Cachet - Dark Chocolate Cherry (bar) - Nov. 19, 2025

Chocolate of the Day

Cachet 
Dark Chocolate Cherry (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: 1.76 oz. (50 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 260 calories in 4 squares of bar
Cost: $7.49 for 1 bar
Purchased from: New Leaf Market, Santa Cruz, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate & Cherries Theme Week.

Today's Cachet 57% Dark Chocolate Cherry (bar) was manufactured by Kim's Chocolates (Tienen, Belgium).

Aroma and flavor notes included: relatively smooth, dark chocolate (dark chocolate cake/black forest chocolate cherry cake) and sweet, slightly tart, cherry.

Texture: smooth, dark chocolate. (The cherry elements were fully incorporated into the dark chocolate.)

Sweet, flavorful and addictive if you're hungry.

Ingredients: "Chocolate Liquor, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Sour Cherry, Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier), Natural Cherry Flavor"

Allergen-related information: "Contains: Soy. May Contain: Wheat, Egg, Tree Nuts, Milk."

Cachet Costa Rica 71% Dark Chocolate (bar) - Oct. 12, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Cachet 

Costa Rica 71% Dark Chocolate (bar)

(Manufactured by Kim's Chocolate)

Good + - Good ++

Weight: 1.17 oz. (33.3 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar

Calories: 200 calories (per label) in 1/3 bar

Cost: $1.99 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and Central America Week, featuring chocolates made with cacao grown in Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

This Costa Rica 71% Dark Chocolate (bar) was manufactured in Belgium by Kim's Chocolate (Tienen, Belgium).

The aroma had smooth, dark chocolate and balanced light bitter and sweet notes.

The flavor was also even and smooth with relatively gentle dark chocolate; light, diffuse mixed fruit (syrup) with very faint maple vanilla; and subtle roasted nut butter notes.

Ingredients: Chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa powder, natural vanilla flavor. (80% Rainforest Alliance Certified Cocoa). (Dark chocolate cocoa solids minimum 71%)

Allergen related information: "May contain tree nuts, milk, eggs, wheat and soy."

Cachet - 72% Organic Dark Chocolate with Almonds bar - Aug. 6, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Cachet
72% Organic Dark Chocolate with Almonds bar
Good +
Weight: 1.16 oz. (33.3 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 192 calories (per label) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $3.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Stars USA, online order

Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and Almond Theme Week.

Today's Cachet 72% Organic Dark Chocolate with Almonds bar was made with cacao from Kyela, Tanzania.

This relatively thin, dark, flavorful and smooth bar in the African-themed print packaging was quite good. Almond pieces gave the chocolate a slight nutty, almond flavor and crunchy texture.

The organic (bio) bar was also the favorite pick for this almond-themed chocolate week so far.

Sadly, this Biolands Tanzania bar was out of stock when we tried to order more at the Chocolate Stars USA website today.

Cachet - 39% Milk Organic Chocolate DR bar - April 13, 2017

Chocolate of the Day:

Cachet
39% Milk Organic Chocolate (Chocolat Bio) bar
(Belgian chocolate, Dominican Republic beans)
Good +
Weight: 1.75 oz. (50 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 293 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $3.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Stars USA, LLC (online order)


Welcome to Day #2 Chocolate and Dominican Republic Theme Week.

This Cachet 39 percent Milk Organic Chocolate bar was made in Belgium, with fairly traded, organic cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic.

This relatively creamy, organic (or bio) bar was a little more three-dimensional than most milk chocolate bars. Lots of sugar and milk can mute, or even extinguish, cacao flavors.*

It had an interesting aroma and flavor with some depth (faint roasted coffee, milk, earth, tart fruit) not normally found in chocolate bars with less than 40 percent cacao solids.

*Ingredients list for today's bar: (organic) sugar, (organic) cocoa butter, (organic) whole milk powder, (organic) cocoa liquor and natural vanilla flavoring...Today's five-ingredient* bar was 39 percent cacao solids, and 20 percent (minimum) milk solids, meaning a relatively large percent would be sugar.

Cachet - Cocoa Nibs 70% Dark Chocolate bar - Nov. 4, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Cachet
(Kim's Chocolates N.V.)
Cocoa Nibs 70% Dark Chocolate bar
Good
Weight: .866 oz. (25.3 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 153.3 calories in 2 squares of bar
Cost: $3.69 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #9 of Cocoa Nibs Theme Week.

As with yesterday's bar, this Cachet Cocoa Nibs 70% Dark Chocolate tablet (bar) was embedded with tiny caramelized nibs. The Cachet brand is part of Kim's Chocolates N.V. (Tienen, Belgium), one of the largest chocolate manufacturers (and the largest exporter to North America) in Belgium.

