocolate.
Flavor notes for this 60% cocoa included: rich dark chocolate (cocoa, drinking chocolate), warm spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves), with a spicy chili kick.
I always taste a piece of drinking chocolate before making it into a drink; and I enjoyed the "before" (solid chocolate) and the "after" (a satisfyingly rich and creamy beverage) -- that left me, as promised, "relaxed, but alert" and ready to engage with others.
Ingredients: "fermented cacao beans, panela, organic nutmeg, organic cinnamon, organic cloves, organic hot chili pepper blend"
Allergen-related information: Manufactured on equipment that processes peanuts and milk.
*Panela is a caramel-hued, unrefined whole cane sugar, that retains some of the molasses and nutrients missing from refined white (cane and beet) sugars.
