Endorfin Foods - Cherry Amaretto 70% Cacao (bar) - Nov. 22, 2025

Chocolate of the Day

Endorfin Foods
Cherry Amaretto 70% Cacao (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: .7 oz. (20 g.) / 1.4 oz. (40 g.) in total bar
Calories: 100 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $6.50 + shipping
Purchased from: Endorfin Foods, online order 

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate & Cherries Theme Week.

Today's Endorfin Foods Organic Cherry Amaretto 70% Cacao (bar) was manufactured by Coracao Confections (Richmond, CA).

Tasting notes for this flavorful bar included: dark chocolate, and aromatic cherry/cherry amaretto (bitter almond) liqueur. 

Texture: uniformly smooth, with a rich melt. This bar contained cocoa butter and caramelized coconut butter. (The cherries were fully incorporated into the chocolate.)

The cherry and almond flavors added sweetness. I liked that the makers used coconut sugar, to help prevent a sugar rush. The dark chocolate tasted slightly darker than 70%. But, the very faint sharpness/bitter flavor(s) also may have come from the bitter almond extract used to flavor this bar. (Any lasting aftertaste of sharpness or acidity diminished fairly quickly.)

This chocolate would be tasty in desserts: brownies, cookies and other baked goods--or as chocolate shavings in/over vanilla ice cream or custard. 

This dark chocolate was livelier and less sweet than most marzipan confections. This Ecuadorian cacao bar reminded me of higher-end European marzipan confections covered with fine flavored dark chocolate.

The bitter almond enlivened the tart cherries that had been fully ground (incorporated) into the melted chocolate.

Ingredients: Cacao+*, Coconut Sugar*, Cacao Butter+*, Caramelized Coconut Butter*, Tart Cherry* (Dried Cherries*, Dextrin*), Essential Oil of Bitter Almond (*Organic ingredients; + = Fair Trade Certified)

Allergen-related information: Contains Coconut.

 

ChocolateBet: January 27, 2012

Chocolate of the Day:

Vosges
Marzipan Bar
Very Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.)/ 3 oz. (85 g.) total bar
Calories: 165 calories
Cost: $7.50 total bar
Purchased from: Vosges, Chicago, IL

Vosges Haut Chocolat (Chicago) does lush and lovely photo shoots of their chocolates that I can only envy. My little blurry pics, stolen between work, sleep and commute hours this month certainly don't measure up. But, the images at right will give you a tiny inkling of what Vosges "designer" bars are all about: exotic flavor combinations blended with reasonably good chocolate.

Today's Marzipan dark chocolate (62% cacao) bar was filled with a sweet, Sicilian almond marzipan and amaretto center. The dark chocolate outside contrasted sharply with the light and translucent center, and took the sugar level down a peg or two.

A chocolate thought bubble lingered above my head: I wondered how a slightly less sweet center paired with a slightly less dark chocolate combination would have tasted.

I was impressed this week with the range of marzipan formulations. And I'd barely scratched the surface of what was available. I wasn't able to hunt down marzipan flavored with rose water, or orange blossom water in time. Maybe next year. Today was Day #6 of Chocolate and Marzipan Theme Week. Tomorrow, I'll experiment with gluten-free almond cookies and chocolate.

ChocolateBet: January 23, 2012

Chocolate of the Day:

Mink Chocolates
1.) Queen Cake bar - Good+
Weight: .176 oz. (5 g.) / 1.76 oz. (50 g.) total bar
Calories: 24 calories
Cost: $7.00
Purchased from: Mink Chocolates, Vancouver, BC, Canada

2.) Pas de Deux bar - Very Good
Weight: .176 oz. (5 g.) / 1.76 oz. (50 g.) total bar
Calories: 23 calories
Cost: $7.00
Purchased from: Mink Chocolates, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Today was Day #2 of Chocolate and Almond Marzipan Theme Week.

I'm working my way through the last of several cleverly named Mink Chocolates bars from Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada). Both of today's filled bars were covered with 70% cacao dark chocolate.

The Queen Cake bar was stuffed with marzipan almond paste, and the Pas de Deux bar, my favorite of the two, contained Amaretto and dried cherries in a chocolate ganache base.

ChocolateBet: March 31, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
2 eggs
Hotel Chocolat
Amaretto
Very Good - Very Good+
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.4 g.) (estimate for 2 eggs)
Calories: 224 calories (estimate) in 2 eggs
Cost: N/A - sample box
Purchased from: N/A - sample; from Hotel Chocolat, London

Today's breakfast menu: two eggs, a banana and a glass of water. Oh, did I mention these were Spring/Easter eggs freshly harvested from a chocolate nest? Milk chocolate shells filled with an Amaretto-flavored truffle cream filling, to be precise.

Hotel Chocolat's Amaretto egg was very satisfying. While the liqueur taste was very pleasing with the chocolate, I'm not sure I could have guessed it was Amaretto. But, to amp up the almond flavor would have meant tampering with simplicity. And, a few high quality ingredients, kept simple, is a formula that seems to work best for most fine edibles.