Kindred Cooks Bacon Caramel; Cowboy Toffees - Dec. 28, 2015

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

Kindred Cooks
Bacon Caramel
Sea Salt with Chocolate, other
Good - Good+
Weight: .25 oz. (7 g.) (estimate) in 1 piece
Calories: 30 calories (estimate) in 1 piece
Cost: $N/A - sample
Purchased from: Kindred Cooks, Campbell, CA

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate, Smoke and Fire Theme Week.

The first of two groups of chocolate sweets today included bacon and chocolate caramels from Kindred Cooks (Campbell, CA).

Kindred Cooks makes small, bite-sized, individually-wrapped pieces of flavored caramels, including today's Bacon Chocolate, Sea Salt with Chocolate, Vanilla Chai, and Marshmallow with Chocolate. (The last three flavors were part of a Caramel Sampler package.) The Vanilla Chai contained no chocolate, but the flavors were great.

These caramels were light and slightly chewy but (as promised) they didn't stick to my teeth.


Cowboy Toffee Co.
Chuckwagon Coffee Toffee - Good ++
Weight: .25 oz. (7 g.) (estimate) in 2 small pieces
Calories: 32 calories (estimate) in 2 small pieces
Cost: $N/A - sample pieces
Purchased from: N/A - Cowboy Toffee table at Fall Chocolate Salon 2015

Today I also sampled toffees from Cowboy Toffee Co. (Oakdale, CA).

The company's Chuckwagon Coffee Toffee was coated with milk chocolate and encrusted with bits of flavorful, alder wood roasted (ground) coffee, and hickory smoked sea salt.

In the 1800s, in the Western U.S., chuckwagons provided food for hired cattle hands. Cowboy Toffee's Coffee Toffee pays homage to that legacy with this quote:

"Chuckwagon food typically included easy-to-preserve items like beans and smoked meats, sugar, coffee, and sourdough biscuits. All of these items were cooked over a camp fire and smoke infused."

I also sampled Cowboy Toffee Co.'s Bushwacker* Toffee (the larger piece of the two pictured here), which I hope to feature in the future. The company's Bushwacker Toffee contained a blend of cowboy-inspired flavors. English toffee was combined with bits of sage, semi-sweet chocolate, roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds), and pumpkin pie spice.

*Bushwacker was a champion bucking bull, from Oakdale, CA.

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.

AlpineAire Foods - Chocolate Hazelnut Bavarian Cream - Dec. 19, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

AlpineAire Foods (TyRy, Inc.)
Chocolate Hazelnut Bavarian Cream
Good
Weight: 2 oz. (57 g.) / 4 oz. (113 g.) in total package
Calories: 260 calories (estimate) in 1/2 package
Cost: $4.50 for 1 package
Purchased from: Redwood Trading Post, Redwood City, CA

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

Today's chocolate hazelnut dessert was made for outdoor living—camping, backpacking, climbing, long bike trips, etc.

The AlpineAire Foods Chocolate Hazelnut Bavarian Cream (mix), from TyRy, Inc. (Rocklin, CA) was easy to make.

No pots or pans were needed. I stirred 1 cup cold water into the powdered mix—in the package. And after 10-12 minutes, I had a smooth, creamy chocolate pudding-like dessert with small crunchy bits of roasted hazelnut.

After three days of roughing it, standard trail mixes can start looking rather dull. This Chocolate Hazelnut Bavarian Cream dessert would luxe up any camp meal.

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.

Bear River Valley - Cocoa Campsite Crunch cereal - Oct. 16, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Bear River Valley
Cocoa Campsite Crunch
Good
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 22 oz. (1 lb., 6 oz.) (623 g.) in total package/bag
Calories: 120 calories in 3/4 cup serving
Cost: $ 2.99 (estimate)
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

This summer I featured five weeks worth of different single origin dark bars—chocolate in its purest and most wonderful form. Now I'm headed back into less serious territory. Last week I highlighted chocolate items with grains and grasses. Today marks a transition from cereal grains to the Great Outdoors.

So, welcome to Day #1 of Chocolate and the Great Outdoors Theme Week!

Today's generously-sized, resealable bag of Cocoa Campsite Crunch cereal from Bear River Valley* (distributed by MOM Brands* (Lakeville, MN)) would probably be great for large group camping trips, or at least the ones I remember from childhood.

I remember stumbling out of a tent into the cold morning air, slightly dampened with dew, with my hair sticking up in every direction and adorned with a few white downy feathers that had escaped a down jacket or a sleeping bag. The smell of a campfire meant breakfast, hot cocoa, oatmeal with chocolate chips, or cold cereal like this.

So, I tried my best to re-create this experience. I got up very early on a damp morning, poured myself a bowl of Cocoa Campsite Crunch cereal, and ate it with a purple camping "spork" in the backyard. These cocoa-colored puffed corn balls were light and crunchy, sweet and chocolatey, and gluten free.

*This Bear River Valley cereal was distributed by MOM Brands (Lakeville, MN). I'm assuming "MOM" was derived from Malt-O-Meal, which was bought by Post.

The content and images on this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.