Exquisito Chocolates - "Miami Vice" Cafe con Leche + Dulce de Leche chocolate - July 8, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Exquisito Chocolates

"Miami Vice"

Cafe con Leche + Dulce de Leche chocolate
Good ++

Weight: .5 oz. (14.1 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) (estimate) in 6-piece assortment box

Calories: 77 calories (estimate) in 1 piece

Cost: $3.50 for 1 piece ($21.00 for a 6-piece assortment box) 

Purchased from: Exquisito Chocolates, online order

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Coffee Theme Week. 

Today's "Miami Vice" (Cafe con Leche + Dulce de Leche) chocolate was from Exquisito Chocolates (Little Havana, Miami, FL). These two flavors were part of a 6-piece Artisan Collection assortment box.

This festive ("painted" with tiny speckles of hot pink and turquoise) domed chocolate combined two Miami flavors: cafe con leche (coffee with milk) and dulce de leche (caramelized/cooked milk)

Aroma flavor notes for this smooth, flavorful and sweet Miami-infused confection included chocolate with a hint of coffee caramel.

Ingredients: (Not listed on box)

Allergen-related information: (Not listed on box) 

Vosges - Dulce de Leche 45% Cacao (bar) - May 22, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

Vosges IP, LLC
Dulce de Leche 45% Cacao (bar)
Good +
Weight: 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 390 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $9.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Mollie Stone's, Sausalito, CA 

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and VWXYZ Theme Week, featuring chocolate items with origins and flavor inclusions that start with the letters V, W, X, Y and Z.

Today's Dulce de Leche 45% Cacao bar was from Vosges IP, LLC (Chicago, IL). Vosges is a women-owned company, headed by founder and chocolatier Katrina Markoff.

This bold, ultra-dark milk chocolate was a great choice for such a sweet filling--a thin layer of soft, flowing dulce de leche (a form of caramel made with sweetened condensed milk popular in South America). The 45% cacao chocolate tasted more like 65% or 70% chocolate, much to my delight. 

The darker cacao choice off-set the sweetness of the whole milk caramel. A hint of vanilla and Celtic sea salt rounded out the flavor blend.

Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, soy lecithin, natural vanilla flavor); dulce de leche caramel (reduced lactose sweetened condensed whole milk (milk, cane sugar, skim milk), non-GMO corn syrup, water, cane sugar, butter (cream, salt), butterfat, pectin, non-GMO soy lecithin, baking soda, natural flavor, salt); burnt sugar syrup (cane sugar, water), bittersweet chocolate (unsweetened chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural vanilla flavor); sea salt, cultured dextrose. (47% fair trade ingredients include sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, vanilla flavor)

Allergen-related information: "Processed on equipment that also processes milk, soy, peanuts and tree nuts."

Bissinger's Dulce de Leche bar - May 13, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Bissinger's
Dulce de Leche 38% milk chocolate bar
Good
Weight: 1.5 oz. (43 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 200 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $2.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Salted Caramel Theme Week.

Dulce de Leche is a cooked down caramel confection (made with either milk and sugar, or sweetened condensed milk).

This caramel featured prominently in today's Dulce de Leche bar from Bissinger's (St. Louis, MO).

This "38% milk chocolate, creamy caramel, cinnamon and a touch of smoked fleur de sel" bar contained pockets of soft caramel—the kind of filling that forms tiny, sweet golden brown "icicles" after you bite into the chocolate.


On the back of this gluten free, bar made with Non-GMO ingredients was a constellation of tiny, twinkling smoked sea salt (fleur de sel) crystals.

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

Sea Salt Caramels + Coconut Seaweed - Mar. 19, 2016

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Chocolate Momotombo
Caramelo y Sal de Mar
(Sea Salt Caramel) chocolate
Good
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) in 5 pieces / 3.18 oz. (90 g.) in total box of 15 pieces
Calories: 129 calories (estimate) in 5 pieces
Cost: $8.00 (estimate) for one 15-piece (90 g.) box
Purchased from: Chocolate Momotombo, Managua, Nicaragua

Today I started my journey home from Nicaragua. I'll take with me memories of mountains and water: mountain lakes, huge inland lakes, lakes inside volcanoes and waterfalls.

