Tony's Chocolonely - Milk Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt & Dark Chocolate Almond Sea Salt (eggs) - July 6, 2023

Chocolate(s) of the Day

Tony's Chocolonely Inc.
1.) Milk Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt - Good ++
2.) Dark Chocolate Almond Sea Salt - Good + - Good ++

Weight: 1.76 oz. (50 g.) / 5.3 oz. (150 g.) in a total container of 12 eggs

Calories: 280 calories in 4 eggs
Cost: $2.99 for 1 package of 12 eggs
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

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

Today's Milk Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt and Dark Chocolate Almond Sea Salt chocolate eggs were part of a 5-flavor assortment. This petite dozen were made in Belgium, packaged in a miniature (compostable) egg crate, and distributed by Tony's Chocolonely Inc. (New York, NY).

Milk Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt

Aroma notes for this solid egg included: milk chocolate, caramel and very faint crisped rice, vanilla and nut. The texture was creamy smooth with crunchy caramel bits.

Flavor notes included: Creamy sweet milk chocolate with sparkles of caramel/butterscotch that lingered into the finish. 

These milk chocolates were nicely executed and were made with a slightly higher percentage cacao (32%) chocolate than most mass market novelty chocolates contain. 

Dark Chocolate Almond Sea Salt

These dark chocolate eggs had a smooth dark chocolate aroma and texture. The smooth base dark chocolate was interspersed with tiny bits of almond and sea salt. Not too sweet, not too salty.

The flavor was unexpectedly rich and deep with a very faint, fleeting earth note in the finish. Dark fans will enjoy the choice of 51% cacao. (This is darker than usual for a foil-wrapped novelty chocolate confection.) 

Ingredients: 

1.) Sugar, dry whole milk, cocoa butter, chocolate liquor, caramel pieces (sugar, glucose syrup (wheat), cream (milk), butter (milk), sea salt, soy lecithin. 

2.) Chocolate liquor, sugar, almond, cocoa butter, sea salt, soy lecithin.

Allergen-related information: 

1.) Contains milk, wheat, soy.

2.) Contains almond, soy.

"In addition, all products may also contain: milk, wheat, egg, peanut and tree nuts."

 

Tony's Chocolonely - Milk Chocolate Rose Raspberry (bar) - May 17, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

Tony's Chocolonely
Milk Chocolate Rose Raspberry (bar)

Good + - Good++

Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 6.35 oz. (180 g.) in total bar

Calories: 160 calories (per label) in 1/6 of bar
Cost: $N/A - gift from family member
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market (Thank you Megan!)

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate and Flowers Theme Week.

Today's Milk Chocolate Rose Raspberry (bar) was distributed by Tony's Chocolonely Inc. (New York, NY).

Aroma notes for this Valentine ("For My Valentony") limited edition milk chocolate included: sweet milk chocolate, faint fruit (berry), very faint floral and light vanilla.

This smooth, sweet milk chocolate (punctuated by tiny, crunchy red raspberry seeds), tasted a little less sweet than most 32% cocoa solids bars (thank you!). This made it easier to taste the authentic red raspberry, Belgian milk chocolate, and faint rose, and vanilla malt flavors. 

Company description: "Belgian Fairtrade milk chocolate with pieces of freeze-dried raspberry and fudge with natural rose flavor. "

Ingredients: "sugar, dry whole milk, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, rose fudge (sugar, glucose syrup (wheat), sunflower oil, invert sugar syrup, natural rose flavor, sunflower lecithin, citric acid, beeswax, elderberry concentrate), raspberry, soy lecithin." (Cocoa solids: 32% minimum.)

Allergen-related information: (Contained milk, wheat, and soy.) "May contain traces of: peanut, egg and tree nuts." 

