Eclat - Porcini & Thyme (bar) + The Organic House - Salted Onion (bar) - Sept. 3, 2026

Chocolate(s) of The Day 

Eclat Chocolate
Porcini & Thyme 33%/28% Cacao (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: .55 oz. (15 g.) / 2.2 oz. (60 g.) in total bar
Calories: 86 calories in 1/4 bar
Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Dispensary, online order

The Organic House
Salted Cream & Onion 55% Belize - Maya Mountain Belize (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 1.76 oz. (55 g.) in total bar
Calories: 170 calories in 1 serving (30 g.) of bar
Cost: $14.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Dispensary, online order

Welcome to Day #6 of Savory Chocolates Theme Week, featuring two different chocolate bars that contained (collectively) at least three savory ingredients: mushrooms, thyme and onion. The first bar was a polite sweet confection, and the second chocolate was a flavorful, hearty onion-tinged fiesta.

Porcini & Thyme 33%/28% Cacao (bar)

Today's Porcini and Thyme 33%/28% Cacao chocolate was from Eclat Chocolate (West Chester, PA). This bar was part of the company's "Parallel" bar series--that pair classic flavors, offering a light, layered tasting experience.

Aroma and flavor notes in this attractive bar (with alternating, parallel, fields of white and milk chocolate) included: sweet white chocolate and sweet milk chocolate, vanilla, and very faint (barely detectable herb and umami). 

Texture: smooth, with an even melt. (Flavor additions were fully incorporated. I couldn't detect any traces of porcini powder or herb "grit".)

I liked that I could choose squares that were more milk chocolate than white chocolate and vice versa. This elegantly designed and packaged bar would make a nice gift for those with a sweet tooth and who are botanically inclined. 

However, it may be too sweet for dark chocolate lovers. The high sugar content (and low cacao percentages) made it difficult for me to taste any cacao, porcini or thyme flavors--that were lost in a sweet cream and vanilla white chocolate confection.

Ingredients: White chocolate: (min. cocoa mass 28%, sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, soya lecithin, natural vanilla), milk chocolate (min. cocoa mass 33%, sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, soya lecithin, natural vanilla), porcini powder, fresh thyme. 

Allergen-related information: Contains Milk, Soy. "Produced in a facility that handles peanuts, tree nuts, milk, wheat and soy."

Salted Cream & Onion 55% Cacao Belize (bar)

Today's Salted Cream & Onion 55% Cacao Belize (bar) was from The Organic House (Burlington, ON, Canada). 

Aroma and flavor notes included: chocolate (rich, chocolate-y with faint fruits) and honey-ed onion soup. This was a rich, smooth chocolate with diverse flavors that played together very nicely (in my opinion). The results were: less stuffy traditional orchestra and more New Orleans/Caribbean jazz ensemble. 

The base chocolate was smooth textured. The "cream" (in the salted cream and onion title) was achieved with cashews, not dairy. The onion powder was fully incorporated; and the sea salt balanced the honeyed sweetness, naturally occurring fruit and the subtle balanced earth and acidity in the cacao and onion. 

I really enjoyed the few squares I tried. But, sweet and sassy flavors may not be for everyone.

The single origin Belize (Maya Mountain) cacao was the bold heart and fruity soul of this bar, and the onion, sea salt and coconut flower nectar took it to the next level.

Thank you to the makers at Organic House for producing several chocolate bars with savory and/or umami flavor inclusions; using a short list of single origin, Organic ingredients; and creating chocolates with less processed sweeteners (maple sugar, coconut flower nectar) than refined white cane and beet sugars.

Maker's Tasting Notes: "Buttery notes of chocolate, roasted onions, honey, raisins, pineapple, and sea salt"

Ingredients: "Organic coconut flower nectar, Organic cacao beans, Organic cacao butter, Organic cashews, Onion powder, Organic sea salt."

Allergen-related information: Contains Coconut, Cashews. Made in a facility that uses tree nuts.

 

Kessho Craft Chocolate - Porcini Dark Milk 60% Cacao Semuliki Forest, Uganda (bar) - July 4, 2026

Chocolate of The Day

Kessho Craft Chocolate 
Porcini Dark Milk 60% Cacao Semuliki Forest, Uganda (bar) 
Good ++ 
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 2.1 oz. (60 g.) in total bar
Calories: 177 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar 

Purchased from: Kessho, online order

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate & Mushrooms Theme Week. And Happy 250th birthday to those celebrating Independence Day in the U.S.A.

Today's Porcini Dark Milk 60% Cacao Semuliki Forest, Uganda (bar) was from Kessho Craft Chocolate (distributed by Kessho, LLC (Austin, TX)).*

The cacao used to make this bar was (a hybrid of Trinitario & Forastero varieties) grown in the Semuliki Forest region of Uganda.

Aroma and flavor notes included: smooth, rich dark chocolate; umami (gently savory, mushroom); subtle caramel; and very faint (barely detectable) fruit and nuts. It was a smooth and attractively interesting flavor ride, with a slight mushroom flavor at the end of a long relatively sweet finish.

