Millcreek Cacao Roasters - Whiskey Infused Farm To Bar Dark Chocolate 78% Chuno Matagalpa, Nicaragua (bar) - Sept. 12, 2025

Chocolate of the Day

Millcreek Cacao Roasters
Whiskey Infused Farm to Bar Dark Chocolate 78% Chuno Matagalpa, Nicaragua (bar)

Good ++ 
Weight: .88 oz. (25 g.) / 1.75 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 138 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $7.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Caputo's, online order

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Spirits Theme Week.

Today's Whiskey Infused Farm to Bar Dark Chocolate 78% Chuno Matagalpa, Nicaragua (bar) was from Millcreek Cacao Roasters (Salt Lake City, UT).

This single origin cacao (Nicaragua) bar comes with a special pairing recommendation for: Whiskey -- from High West Distillery (Park City, UT). The two Utah companies formed a bond over their mutual devotion to high-quality, delicious fermented offerings.

Aroma notes for today's 78% dark chocolate included: appealing rich, smooth dark chocolate, and faint, smokey-smooth oak, whiskey cask wood (almost smoked caramel/brown sugar).

Texture: initially very smooth, followed by some astringency (dryness)/rustic granularity in the middle and end of the taste. (This astringency was not spikey or objectionable to me, but may be noticeable to others.)

The chocolate had smooth, rich and balanced flavors and was relatively low in acidity and bitterness -- for a 78% dark chocolate.

This bar was infused with a subtle whiskey flavor by "aging the chocolate with charred barrel staves..."

I could imagine pairing this dark chocolate with the High West Distillery's Double Rye whiskey would yield an extra dimension of pleasing richness and roundness to this chocolate. (A possible pairing for future chocolate tastings.) However, just this bar all by itself would be a great tasting option for a dessert plate or fine meal.

Ingredients: "Cacao, Pure Cane Sugar, Cocoa Butter"

Allergen-related information: "May contain traces of tree nuts and milk."

Millcreek Cacao Roasters - Orange 70% Dark Chocolate - April 14, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Millcreek Cacao Roasters

Orange 70 percent Dark Chocolate 

Good + 

Weight: .875 oz. (25 g.) / 1.75 oz. (50 g.) in total bar

Calories: 140 calories in 1/2 bar

Cost: $11.00 (estimate) for 1 bar

Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Orange Theme Week.

Today's Orange 70% Dark Chocolate bar was made by Millcreek Cacao Roasters (Salt Lake City, UT).

This thin, well-tempered bar had an aroma and flavor with robust, but smooth dark chocolate and very light citrus (tangerine) notes. The makers at Millcreek used Arriba Nacional cacao from the Hacienda Limon Farm in Ecuador for this bar.

Unlike other orange chocolates this week, the citrus flavor was infused into this bar using a "proprietary method," presumably during the curing process. That is, the three-ingredient list for this bar read: "cacao, pure cane sugar and cacao butter"—but no orange. How is that possible?

More chocolate makers are experimenting with different ways to infuse natural flavors into their chocolates in recent years; for example, they may barrel-aged their cacao nibs, or expose chocolate to flavors during fermentation or aging.*

Just as foods can be stored in a smokehouse and pick up a BBQ flavor, they may also pick up more subtle flavor nuances if stored with certain substances or exposed to vapors or volatiles in a confined area for a period of time.

*Once a batch of chocolate is made, blocks of chocolate may sit on a shelf (covered, in a cool storage area away from direct sunshine) for a period of curing, before bars are tempered and packaged into final bars for sale.