Gnosis Chocolate - 1.) Passion + raspberry (bar) + 2.) Black Diamond 100% Cacao Ocumare, Venezuela (bar) - Sept. 11, 2026

Chocolate(s) of The Day

Gnosis Chocolate
Passion + raspberry & aphrodisiacs 70% raw chocolate (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: 1 oz. (30 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $5.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Gnosis Chocolate, online order 

Gnosis Chocolate
Black Diamond, Ocumare Venezuela 100% Cacao (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: 1 oz. (30 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 155 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $6.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Gnosis Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #4 of "Chocolate Banquet Birthday Celebration" Theme Week--featuring several chocolate makers that I've been appreciating for 10-20 years.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of this Chocolate Banquet site, where I've recorded my thoughts on a different chocolate each day for 20 years. And, chocolate birthdays are still the best.

This decades-long chocolate adventure was only possible because of the hard work of many great individuals. I continue to be extremely grateful to all the chocolate makers, cacao farmers and fermenters out there in the world. 

I'm happy to feature two bars today from Vanessa Barg who founded Gnosis Chocolate (Astoria, NY). I met Vanessa when she began making chocolate (as an extension of her health practice) and started selling bars in 2008. She and her mom, Aida, have been making chocolate in New York City.

Long-lived endeavors require passion and commitment as well as strength; and the following two bars represent these attributes, along with a little "botanical alchemy."

Passion + raspberry (bar)

Today's thoughtfully executed Passion + raspberry + aphrodisiacs (bar) from Gnosis Chocolate was thoughtfully executed and made with single origin cacao from Ocumare, Venezuela.

Aroma and flavor notes included: authentic, balanced cacao with very faint, deep, still forest and smoke, and gentle tart sweet red berry (red raspberry).

Texture: relatively smooth dark chocolate with a satisfying mouthfeel and melt, with one or two raspberry pips.

I appreciated the thoughtful ingredients, and enjoyed the gentle (date supplied, lower-glycemic) sweetness and authentic raspberry flavor. 

The "aphrodisia" ingredients and reference can also be viewed as inspiring love in a broader, more universal sense, such as an enjoying and appreciating for all life/creatures on earth, and including all things botanical--which indeed will need to be true to continue to enjoy chocolate and other fruits of the forest in the future. (I'm hoping to celebrate 30 years of chocolate in another decade.)

Ingredients: "70% raw chocolate (raw cacao beans*, ground dates*), raspberries*, maca root*, damiana*, rose hips*, horny goat weed*, fo ti*, passionflower*, Love.

Allergen-related information: "Carefully handcrafted in a kitchen that also uses tree nuts and coconut."

Black Diamond (bar)

I associate black diamonds with strength, overcoming challenging circumstances, and being outdoors with chocolate. Having once been a skier, signs with a black diamond shape marked the toughest slopes on a mountain. Skiing down a Black Diamond run was exciting and sometimes resulted in a snow bath. (And these runs were usually followed by hot chocolate or a piece of chocolate.) 

Today's Black Diamond bar seemed perfect to celebrate a 20-year journey made possible by cacao farmers who face many challenges--and many special chocolate makers and entrepreneurs who continue to source great cacao(s) from around the world to craft great chocolate in a changing world.

Like other diamonds, black diamonds are a precious commodity forged in the earth to a particular, lustrous hardness and can be a symbol of strength.

In the Ocumare region(s) of Venezuela, prized heritage Criollo variety cacao beans are sometimes referred to as black diamonds or black gold.

Today's Black Diamond (bar) was crafted using cacao beans from Ocumare, Venezuela. No sweeteners, no additives. Just the essence of cacao (and love).

Aroma notes included: rich, chocolate-y cacao and very faint fruit (tropical fruit, berry) and balanced forest notes.

Flavor notes included: ultra-dark lovely fudge brownie, balanced bitterness (for a 100%er) and faint roasted notes. Like all unsweetened chocolate, your brain reacts to the lack of sweetness for a few seconds, but after a bit of bitter/sour, this chocolate resolved into a very nice clean finish with almost no bitterness at all.

