Gnosis Chocolate - 1.) Passion + raspberry (bar) + 2.) Black Diamond 100% Cacao Ocumare, Venezuela (bar) - Sept. 11, 2026

Chocolate(s) of The Day

Gnosis Chocolate
Passion + raspberry & aphrodisiacs 70% raw chocolate (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: 1 oz. (30 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $5.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Gnosis Chocolate, online order 

Gnosis Chocolate
Black Diamond, Ocumare Venezuela 100% Cacao (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: 1 oz. (30 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 155 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $6.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Gnosis Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #4 of "Chocolate Banquet Birthday Celebration" Theme Week--featuring several chocolate makers that I've been appreciating for 10-20 years.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of this Chocolate Banquet site, where I've recorded my thoughts on a different chocolate each day for 20 years. And, chocolate birthdays are still the best.

This decades-long chocolate adventure was only possible because of the hard work of many great individuals. I continue to be extremely grateful to all the chocolate makers, cacao farmers and fermenters out there in the world. 

I'm happy to feature two bars today from Vanessa Barg who founded Gnosis Chocolate (Astoria, NY). I met Vanessa when she began making chocolate (as an extension of her health practice) and started selling bars in 2008. She and her mom, Aida, have been making chocolate in New York City.

Long-lived endeavors require passion and commitment as well as strength; and the following two bars represent these attributes, along with a little "botanical alchemy."

Passion + raspberry (bar)

Today's thoughtfully executed Passion + raspberry + aphrodisiacs (bar) from Gnosis Chocolate was thoughtfully executed and made with single origin cacao from Ocumare, Venezuela.

Aroma and flavor notes included: authentic, balanced cacao with very faint, deep, still forest and smoke, and gentle tart sweet red berry (red raspberry).

Texture: relatively smooth dark chocolate with a satisfying mouthfeel and melt, with one or two raspberry pips.

I appreciated the thoughtful ingredients, and enjoyed the gentle (date supplied, lower-glycemic) sweetness and authentic raspberry flavor. 

The "aphrodisia" ingredients and reference can also be viewed as inspiring love in a broader, more universal sense, such as an enjoying and appreciating for all life/creatures on earth, and including all things botanical--which indeed will need to be true to continue to enjoy chocolate and other fruits of the forest in the future. (I'm hoping to celebrate 30 years of chocolate in another decade.)

Ingredients: "70% raw chocolate (raw cacao beans*, ground dates*), raspberries*, maca root*, damiana*, rose hips*, horny goat weed*, fo ti*, passionflower*, Love.

Allergen-related information: "Carefully handcrafted in a kitchen that also uses tree nuts and coconut."

Black Diamond (bar)

I associate black diamonds with strength, overcoming challenging circumstances, and being outdoors with chocolate. Having once been a skier, signs with a black diamond shape marked the toughest slopes on a mountain. Skiing down a Black Diamond run was exciting and sometimes resulted in a snow bath. (And these runs were usually followed by hot chocolate or a piece of chocolate.) 

Today's Black Diamond bar seemed perfect to celebrate a 20-year journey made possible by cacao farmers who face many challenges--and many special chocolate makers and entrepreneurs who continue to source great cacao(s) from around the world to craft great chocolate in a changing world.

Like other diamonds, black diamonds are a precious commodity forged in the earth to a particular, lustrous hardness and can be a symbol of strength.

In the Ocumare region(s) of Venezuela, prized heritage Criollo variety cacao beans are sometimes referred to as black diamonds or black gold.

Today's Black Diamond (bar) was crafted using cacao beans from Ocumare, Venezuela. No sweeteners, no additives. Just the essence of cacao (and love).

Aroma notes included: rich, chocolate-y cacao and very faint fruit (tropical fruit, berry) and balanced forest notes.

Flavor notes included: ultra-dark lovely fudge brownie, balanced bitterness (for a 100%er) and faint roasted notes. Like all unsweetened chocolate, your brain reacts to the lack of sweetness for a few seconds, but after a bit of bitter/sour, this chocolate resolved into a very nice clean finish with almost no bitterness at all.

