Cacao Hunters - 64% Campesino Dark Chocolate Bars - May 18, 2026

Chocolate of the Day

Cacao Hunters
64% Campesino Dark Chocolate Bars
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 2 oz. (56 g.) total box of 2 bars
Calories: 160 calories in 1 of 2 bars
Cost: $6.99 for 1 package of 2 bars
Purchased from: Whole Foods Market, Los Altos, CA

Welcome to Day #17 of Chocolate & Colombia Theme Week, and Day #6 of Chocolate & Coffee Theme Week. Colombia is well known for specialty cacao and coffee, thus the considerable overlap of these two themes this month.

Today's Cacao Hunters 64% Campesino Dark Chocolate Bars (package of 2 bars) were manufactured by Cacao de Colombia (Popayan, Cauca, Colombia). 

Cacao Hunters offers several bean-to-bar chocolate bars that highlight regional Colombian/cacao flavors and the company is committed to ethical sourcing and helping small stakeholder farmers.

The word campesino in English means a person from the country. Campesinos include small-to-medium sized farmers (that may or may not be landholders, who live in fairly remote, forested regions). These are the people who often grow and harvest the fine flavored cacaos and specialty coffees that we love so much. It's a term that has my respect.

Aroma and flavor notes for today's 64% Campesino dark bar included: rich cocoa and warm spices (cloves, cinnamon), brown sugar caramel, and very faint floral (vanilla), wood (very faint cedar) and brown fruit (dried peach).

Texture: smooth 

I loved the pleasing, gently complex and complementary flavors in this chocolate. The warm spice notes were balanced and could even be mistaken for naturally occurring cacao flavors.

I paired this bar with a gently spiced, iced coffee latte.

I also appreciated the short list of quality ingredients.

Ingredients: "Cocoa beans, canela brown sugar cane, cocoa butter, cinnamon, clove."

Allergen-related information: May contain traces of milk.

Cru Chocolate - " Spicy" Cacao Drink (wheel) - Mar. 22, 2026

Chocolate of the Day

Cru Chocolate
Spicy - Cacao Drink (wheel)
Good ++ 
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (56.6 g.) in total package of two
Calories: 155 calories (estimate) in 1 serving/wheel

Cost: $8.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Farm Fresh, add-on to produce delivery service

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

Happily it's been easier to find fine, bean-to-bar chocolates from Mexico and chocolates with authentic Mexican or Mexican-inspired flavors in the last several years.

Today's Cru Spicy Cacao Drink from Cru Chocolate (Roseville, CA) was characterized as "Chicano" style. (Cru also offers a tasty Purple Corn Pinole "Mesoamerican" style drinking chocolate.)  

Cru founder, Carla McNeil Rueda, in her description of this drinking chocolate, paid homage to "The Adelitas" who were "the brave fighter women of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)." She notes: "They probably invented this delicious recipe..." And, yes, "Rueda means "wheel" in English, and this package contained two, foil-wrapped "wheels" of drinking chocolate.

Aroma notes included: rich cocoa and aromatic spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves).

Texture: A small bite from the (unprepared) wheel had a pleasing, slightly grainy (stoneground cacao/crystalline panela*) chocolate texture with finely ground, authentic spices. Much of this hearty, textural quality melted/dissolved when mixed with heated whole milk. The end result was a hearty, smooth and creamy, and flavorful drinking chocolate.

Flavor notes for this 60% cocoa included: rich dark chocolate (cocoa, drinking chocolate), warm spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves), with a spicy chili kick. 

I always taste a piece of drinking chocolate before making it into a drink; and I enjoyed the "before" (solid chocolate) and the "after" (a satisfyingly rich and creamy beverage) -- that left me, as promised, "relaxed, but alert" and ready to engage with others.

Ingredients: "fermented cacao beans, panela, organic nutmeg, organic cinnamon, organic cloves, organic hot chili pepper blend"

Allergen-related information: Manufactured on equipment that processes peanuts and milk.

*Panela is a caramel-hued, unrefined whole cane sugar, that retains some of the molasses and nutrients missing from refined white (cane and beet) sugars. 

Xocolatl LLC - Wam & Cozy Ginger, Cinnamon, Cloves & Cardamom 70% Dark Chocolate (bar) - May 2, 2025

Chocolate of the Day

Xocolatl LLC
Warm & Cozy Ginger, Cinnamon, Cloves & Cardamom 70% Dark Chocolate (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: 1.3 oz. (37.5 g.) / 2.6 oz. (75 g.) in total bar
Calories: 200 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Xocolatl, online order

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and Uganda Theme Week, and Day #4 of Chocolate & Warm Spices Theme Week.