Most of the mushroom/fungi flavor inclusions in this week's chocolates have been what are often considered "medicinal" or "adaptogenic" species. There are well over 10,000 species of mushrooms, and only a small subset of these are edible. The subset of these that taste good is even smaller.**

However, happily, today's Porcini mushroom flavor came with more delicious culinary associations, and not just, "eat it and it will be good for you" implied messaging.

Texture: smooth, relatively creamy, dark milk chocolate (with no detectable mushroom powder ("grit")). (The mushroom powder was well incorporated into the chocolate.)

I enjoyed the blend of dark milk chocolate with balanced umami notes, and authentic (and not overwhelming) mushroom flavor; the use of single origin cacao; and the short list of ingredients.

Maker's Tasting Notes: "Earthiness, umami, blue cheese...Foraged Yunnan porcini mushrooms lend their deep earthiness to this dark milk chocolate..."

Ingredients: "Whole cacao beans, sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, porcini mushroom powder"

Allergen-related information: "Contains milk. Made in a facility that also processes tree nuts, wheat, sesame and eggs"

*Kessho is a Japanese word that means "Crystal" that pays tribute to the crystalline structure of chocolate.

**I've found this to be true for plants as well. About 10% of all plants are technically edible, and only 10% of that number actually taste good. Do your research on any plants (or certainly any mushrooms) you taste in the wild. As the cautionary advisory/saying goes in the mushroom foraging circles: "Every mushroom is edible, at least once..."

Standout Chocolate - Nordic Nature Porcini 67% (bar) - Oct. 27, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Standout Chocolate
Nordic Nature Porcini 67% (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: .88 oz. (25 g.) / 1.76 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150.75 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $11.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Mushroom Theme Week, featuring cacao-based items blended with a range of edible, non-psychoactive fungi, including: chaga, chanterelle, cordyceps, lion's mane, porcini, reishi, shitake, and others.

Today's Nordic Nature Porcini 67% (bar) was made by Standout Chocolate (Kallered, Sweden).

The rich blend of aroma notes for this Swedish craft chocolate dark bar included: dark, sweet chocolate; cream of mushroom soup; faint nut and fruit (dark ripe berry); and almost undetectable roasted red bell pepper notes. The texture (in cool weather) was thick and creamy.

Flavor notes included robust, fruit (berry) forward dark, slightly earthy, chocolate (more like a 75% cacao chocolate than a 67%). Any mushroom notes were relegated to the back seat--other than a very faint, fleeting whisp of nutty cream soup. 

The finish of this flavorful bar was more like a dessert course, with clearer, sweet, dark berry-bright and acidic notes.

Creating this well executed bar, made with cacao produced by Oko Caribe in the Duarte Province of the Dominican Republic, must have involved a balancing act between too sweet and too dark, between showcasing the relatively bold and fruity flavors of the DR cacao and allowing some smooth and satisfying mushroom umami notes to shine through. We enjoyed the end product.

Ingredients: Organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar, organic cacao butter, organic porcini 

Allergen-related information: May contain traces of milk.

*Porcini mushrooms (Boletus edulis)--"piglets" in Italian--likely due to their plump or chubby appearance--can be found growing in countries across the Northern hemisphere (including Europe, North America), and cooler countries in the Southern Hemisphere (such as New Zealand). They grow at the base of trees in forests and at the edge of forest clearings. 

They are a bit more flavorful than common mushrooms, with a meaty texture and woodsy, earthy and slightly nutty notes; and they're used in a variety of pasta, rice and other savory dishes.

 

Naive - Porcini Organic Dark-Milk Chocolate bar - Oct. 15, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chocolate Naive
Porcini - Organic Dark-Milk Chocolate bar
Good +++
Weight: .97 oz. (27.5 g.) / 1.94 oz. (55 g.) in total bar
Calories: 146 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #3 of And Now for Something Completely Different Theme Week.

Making bean-to-bar, small batch chocolate is challenging enough. However, for a creative and persistent few, experimenting with flavor inclusions in chocolate is the next step, after mastering the technical art of crafting chocolate from scratch (if that's possible).

Today I sampled another unique bar from Chocolate Naive (Rudamina, Lithuania)—a bar made with porcini mushrooms. The first sentence on the back of this package read: "Lithuanians love their mushrooms - that is a fact." Porcini mushrooms are highly valued by mushroom hunters. Each culture seems to have its own king of all mushrooms, and in Lithuania, it may well be the wild porcini.

Chocolate, can be successfully incorporated into both sweet and savory edibles, and vice versa—if properly executed. Happily, this bar was very well balanced and well made.

The Chocolate Naive milk bar was made with Tanzanian cacao and porcini mushrooms; and, as you might expect, the chocolate had an earthy mushroom/umami* aroma and flavor.

Freeze-dried porcini mushrooms were listed as an ingredient that was incorporated into today's bar. The chocolate was very smooth, with a creamy melt and mouthfeel; and I couldn't detect any bits of anything. (Perhaps milk or cream was infused with these mushrooms in advance. I don't know.)

The bar had a pleasant, lingering, tasty mushroom soup finish.

*Umami is a Japanese term that, roughly translated into English, means "pleasant savory flavor." Often called the fifth flavor, umami foods such as meats, vegetables, cheeses, mushrooms, seaweed, and ripe tomatoes. These foods typically contain higher amounts of glutamate, a way to measure umami.