Pascati Artisan Chocolate - Orange Cinnamon Hazelnut 60% organic (bar) - Apr. 23, 2020

Chocolate of the Day: 

Pascati Artisan Chocolate
(Pascati Foods India LLP)
Orange Cinnamon Hazelnut Dark 60% Cocoa Organic Chocolate (bar)
Weight: 2.65 oz. (75 g.) total bar
Calories: 398 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $8.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com, online order

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate and  India Theme Week.

Today's Orange Cinnamon Hazelnut Dark 60% Cocoa Organic Chocolate bar was from Pascati Artisan Chocolate / Pascati Foods India LLP (Maharashtra, India).

This dark chocolate had a smooth texture, fairly dark chocolate flavor for 60%, and very subtle citrus and spice aroma and flavor. Small pieces of hazelnut added some nutty crunch. About every third bite you got a bit of identifiable hazelnut and/or orange flavor. Otherwise these organic flavor inclusions were very unobtrusive.

About 58% of the ingredients (cocoa and cinnamon) were fair trade.

Ingredients: organic cocoa beans, organic sugar, organic cocoa butter, organic hazelnuts, organic orange flavour, organic cinnamon powder.

Jason Scott LLC - Christmas Cocoa Assortment; Belgian Chocolates- Jan. 14, 2020

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Jason Scott LLC
Christmas Cocoa Assortment (3 flavors)
Vanilla with Hazelnut
Good - Good +
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) / 3 oz. (84 g.) in total package of 3 flavors
Calories: 100 calories in 1 packet
Cost: $2.99 for 1 package of 3 flavors
Purchased from: Ross Stores in Mountain View, CA

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

Today's Christmas Cocoa Assortment of three festively packaged miniature mixes was from Jason Scott LLC (Boca Raton, FL). Nothing warms one up quite like a good cup of hot chocolate. The vanilla (mix) added comfort and joy to a sweet hot cocoa sipping experience.

Belgian Chocolate Assortment 
I also sampled four filled chocolate truffles from a Belgian chocolate assortment holiday box.

While they mentioned hazelnut fillings, none of the chocolates I sampled had extremely strong hazelnut flavor.

See photo (at right) for a picture of the four flavors that seemed to have the most detectable hazelnut flavor.

Unlike many similar chocolate assortments, these did not contain gluten/wheat ingredients.

Chocolove - Hazelnut Butter Cup Dark Chocolate - Sept. 13, 2019

Chocolate of the Day:

Chocolove
Hazelnut Butter Cup
Good ++
Weight: .6 oz. (17 g.) in 1 package/cup
Calories: 100 calories in 1 cup
Cost: $1.99 (estimate) for 1 cup
Purchased from: New Leaf Markets, Half Moon Bay, CA

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Nut Butter Theme Week.

Sometimes you just want one nut butter cup in its own individually packaged serving size, to prevent you from overeating a second one.

Today's Hazelnut Butter Cup was from Chocolove (Boulder, CO). The dark chocolate cup was very creamy in texture and the filling was a slightly more textured (but also quite smooth), praline-like hazelnut butter filling.

Chocolove also makes dark and milk almond butter and peanut butter cups.

Fine and Raw Chocolate - Espresso (bar) and Hazelnut Butter (bar) - July 29, 2019

Chocolate of the Day:

Fine and Raw Chocolate
Espresso 70% cacao (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) in total bar
Calories: 171 calories (per label) in 1 bar
Cost: $25.00 for 5 bar set
Purchased from: Fine and Raw Chocolate, online order


Fine and Raw Chocolate
Hazelnut Butter 49% cacao (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) in total bar
Calories: 159 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $25.00 for 5 bar set
Purchased from: Fine and Raw Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Cowgirl Theme Week.

Today's Espresso 70% cacao and Hazelnut Butter 49% cacao bars, from Fine and Raw Chocolate (Brooklyn, NY), were both great bars to sample after getting up in the middle of the night to catch a plane to New Mexico where cowboys and cowgirls still exist. Some caffeine and theobromine will help to stay awake and to drive across this beautiful state.*

If cowboy coffee is made with a pot on hot coals, then perhaps cowgirl espresso is a bit more refined...something like today's Espresso bar. Coffee has been part of ranch and cattle drive culture for some time. (Yesterday we talked about mesquite coffee, which also has a long tradition in the Southwest U.S.)