Texture: Buttery, with a rich melt and mouthfeel

I really appreciated the short list of quality ingredients in these two bars; and that these were gluten-free.

Ingredients: "cacao beans from Ocumare, Venezuela, Love."

Allergen-related information: "Carefully handcrafted in a kitchen that also uses tree nuts and coconut."

Alec's Ice Cream - Peanut Butter Fudge Honeycomb Ice Cream; Candy Cottage - Dark Chocolate Horses + Honey Cake - Aug. 15, 2024

Chocolate of the Day

Alec's Ice Cream
Peanut Butter Fudge Honeycomb Ice Cream
Good ++
Weight: 2/3 cup (122 g.) / 14 fl. oz. (414 mL) in total container
Calories: 340 calories in 1 serving
Cost: $9.29 for 1 container
Purchased from: Whole Foods Market, Los Altos, CA

Candy Cottage
Dark Chocolate Horses 
Good +
Weight: .53 oz. (15 g.) / 6.15 oz. (174 g.) (estimate) in total box of 24 horses
Calories: 82 calories (estimate) for 3 horses 
Cost: $38.00 for 1 box of 24 horses
Purchased from: Candy Cottage, online order

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and Honey Theme Week. 

I'm celebrating my brother's birthday today. Good excuse for some ice cream, cake and chocolate.

Peanut Butter Fudge Honeycomb Ice Cream

Today's Organic Peanut Butter Fudge Honeycomb Ice Cream was from Alec's Ice Cream (Petaluma, CA). 

This was a satisfying, tasty blend of textures and flavors: rich, creamy  peanut butter-infused ice cream, crunchy pieces of honeycomb toffee, and hearty pieces of chocolate fudge. All the flavors tasted authentic. 

This ice cream was especially deliciously rich and refreshing, on a hot August day.

Ingredients: Cream**, Skim Milk**, Can Sugar***, Peanut Butter*; Water, Brown Rice Syrup*, Unsweetened Chocolate*, Egg Yolks*, Cocoa Butter*, Less Than 0.5% Alkalized Cocoa Powder*, Baking Soda, Molasses*, Rice Starch*, Vanilla Extract*, Soy Lecithin*, Chocolate Extract, Sea Salt, Carob Gum*, Guar Gum*. (*Organic)

Allergen-related information: "Contains Milk, Egg, Peanuts, Soy. Manufactured on Equipment That Also Handles Tree Nuts."

Chocolate Horses and Honey Cake

The small dark chocolate horses from Candy Cottage (Las Vegas, NV), had subtly sparkly golden manes and pale, shiny green eyes. They pranced across a frosted field of delicious (gluten-free) Medovik honey cake. 

These small dark chocolate horses were designed as cupcake toppers. A larger cake allowed a small herd to frolic and enjoy the extra space, blissfully unaware of their ultimate fate. Gulp.  

Candy Cottage makes several novelty and animal shaped chocolates. (Now I know where to go when I'm looking for chocolate squirrels.)

L'Amourette Chocolat - Gold Trinitario Venezuela Sur Del Lago 80% (bar) - Sept. 11, 2021

Chocolate of the Day

L'Amourette Chocolat LLC
Gold Trinitario Venezuela Sur Del Lago 80% (bar)
Good +++
Weight: 1.13 oz. (33.3 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 160 calories (per label) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $9.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: All About The Chocolate, Monterey, CA

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Venezuela Theme Week, and the 15th birthday (Day #5,476) of Chocolate Banquet.

Today's Gold Trinitario Venezuela Sur Del Lago 80% (bar) was made and distributed by L'Amourette Chocolat LLC (San Francisco, CA). The company has offered a line of single origin bars (including several from Colombia and Venezuela) and some with flavor inclusions.

This L'Amourette Sur de Lago 80% bar was the the perfect guest of honor at today's pirate-themed 15th birthday celebration for Chocolate Banquet. Fifteen years of enjoying a new/different chocolate item every day (plus two other birthdays) were great reasons to celebrate.

