Guido Gobino - Latte 35% Sao Tome e Principe - July 23, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Guido Gobino 

Latte 35% Sao Tome e Principe

Good 

Weight: .194 oz. (.5 g.) in 1 piece

Calories: 29 calories (estimate) in 1 piece

Cost: $ missing information ($0.89 estimate for 1 piece)

Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, part of a larger online order

Welcome to Day #6 of Italian Chocolate Theme Week.

Today's Latte 35% Sao Tome e Principe chocolate was from Guido Gobino (Torino (Turin), Italy).

Swathed in gold foil, this individually-wrapped, disc-shaped piece was sweet, creamy, relatively flavorful milk chocolate, made using cacao from Sao Tome e Principe off the west coast of Africa.

LetterPress Chocolate - Satocao Sao Tome 70% Dark Chocolate (bar) - March 10, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

LetterPress Chocolate LLC
Satocao Sao Tome 70% Dark Chocolate (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.15 oz. (32.5 g.) / 2.3 oz. (65 g.) in total bar
Calories: 173 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $12.00 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: missing information

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and West Africa Theme Week.

Today's Satocao Sao Tome 70% Dark Chocolate (bar) was from LetterPress Chocolate LLC (Los Angeles, CA).

This well-executed, smooth dark bar morphed from one sweet thing to another: from sweet honey, faint spiced fruit, very faint coffee, very faint sweet green tea, light molasses, true chocolate, a glimmer of faint earth, and then back to sweet chocolate, with subtle and balanced light fruit acidity.

The maker's tasting notes suggested: "peanut butter cup." Yes, another sweet confection with timeless appeal. The maker has managed to make a sweet, two-ingredient chocolate into one with depth and complexity. Not an easy thing to do actually.

Ingredients: cacao beans, unrefined cane sugar

Cemoi Chocolatier - Sao Tome 66% Cocoa (bar) - Mar. 6, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Cemoi Chocolatier
Sao Tome 66% Cocoa (bar)
Good - Good +
Weight: 1.2 oz. (34 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 200 calories in 4 squares of bar
Cost: $1.49 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate and West Africa Theme Week.

Why focus on West Africa? Because chances are that the bulk of the chocolate you've eaten in your lifetime was made using cacao grown in West Africa (most of it from Ghana and the Ivory Coast). Cacao was brought from the New World to West Africa in the early to mid 1800s, and ramped up from there. But the first country where cacao likely made landfall was the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe (in 1822), that earned the nickname "chocolate islands."

Today's Sao Tome 66 percent Cocoa bar was made in France and distributed by Cemoi Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA). Cemoi cocoa comes from thousands of farmers (an estimated 60,000 worldwide) and "is collected in fair trade conditions." Cocoa for this chocolate was Non GMO Project Verified.

This smooth chocolate bar's aroma and flavor had roasted earthy, loamy notes and a light bitterness, with a touch of honey and faint cinnamon.