Cocanu - Holy Wood and Gardel bars - Sept. 5, 2016

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

Cocanu Chocolate

Holy Wood
Dark chocolate and palo santo 70% bar
Good - Good +
Weight: .8 oz. (25 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 132 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $5.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Cacao at The Heathman, Portland, OR

Gardel
Dark chocolate, hazelnuts, fernet 72% bar
Good +
Weight: .8 oz. (25 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 132 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $5.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Meadow (original Mississippi location), Portland, OR

Welcome to the last day of Chocolate, Fruit and Botanicals Month, and the first day of Ecuadorian Cacao Theme Week.

Today's two relatively sweet dark bars hailed from Cocanu Chocolate (Portland, OR). I bought them at two different specialty retail shops in Portland (Cacao and The Meadow—both great sources for interesting, high-quality chocolates).

Cocanu's 70% cacao Holy Wood bar was made with Nacional cacao from Ecuador and infused with aromatic Palo Santo wood, also from Ecuador. The wood's flavor was so subtle, I failed to detect it. Could it be that this flavor is part of the terroir that I already associate with Ecuador? Another possibility: I dulled my palette with something I ate or drank earlier.

The company's 72% Gardel bar did have a subtle, pleasing overall hazelnut taste, with a few tiny crunchy nut bits embedded in it. The "fernet"—Fernet Branca (a botanical liqueur popular in Europe— was so subtle that, like the bar above, I missed it.

Both square bars (sealed with a fleur de lis wax stamp) were thick enough to provide a substantial bite, and thin enough to make flavors accessible, in other words just the right thickness for tasting in my opinion.

ChocolateBet: June 6, 2011

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

Bites of different chocolate cakes
King Arthur Flour (brand)
Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix
Very Good
Weight: Mix: 22 oz. (1 lb., 6 oz.) (624 g.) total box
Calories: 400 calories (estimate)
Cost: $various ingredients, flavorings, liqueurs - $28 (estimate)
Purchased from: Whole Foods, in Los Altos, CA

This chocolate cake was used to make several small cakes, including:
1.) Chocolate Orange, Rose and Pomegranate cake
2.) Chocolate Absinthe cake
3.) Chocolate Fernet Branca cake

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate and Mediterranean Theme Week, and I feel like I'm just getting started. I may have to extend this theme week. Today, I focused on Mediterranean-inspired liquid flavorings -- some non-alcoholic, and some not -- to flavor several different, single-serving sized chocolate cakes that I made from King Arthur Flour's Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix.

Since there are so many countries that share a piece of the Mediterranean coast, I have included ingredients and ideas from France, Greece, Turkey, Italy, and a few other countries today.

I like floral flavors, so the main act in this three-ring cake circus was the moist, chocolate cake flavored with orange flower water, rosewater, rose preserves, and orange preserves, and a smidge of pomegranate syrup. I ate this cake with some Greek pomegranate yogurt and seeds, and a little orange peel. Lovely flavors. This evening I was up too late trying to make some matching orange rose frosting, but time ran out. I'll have to add a picture later if my guesstimate-based recipe works.

I also made small chocolate cupcake sized cakes flavored with the infamous green Absinthe from France (the version without much Wormwood); and also a Fermet versions of the cakes, a "bitter" mixer/drink with lively herbal flavors; and will try these later. (A small chocolate Amaretto and almond paste cakelet, and an Ouzo chocolate banana fruit cake, will be featured later this week.)