Tony's Chocolonely - Milk Chocolate Honey Almond Nougat - Jan. 23, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Tony's Chocolonely
Milk Chocolate Honey Almond Nougat bar
Good +
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 6.35 oz. (180 g.) in total bar
Calories: 160 calories in 1 serving (30 g.) of bar
Cost: $4.99 (estimate) for 1 bar (thank you Don!)
Purchased from: New Leaf Markets, Half Moon Bay, CA

Welcome to Day #17 of European Chocolate Vacation Theme Week.

Today's Milk Chocolate Honey Almond Nougat bar from Tony's Chocolonely Inc. (New York, NY) and was made in Belgium. 

The chocolate company was founded in the Netherlands in 2005 by three journalists with a vision to eliminate illegal child labor/slavery practices* (primarily in the (West African) cacao supply chain, where farmers are often paid very little. In addition to helping to educate consumers, Tony's Chocolonely supports and carefully sources fair trade ingredients.

As one of the last imaginary European stops via chocolate, I imagined a walk along canals in Amsterdam, a stop at the Van Gogh Museum in the city's Museum Quarter, and a search for a rumor that Tony's Chocoloney chocolate bars can be found in vending machines there. (Yes, it's true, there is a wall-sized, "mega-super" vending machine in Tony's Store in the Westerpark area of Amsterdam.)

Today's ultra-thick bar required some concentration to bite through (a bit like a large, alpine mountain shaped Swiss Toblerone bar.)

The bar had a sweet milk chocolate and nut aroma and sweet, smooth (32%) milk chocolate flavor. Honey nut nougat flecks added crunchy texture. These nougat pieces had a faint, natural honied, layered sweetness (light honied milk tea).

Ingredients: Sugar dry whole milk, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, 10% nougat (cane sugar, glucose syrup (wheat), 2% almonds, potato starch, honey, cocoa butter, egg white), soy lecithin.

Allergen-related information: (Contained milk, wheat, tree nuts (almonds), egg and soy.) "May contain tree nuts and peanut."

*A high percentage of European (and other commercial) chocolates are made using West African cacao. Tony's founders talked about how they were one of the few chocolate companies actively talking about "slave-free" chocolate in the early-mid 2000s. Hence the name Tony's "Chocolonely."

In 2021, Tony's Chocolonely made an acquisition announcement, around plans for an expanded role in an existing (Althaea-De Laet) chocolate factory (Tony's Chocolonely Chocolate Circus), on the border between Zaanstad and Amsterdam. They will become more involved in their own manufacturing and continue to pursue their goal of making "100% slave-free chocolate the norm in the industry."

Tony's Chocolonely - Milk Chocolate bar - Nov. 4, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Tony's Chocolonely
Milk Chocolate (bar)
Good +
Weight: .88 oz. (25 g.) / 1.76 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 135 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $ Missing information
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #10 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Week.

Cacao is often grown by subsistence farmers in distant lands, making oversight in labor practices challenging.

Unfortunate consequences of this geographic schism can be poor labor conditions, low pay, and forms of slavery—conditions some chocolate makers are trying to address.

Today's Milk Chocolate (bar) was from Tony's Chocolonely (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). This company has pledged to work to help eliminate slavery (in the cacao supply chain going back to farms in Africa) by making 100% slave free chocolate.

This thick 32% cacao milk chocolate bar was a creamy, high-end milk chocolate experience.

Copyright 2019. Unauthorized use of the text and/or images from this site, www.ChocolateBanquet.com, is a copyright violation.

Tony's Chocolonely - Meringue Cherry Dark Chocolate bar - Apr. 28, 2019

Chocolate of the Day:

Tony's Chocolonely
Dark Chocolate Meringue Cherry bar
Good - Good +
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 6.35 oz. (180 g.) in total bar
Calories: 160 calories in 1 serving (1/6 bar)
Cost: $3.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Whole Foods Market, Los Altos, CA

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

This Dark Chocolate Meringue Cherry bar was made in Belgium and distributed by Tony's Chocolonely Inc. (Portland, OR/Netherlands). The company's vision is 100% slave free chocolate (starting with their own company).