I like the taste of cocoa nibs in their natural, unadulterated state, as long as nibs aren't overly dry and there are no off-flavors.* There were no funky nibs that I could taste in this bar (a definite plus). (About 1/3 of chocolates that contain cocoa nibs that I try have at least one tiny, "off" nib that can disrupt the tasting experience.)

Also, the caramelized nibs in today's bar weren't overly sweet (double plus). They added some crunchy texture, without extra sugar, to this 70% dark chocolate bar.

This generously-sized and reasonably priced bar was relatively thin, which some prefer. Thinner bars can be easier to eat and break into pieces; and they allow more immediate access to flavors in a bar.

*Nibs are bits of cocoa bean. One of the most exacting tasks a chocolatemaker making bean-to-bar chocolate has is screening out any moldy or funky beans that come into their facility before grinding them up into nibs. I'm not sure how large manufacturers sort beans; but for small batch makers, this can mean hours of hunching over trays and visually inspecting beans. If funky beans aren't caught earlier, inspecting the nibs later may require a magnifying glass—or special visual scanning technology—one reason why it's best to catch any inferior beans as early in the process as possible.

ChocolateBet: August 31, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:

1/4 bar
Kim's Chocolates
Cachet - Orange and Almonds (bar)
Good + - Very Good
Weight: .875 oz. (25 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 126 calories
Cost: $2.99 total bar
Purchased from: Crossroads Market, in Palo Alto, CA

What do you eat when you're too tired to cook dinner?  This evening's meal included part of a dark chocolate (57% cocoa solids) "Cachet" bar (made in Belgium by Kim's Chocolates) with orange and almonds.

The dark, smooth chocolate base was flecked with bits of almonds and candied orange zest -- although I'm not sure I would have recognized the latter bits as "orange" unless I'd read this on the label. I did detect a bit of a malt/grain flavor -- which is common with candied orange peel in chocolate.

I've experimented in the past with making/baking items with chocolate and citrus fruits, and I was surprised to find that citrus flavors dissipate more rapidly than I expected. I found including multiple sources of citrus flavor worked best to maintain some flavor: juice, rind, lemon or orange curd, liqueur, etc. In this case, the flavor dissipation culprit could also have been age. However, this bar was a bargain at $2.99, and was in excellent shape for being a few months old (and having been carted around in a bag for a few days).

Today was Day #8 of Chocolate and Orange Theme Week, and Day #2 of Chocolate and Almonds Theme Week.

ChocolateBet: June 24, 2011

Chocolate of the Day: 

1/2 bar
Cachet - Made by Kim's Chocolates N.V.
Almonds & Honey Milk Chocolate bar
Good + - Very Good
Weight: 1.75 oz. (50 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 289 calories (estim.)
Cost: $2.99
Purchased from: Crossroads Market, in Palo Alto, CA

Today I was hoping to find additional Mediterranean flavors for Day #3 of Chocolate and Gluten Free Cookie Theme Week. Almonds, milk and honey have been enjoyed together in different combinations for many centuries. More recently, say in the last 150 - 200 years, chocolate has been thrown into the mix. Sadly, honey has been less available, and has been replaced by sugar or corn syrup in many cases, but I set about finding a bar with these flavors.


The Cachet Almonds and Honey Milk Chocolate bar fit the bill, and was just the right thickness -- thick enough to accommodate crunchy almonds bits and "honey pieces" and thin enough to quickly access milk chocolate and flavors in the mouth as the bar warmed up and was being eaten.

The Cachet bar is perfectly fine for eating by itself, but I also used part of this bar to make an easy chocolate-dipped, gluten free amaretti. (For a more elaborate ganache-filled version from La Biscotteria, see yesterday's post - dated June 23, 2011.)  So, I melted two squares of this bar in a small ceramic dish, and voila - a tiny dish of instant fondue -- into which I dipped Musso's gluten free Italian Crunchy Almond Cookies. Moments later, almonds drizzled with some Seggiano raw sunflower honey got the Cachet chocolate fondue treatment as well.

This bar made for a nice, smooth fondue; but, you may lose some of the crunchiness in the small honey bits when this chocolate bar is broken up and melted into a sweet dipping sauce.

ChocolateBet: January 28, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
1/4 bar
Cachet
Lemon and Pepper bar
Very Good
Weight: .437 oz. (25 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 145 calories in 2 squares
Cost: $4.29 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Draegers, in San Mateo, CA

Today was the last day (Day #7) of Chocolate and Lemon Theme Week. The Cachet Lemon and Pepper bar contained a dark chocolate (57% cocoa solids) base that was flavored with just the right amount of lemon and black pepper zing, and was made by Kim's Chocolates in Belgium. According to information printed on the packaging, the bar was also "made with 100% renewable energy," with "20% coming from our own solar panels."