Olive and Sinclair - Candied Lemon Chocolate 75% Cacao (bar) - Jan. 5, 2026

Chocolate of the Day

Olive and Sinclair
Candied Lemon Chocolate 75% Cacao (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 2.5 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 410 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Dispensary, online order

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate & Citrus Theme Week.

Today's Candied Lemon Chocolate 75% Cacao (bar) (Batch No. 012327) was from Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Co. (Nashville, TN).

Aroma notes included: smooth dark chocolate, faint malt (malty cracker) and lemon cookie/biscuit.

Texture: relatively smooth, stone-ground dark chocolate with bits of candied lemon and occasional tiny sparkles of sea salt. 

Flavor notes included: smooth 75% dark chocolate (Ecuador), faint malt, and multi-dimensional sweetness (brown sugar, candied lemon). I enjoyed the perfect balance of dark chocolate, lemon and sea salt in this bar. This was bittersweet at its very, balanced, best.

Each of the elements harmonized well with each other in this blend of smooth, 75% stoneground cacao, upbeat citrus, subtle brown sugar and (Maldon) sea salt, to create a sophisticated and delicious bar. Not too sweet. Not too dark. Not too bitter. Just right. This bar landed squarely in the Goldilocks* zone for me.

Maker's tasting notes: "Chewy candied lemon brings out the brightness of our 75%...chocolate" 

Ingredients: "Cacao Beans, Brown Sugar, Candied Lemon, Sea Salt"

Allergen-related information: "May contain traces of nuts"

*The Goldilocks reference is to "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," a story based on a European/American folktale/fairy tale. In most recent versions of this story, a young girl (Goldilocks) visits the home of three bears (who are out on a walk) and tries their bowls of porridge, chairs and beds belonging to each of the three bears. Goldilocks selects items that were neither too hot nor too cold, and were not too hard or soft. She selects the porridge, chair and bed that were "just right" for her. 

Eventually, the bears come home to find Goldilocks asleep on the baby bear's bed. The girl wakes, and runs out before anything happens to her. One assumes the bears were left scratching their heads, and were not entirely happy about the intruder.

Some astronomers have also used the expression "the Goldilocks zone" to describe planets that may possess the right characteristics (not too cold, not too hot, etc.) to support life.

 

Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co. - 67% Cacao Nibs Chocolate (bar) - Aug. 11, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Co.
67% Cacao Nibs Chocolate (bar)
Good +
Weight: 2.5 oz. (71 g.) in total bar
Calories: 400 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $8.50 for 1 bar 
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA  

Welcome to Day #8 of Cocoa Nibs Theme Week. 

Today's 67% Cacao Nibs Chocolate (bar) was from Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Co. (Nashville, TN). 

The company, founded in 2007, describes itself as Tennessee's "first and only bean-to-bar company." The three makers (including owner Scott Witherow) turn out popular confections and small batches of bean-to-bar chocolate(s).

They slow-roast and stonegrind "select single origin beans" that are combined with pure brown sugar for a smooth and robust flavor unique to "Southern Artisan Chocolate (tm)."

Today's Cacao Nibs bar had a true chocolate aroma with faint roasted coffee and even fainter caramel notes.

The base chocolate was smooth and relatively creamy and was complemented by a crunchy constellation of roasted cacao nibs on the back side.

True chocolate flavor was amplified by chocolatey nibs. There were very faint roasted-umami and nutty notes, a rich brown sugar sweetness, and a medium acidity. (The cacao source was the Dominican Republic.)

This was a nicely executed chocolate with well-balanced flavor. And even though this was a 67 percent cacao bar (i.e. lower than 70 percent), and contained a rich-flavored sugar* it was not too sweet (thank you!).

*Ingredients: Cacao beans, brown sugar, roasted cacao nibs

Haagen-Dazs - Coffee and Vanilla Layers Ice Cream; Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Co. - Bourbon Nib Brittle - Aug. 11, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Haagen-Dazs
Crispy Trio Layers - Belgian Chocolate with Coffee and Vanilla Ice Cream(s)
(topped with Chocolate Banquet special bourbon-soaked nibs)
Good ++
Weight: 1/4 cup (44 g.) / 14 fl. oz. (414 mL) in total container
Calories: 120 calories (estimate) in 1/4 cup serving + 50 cals. for nib topping
Cost: $3.50 (sale, 2 for $7) for 1 container
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate and Spirits Theme Week.