It was also easy to imagine the water that, during wet season, helped to nourish plants (like cacao trees) before running off to join rivers moving toward the sea.

So, I'm focusing on flavors from the sea today, lightly salted. After all, without water we wouldn't have sea salt, sea salt caramel and chocolate, or coconut roasted seaweed (see below).

I'll also remember the many good chocolate and food items from the Momotombo Chocolate Factory in Managua, Nicaragua, so let's start there.

Dulce de Leche Caramel and Sea Salt + Chocolate

The primary chocolate of the day was a sea salt caramel-filled chocolate from Chocolate Momotombo (Managua, Nicaragua). Each bean or seed-shaped, rich dark milk chocolate, contained a small, slightly chewy nugget of dulce de leche caramel with sea salt.

Dulce de leche is a popular style of cooked milk and sugar caramel/confection commonly found in Latin American countries.

These Momotombo caramel chocolates are very satisfying just by themselves, or with vanilla ice cream. Or, if you like more adventurous pairings, see below.

Coconut Oil Roasted, Seaweed + Chocolate


If you're not a mad food scientist, please stop reading here...

Now, how about some slightly sweet, small sheets of coconut oil roasted seaweed? Anyone? I like salt and umami* flavors with chocolate. And you can't get much more "umami" than seaweed (besides bacon, cheese or mushrooms perhaps).

In the U.S. might people enjoy thin sheets of dark green seaweed around sushi. This Coconut Oil Roasted Seaweed, with a hint of sea salt, from Seaweed Love (a product of Korea)—distributed by Hong Hae USA Inc. (Hayward, CA)—was also very lightly sweetened with coconut sugar.

The small sealed package of seaweed was light (in weight and calories) and perfect to bring along for a longer chocolate field trip to conduct experimental pairings with leftover chocolates. (This seaweed is also a great snack by itself, or cut up and sprinkled over rice and vegetables.)

So, I found myself at an airport, with no vegetable choices for miles around, and with 19 hours to kill. I enjoyed this seaweed snack, with and without different Nicaraguan and leftover chocolates. Coconut oil and sea salt helped tie the best combinations together. Some chocolates worked better than others. Ginger and/or wasabi chocolates might work too. I expect I'll do more experimenting with this seaweed roasted in coconut oil in the future.

*Umami is a flavor or taste associated with savory (high glutamate) foods. While many umami foods may also be salty, umami is considered a fifth sense, one of five that our taste buds can detect: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami).

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

ChocolateBet: February 27, 2012

Chocolates of the Day:

Vosges Haut Chocolat

1.) "Crema"
Good + - Very Good
Weight: .6 oz. (16.98 g.)/5.4 oz. (152.8 g.) total 18-piece assortment box (estimate)
Calories: 85 calories (estimate)
Cost: $29.00 for 18-pc. box
Purchased from: Vosges.com, Chicago, IL

2.) "Maple"
Good +
Weight: .6 oz. (16.98 g.)/5.4 oz. (152.8 g.) total 18-piece asst. box (estimate)

Calories: 85 calories (estimate)

Cost: $29.00 for 18-pc. box

Purchased from: Vosges.com, Chicago, IL

Today was Day #6 of Chocolate Surprise Theme Week.

Today's two chocolates came from Vosges (Chicago, IL), and were members of a chocolate-covered exotic caramel collection, with ingredients from afar. The "Crema" was an Argentine dulce de leche with Costa Rican cashews, and milk chocolate -- topped with cashew pieces.

The second "Maple" piece, contained Canadian maple sugar and walnut caramel, and was covered in dark chocolate and topped with maple sugar.

Surprise! I found these two where I'd stowed them in the fridge previously. The caramel centers were harder than normal, so I savored them slowly. There was one more flavor left -- "Leather" - which will be eaten soon.