Today's Warm & Cozy Ginger, Cinnamon, Cloves & Cardamom 70% Dark Chocolate (bar) was made by Xocolatl LLC (Atlanta, GA). (See previous post to read about the Uganda part of today--a single origin Uganda 75% Cacao bar from this same chocolate maker.)

Aroma notes included: appealing, slightly woodsy, and very slightly earthy, dark chocolate with subtle, comforting warm spice(s) (cinnamon, ginger).

Texture: pleasing smooth texture and melt with fully integrated spices (no detectable spice grit).

Flavor notes included: dark chocolate, and an integrated blend of warm spices (cinnamon, ginger, and even fainter clove).

I enjoyed the balanced, albeit subdued spice flavors in this bar; the choice to create a darker than average (70% vs. 50-60% cacao) spice-flavored chocolate using a high-quality cacao (no sources specifically identified on packaging/label). I also appreciated the short list of ingredients

Ingredients: "Cacao*, Cane Sugar*, Cocoa Butter* (* organic)"

Allergen-related information: "Made on equipment that processes peanuts, soy, wheat & tree nuts (almonds, coconut, hazelnut, pecan)." "Vegan"

  

Eva's Delights - Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Truffles - Oct. 25, 2023

Chocolate of the Day 

Eva's Delights
Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Truffles
Good +
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in a box of 4 pieces
Calories: 232.5 calories (estimate) in 2 pieces
Cost: $13.99 for 1 box of 4 pieces 
Purchased from: Santa Venetia Market, San Rafael, CA

Welcome to Day #13 of Chocolate, Pumpkin and Warm Fall Spices Week.*

Today's Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Truffles were from Eva's Delights (San Rafael, CA). "Made with love in our home kitchen."

Aroma notes for these seasonal chocolate truffles included: subtle dark chocolate, and very faint pumpkin pie.

The outer, smooth dark chocolate shell gave way to a softer, substantial, pale pumpkin colored white chocolate center. 

Flavor notes included: dark chocolate (couverture) and white chocolate ganache (filling)--flavored with very faint pumpkin spice syrup, pumpkin butter, and a very subtle splash of warming brandy. A sprinkle of salt across the top of each truffle helped to balance the overall sweetness.

Ingredients: French chocolate; Pumpkin Spice syrup; Pumpkin butter; cinnamon, cloves, and other warm spices; splash of Brandy; white chocolate and salt sprinkles.

Allergen-related information: (None listed on 4-piece box label.) Contact Eva's Delights if you have questions.

*We believe in over-stuffed chocolate weeks on Chocolate Banquet. One week can easily stretch into two, or more.

Sirene Chocolate - Winter Warmer bar - Dec. 27, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Sirene Chocolate

Winter Warmer bar

Very Good 

Weight: .88 oz. (25 g.) / 1.76 oz. (50 g.) in total bar

Calories: 132 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar

Cost: $13.00 for 1 bar

Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate, Holiday Spices and Maple Theme Week.

Today's Winter Warmer bar from Sirene Chocolate (Victoria, BC, Canada) was a delicious creation of dark milk chocolate—made from cacao beans grown in "balmy Tanzanie" (Tanzania*)—

nutmeg and cloves.

The scent of this bar was full of fresh spice and herb notes, despite there being "just" nutmeg and cloves infused into very fine chocolate.

There was no star anise, black pepper, allspice or bay, yet there were whispers of these—and all kinds of heavenly cacao flavors—in this creamy, smooth, very-well executed bar with wonderful depth.

Many holiday chocolates are considered novelties and are not made with the highest-quality (or percentage) cacao. So to sample this bar was to experience much happiness and gratitude.

Sadly, this bar was seasonal and is likely no longer available.

*Tanzania is a republic in East Africa near the Indian Ocean, and the source of some great small batch single origin bars in recent years.

ChocolateBet: March 31, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:
1/6 bar
Chocolat Moderne
Moderne Kashmir Spice Chocolate and Toffee Bar
Good + - Very Good
Weight: .58 oz. (16.6 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 95 calories
Cost: $9.00 for total bar
Purchased from: The Candy Store, in San Francisco, CA


Chocolate and Toffee Theme Week came to an exotic close today (Day #7), with the inclusion of this deep milk chocolate (51% cacao) Kashmir Spice bar.  The butter toffee in this gluten-free bar was infused with cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. These spices were present, but not overpowering.