Chief chocolate maker Andre V. at L'Amourette crafted today's Venezuela chocolate from bean-to-bar in San Francisco, using difficult to obtain Trinitario variety cacao from a fascinating region. 

Lake Maracaibo, Pirates, Lightning and Cacao

Sur del Lago ("south of the lake") is the area where the cacao used to craft today's chocolate was grown. And not just any lake...Today's cacoa was grown within walking distance of Lake Maracaibo.

This large, almost mythical "lake" (a large, brackish bay that is open at the upper end to the Caribbean Sea) is linked to pirate* legends, epic lightning storms, and cacao. 

Tasting Sur De Lago

The rich aroma of this ultra-dark 80% bar had notes that included (in order of appearance) deep, dark chocolate, raspberry jam, green (stalk, floral), ripe tropical fruit (mango, sapote, cacao pulp), balanced iron-rich, tropical forest/loamy soil, and green herb (very, very faint licorice).

This chocolate had an abundance of rich flavor and natural, jammy fruit and mineral sweetness. The raspberry (red and black) preserve notes in the aroma carried over to taste, as did some of the bold, but balanced green, molasses, floral and earth notes. There were a few flashes of nut butter as well.

Taster's notes: Made with using 48 hour conching process

Ingredients: "Venezuelan cocoa beans (Sur Del Lago), cocoa butter, organic cane sugar"

Allergen-related information: "Soy and gluten free product. Vegan...Manufactured in a facility that also processes nuts."

*Numerous raids, skirmishes and attacks involving pirates in the (distant and recent) past have occurred in Lake Maracaibo. (Europeans first discovered this bay in 1499 and Spanish settlers moved in later.) 

In 1669, famous pirate and Welsh buccaneer Captain Henry Morgan raided Spanish settlements on the shores of Lake Maracaibo, and is said to have wreaked havoc on an advancing Spanish Fleet, evading capture in the process. In the 1820s, a battle for independence from the Spanish also occurred on this Lake.

In the fictional adventures of Captain Blood (in the book Captain Blood published in 1922, written by R. Sabatini), a similar pirate eluded capture by his nemesis Don Miguel de Espinosa in Lake Maracaibo.

Many present-day pirate attacks have been associated with the oil operations there. 

As for the lightning storms, I recommend doing a Google search on "pictures of lightning and Lake Maracaibo." It is a fabulous spot for lightning (specifically the natural phenomenon known as catatumbo lightning where hundreds of strikes can occur in a relatively small area during a nighttime storm).

 

ChocolateBet: October 13, 2006

Chocolate of the Day:

1 serving
Kandy Brights
"Solid Milk Chocolate" Candles (yes they really light up)
OK - Good - great concept
Weight: 7 g. for 1 / total box/package of 8 candles was 2 oz. (56 g.)
Cost: $5.99
Purchased from: Diddam's (party supply store), in Palo Alto, CA

Tonight I got together with a great friend to celebrate being 50ish. Well, it's a month after my actual birthday, so it's stretching the whole birthday month concept a bit far....Or, is that possible? Welcoming and planning for the new 50s era is worth celebrating in excess I think.

We enjoyed a fantastic meal in Half Moon Bay - a city on the coast/Pacific Ocean, south of San Francisco - at Cetrella's restaurant. This whole area used to be, arguably, best known for its agricultural and marine bounty. An old farmer's market building/site was transformed into a very nice high-end restaurant a few years back, and they still keep that tradition alive by specializing in local produce and ingredients. We had a very helpful waiter who suggested pairing certain wines with foods, and he was spot on.

We had a creme caramel dessert, which we topped with (Kandle Brights) edible chocolate birthday candles that I had purchased recently at Diddam's store (a great place for party supplies). The caramel was very nice, and while the chocolate candles weren't really a feast by themselves, they were such a nice touch. We couldn't resist lighting them, and gnawing on them a bit after we were done. A great evening.