Texture: Buttery, with a rich melt and mouthfeel

I really appreciated the short list of quality ingredients in these two bars; and that these were gluten-free.

Ingredients: "cacao beans from Ocumare, Venezuela, Love."

Allergen-related information: "Carefully handcrafted in a kitchen that also uses tree nuts and coconut."

Celebrating 12 Yrs. of Chocolate Series - Chocolate Banquet - Sept. 19, 2018

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Seattle Chocolate Company
San Juan Sea Salt Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar
Good+
Weight: 1.25 oz. (35 g.) / 2.5 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 190 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: N/A - gift
Purchased from: N/A - gift

Wild Sweets Chocolate Factory
Black Onyx Truffles
European Black Cream Truffles
Good
Weight: unknown
Calories: 130 calories (estimate) in 2 pieces
Cost: $N/A - gift
Purchased from: N/A - gift

Greetings and Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and Celebrating 12 Years of Chocolate Series. Seattle, WA and Portland, OR, are both high chocolate IQ cities.

Today was a true Chocolate Banquet day, with a spread of different birthday chocolates from these two Pacific Northwest hot spots (thank you all). Chocolate is always sweeter when shared with others.

The first course was a San Juan Sea Salt Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar with crunchy coffee from Seattle Chocolate Company (Seattle, WA). (Thank you Michelle and Hali!)

The second course involved two dark chocolate creams from Wild Sweets Chocolate Factory (Portland, OR): a Dark Chocolate truffle and a Black Onyx Dark Chocolate bittersweet truffle. Both filled chocolates had smooth, creamy dark chocolate ganache fillings and dark chocolate shells. (Thank you Kaitlin!)

Other chocolates included a 72% Bacon Caramel bar (made with cacao grown in Ecuador) from Xocolatl de David (Portland, OR), and a Salt dark chocolate bar from Woodblock Chocolate (Portland, OR)—made with cacao from Peru and Ecuador.

10-Years of Chocolate Celebration - Sept. 11, 2016

Chocolate Banquet: Celebrating 10 Years of Chocolate
September 11, 2016

Ten years ago, I accepted a bet by my daughter to eat a different kind of chocolate every day for a year. That year was so enjoyable that I continued to eat a different chocolate of the day for ten years and to write about chocolate on ChocolateBanquet.com. Today marks the 10th year anniversary of that bet

This month I'm celebrating this 10th anniversary in 10 ways:

1.) Eating my usual Chocolate(s) of the day. Today, it's 2 Ecuador single origin bars from Arete Fine Chocolate
2.) Eating 10 different chocolate items this weekend as part of a Bay Area Chocolate Field Trip
3.) Continuing with Theme Weeks -- Ecuador this week, Cacao Nibs and French Chocolate after that
4.) Visiting and thanking some of my favorite local, San Francisco Bay Area suppliers where I've bought chocolates in the past decade
5.) Writing about my 10 favorite places to find chocolates
6.) Highlighting my favorite chocolates in the past 10 years
7.) Taking a look at Chocolate Maps and Chocolate Math
8.) Summarizing what I've learned in 10 years of chocolate research, tasting and travel
9.) Remembering chocolate field trip/travel highlights
10.) Continuing Chocolate Banquet and eating a different chocolate every day. After all, there are 1,000s of new chocolates to try.

So, stay tuned my friends. And thank you for your interest.
- Corinne

ChocolateBet: June 30, 2007

Chocolate of the Day:

Droste
Milk Chocolate Bar with Almonds and Honey Nougat
Good
Weight: .87 oz. serving/3.5 oz. total
Calories: 70 calories (estimate) in 1/4 bar

This "Superior Milk Chocolate Bar" from Droste (Holland) contained pieces of almond and honey nougat, and some hazelnut as well.

Earlier in the day, I was in Santa Cruz, CA, to help celebrate a friend's daughters graduation at their beach house. It was a very nice day, and it was great to talk with other people at the party as well. This got me thinking about chocolates, specifically about how food memories are often tied to celebrations, like graduations, birthdays, holidays, etc. One could write a book around this theme.