The Haagen-Dazs (Minneapolis, MN) Crispy Trio Layers collection is part of the companies expanding family of ice cream-related products. Flavors include Belgian chocolate, vanilla ice cream and a featured third flavor (blackberry, coffee, caramel, etc.) The line-up also includes a triple chocolate flavor and non-dairy variations as well.

Today we're featuring the Belgian Chocolate Coffee and Vanilla ice cream, that was quite tasty. It contained a nice blend of crispy darker chocolate layered pieces and creamy and flavorful coffee ice cream, mellowed by a smooth and upbeat vanilla ice cream.

Recently, Haagen-Dazs announced a line of ice creams with spirits. (We'll feature one tomorrow). But, in the spirit of spirits, we jumped the gun with our own spirited inclusion to today's Crispy Trio Layers flavor.

We amped up the chocolate flavor by topping this ice cream with Chocolate Banquet's own secret recipe for bourbon soaked cacao nibs (with bitters and orange peel).

And speaking of bourbon and cacao nibs...

Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Co.
Bourbon Nib Brittle
Good +
Weight: 2 oz. (56.6 g.) / 6 oz. (170 g.) in total package
Calories: 280 calories in 1/3 package
Cost: $18.00 for 1 package
Purchased from: Cashmere + Chocolate, Santa Fe, NM

We also re-tasted two small pieces of Bourbon Nib Brittle from Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Co. (Nashville, TN). We originally enjoyed this back in 2012. (How time flies.) It was sweet, crunchy and satisfying, with a very light Bourbon touch.

ChocolateBet: September 3, 2012

Chocolate of the Day:

Olive and Sinclair
Bourbon Nib Brittle
Good + - Very Good
Weight: 2.2 oz. (62 g.) serving / 5 oz. (141.5 g.) total box
Calories: 300 calories (estimate)
Cost: $16.00 total box
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Inside this attractively designed box was a package of Bourbon Nib Brittle from Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Co. (Nashville, TN). The delicious, thin shards of brown sugar and butter brittle were coated with dark chocolate on one side, and the brittle was full of crunchy cacao nibs.

How strong the Bourbon flavor was seemed to be batch-dependent. This batch was a bit lighter on the whiskey; both batches/boxes I sampled from were good.

Today was Day #6 of Chocolate and Nib Theme Week.

ChocolateBet: September 23, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:

1/3 bar
Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Co.
Cinnamon Chili Chocolate bar
Good + - Very Good
Weight: .9 oz. (26 g.) / 2.75 oz. (77.8 g.) total bar
Calories: 137 calories (estimate)
Cost: $8.00
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, in Palo Alto, CA

Olive and Sinclair's Mexican Style Cinnamon Chili chocolate bar can be enjoyed by itself, or can be melted down and made into a satisfying cup of hot chocolate. The company's artisan, slow-roasted, stone-ground bar included cacao beans (from Ghana), sugar, cocoa butter, Organic Ceylon cinnamon, Kosher salt, and cayenne pepper. The texture is a little bit more granular, but not unpleasant; and the flavors tasted very fresh. The cayenne pepper yielded a very mild kick.

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate and Spicy Pepper Theme Week.

ChocolateBet: August 2, 2011

 Chocolate of the Day:

.3 oz. piece
Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Co.
Sea Salt (bar)
Good +
Weight: .3 oz. (9.3 g.) / 2.75 oz. (78 g.) total bar
Calories: 43 calories (estimate)
Cost: $8.00
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #8 of Chocolate and Tout Sweetener Theme Week, and Day #3 of Chocolate and Sea Salt Theme Week. I've overlapped the former theme week one more day, so that I could include this Olive and Sinclair (Nashville, TN) bar that uses brown sugar in addition to Sea Salt.

Olive and Sinclair makes a variety of "Southern Artisan Chocolate," stone ground bars in small batches; in fact my bar (label) was hand-stamped: "Batch #102810." This dark chocolate, Sea Salt bar was created from cacao beans from the Dominican Republic, and the texture was very smooth and pleasing for stone ground.

The chocolate itself was very rich, and relatively acidic. The salt may have contributed to, or sharpened this tart flavor. I like salt with chocolate, but there was a tiny bit too much in the small piece I sampled. To be fair, I also could have just bitten into a piece that was more heavily sea salted than the rest of the bar. I had this bar very early in the morning, and it may be that this rich bar is more of an evening bar, or better when accompanied with food. It might be an interesting bar to pair with whiskey; a grilled sandwich; jambalaya or a rich stew; or lemon. I find a lemon peel sometimes helps (surprisingly) neutralize the acidity in espresso, so I'll have to experiment with this later, to see if the same thing holds true here.