This thick, dark chocolate (51% cacao dark chocolate) bar was studded with pieces of light, sweet meringue and freeze-dried cherry. It was a bit on the sweet side but the chocolate was of better quality than many commercial dark chocolates.

Note: This was a special bar made for Valentines Day earlier this year; so it's unlikely you can find this bar on store shelves near you.

Ingredients: cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, meringue (sugar, egg white, corn starch), cherry, soy lecithin.

Tony's Chocolonely - Milk Chocolate Hazelnut 32% bar - Sept. 9, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Tony's Chocolonely

Milk Chocolate Hazelnut 32% bar 

Good ++

Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 6 oz. (170 g.) in total bar

Calories: 160 calories in 1/6 bar

Cost: $4.89 for 1 bar

Purchased from: New Leaf Market, Half Moon Bay, CA

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

Today's generously-sized, Milk Chocolate Hazelnut 32% bar was distributed by Tony's Chocolonely Inc. (Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Portland, OR).

The company's mission is to make slave-free chocolate the norm.* This is a big, worthy goal. I can't speak to the results they might be achieving. (They've sold more than 28 million bars and helped raise money and awareness. And they talk more about results on their website.) However, I did sample their chocolate and enjoyed it.

The bar had a warm milk chocolate and hazelnut aroma and flavor. Bits of hazelnut added light crunchy texture to the smooth chocolate, that had uniformly pleasing taste from start to finish. (European chocolate companies know how to produce great chocolate and hazelnut offerings.)

*Journalist, Teun van de Keuken, after finding out that child slavery still existed on cocoa farms, publicly declared himself a chocolate criminal, and decided to continue doing more research, which eventually led to the founding of Tony's Chocolonely and the selling of slave-free chocolate.

Tony's Chocolonely - Milk Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt bar - Sept. 10, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Tony's Chocolonely
Milk Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt bar
Good
Weight: 1.66 oz. (47 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 270 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $1.49 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Caramel Theme Week.

Today's Milk Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt bar from Tony's Chocolonely (a Dutch confectionery company*) was uniformly sweet; however it contained enough variation in texture (caramel/toffee crunchy bits) and flavor (chocolate, salt) to create a good hedge against sweet overload.

Something else that's sweet: The company has, from its inception worked to prevent child slavery in their cocoa supply chain.

Previously only available in large size here, these smaller sized bars provide a convenient, more portable, single serving bar.

*Tony's Chocolonely is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This bar was made in Belgium.

Tony's Chocolonely - Dark Chocolate 51% Pecan Coconut bar - May 19, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Tony's Chocolonely
Dark Chocolate 51% Pecan Coconut bar
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) / 6 oz. (170 g.) in total bar
Calories: 220 calories in 1/4 bar
Cost: $4.89 for 1 bar
Purchased from: New Leaf Community Markets, Half Moon Bay, CA

Welcome to Day #16 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Weeks. We've been sampling chocolates made from cacao grown in several African nations this month. Our last stop this week is in West Africa.

"West Africa" is made up of 18 countries, most of which were former European colonies that gained independence in 1960.

Many years ago, the French and other Europeans brought cacao from the New World, and other crops, to grow in West Africa. And today, two countries, Ivory Coast and Ghana, together supply about half of the world's cacao. However, over the years there have been concerns about the use of slave labor in this region.

Today's Dark Chocolate 51% Pecan Coconut bar was produced by Tony's Chocolonely (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), and made in Belgium. The company's mission is targeted at increasing awareness about and helping to prevent slavery and human trafficking in Ivory Coast and Ghana. And, oh yes, to produce good-tasting chocolate.

It may be my imagination, but I believe this large bar actually tasted better, "happier," than other chocolates made from West African cacao. The bar had a bright, true chocolate flavor (brownies with pecans), and was quite good. The coconut was subtle and added an upbeat, sweet note.