These two bars were part of the company's Brooklyn Bonnie collection, and were adorned with drawings of girls from the wild west, many of them endowed with a cowgirl spirit.

Both were sweetened with coconut sugar and were made with 50% raw and 50% roasted cacao and had pleasing espresso and hazelnut aromas, respectively. Both bars had a creamy melt and had balanced (and complementary) flavors. (Eating them together was like enjoying a hazelnut latte.)

The Espresso bar contained small chewy bits of coffee. And the Hazelnut Butter bar had tiny bits of ground nuts, but were otherwise quite smooth.

Both had a pleasing finish as well.

Zing Bars - Chocolate Hazelnut Vitality bar - March 9, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Zing Bars

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Vitality bar

Good

Weight: 1.76 oz. (50 g.) in 1 bar

Calories: 210 calories in 1 bar

Cost: $2.19 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, Menlo Park, CA

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

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Vitality bar from Zing Bars (Seattle, WA)

This chocolate covered bar was a combination of chopped hazelnuts, almonds with a "hint of coconut and dark chocolate." It had a slightly chewy, substantial texture; and it contained 10 grams of plant-based protein (primarily from rice and pea protein). And it wasn't too sweet (thank you).

All Zing Bars are certified gluten free.

Celebrating 12 Yrs. of Chocolate - Magnum Milk Chocolate Hazelnut ice cream - Sept. 22, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Unilever
Magnum Milk Chocolate Hazelnut ice cream
Good - Good +
Weight: 1/3 cup (55 g.) / 14.8 fl. oz. (440 mL) in total container
Calories: 185 calories in 1/3 cup
Cost: $4.99 (estimate) for 1 container
Purchased from: Safeway (missing location information)

Welcome to Day #12 of Celebrating 12-Years of Chocolate Series, and Day #2 of Chocolate and Ice Cream Theme Week.

Today's Magnum Milk Chocolate Hazelnut ice cream was from Unilever (Englewood Cliffs, NJ).

The unique feature about this relatively new offering was: "Squeeze to Crack" packaging—a hybrid of a large, chocolate-coated ice cream bar and a container of ice cream.

When you squeeze the plastic container, the chocolate "lining" or coating breaks with a crunch. Then you can enjoy bites of hazelnut ice cream mixed with milk chocolate shards. Fun concept.

DeMet's - holiday turtle egg; Storck - Toffifay - Jan. 13, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

DeMet's Candy Company

Turtles - holiday eggs

Good

Weight: 1.2 oz. (33.96 g.) in 1 egg

Calories: 180 calories (estimate) in 1 egg

Cost: $ missing information 

Purchased from: missing information

August Storck AG

Toffifay

Good

Weight: .3 oz. (8.25 g.) / 1.2 oz. (33 g.) in total package

Calories: 45 calories in 1 piece (1/4 package) 

Cost: $0.79 for 1 package

Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #11 of Chocolate and Caramel Theme Week.

Today we're featuring two milk chocolate and caramel items—both acquired during the December holiday season.

DeMet's Turtles

The first item was a DeMet's egg-shaped chocolate and caramel "turtle," complete with milk chocolate, caramel and nuts (pecans and possibly hazelnuts).

DeMet's (Stamford, CT) has been making turtles* for decades. (These holiday turtles were a product of Turkey.)

These holiday eggs were wrapped with red and white festive holiday foil wrappings with images of polar bears and penguins. However, if you looked carefully before biting into the egg, it was possible to spot the likeness of the iconic DeMet's turtle character imprinted on the chocolate.

August Storck Toffifay

The second item: Toffifay, a chocolate, caramel and hazelnut cream, semi-spherical, sweet confection from August Storck AG (Germany).

The sweet caramel outer cup had a soft chew texture, and the chocolate center was slightly more firm. 

*The original chocolate, caramel and nut turtles resembled turtles; often pecans or nut pieces protruded (from the chocolate oblong body or "shell"), resembling a turtle's head and legs.

XOX Truffles - Lavender, Hazelnut, Cognac Truffles - Sept. 27, 2016

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

XOX Truffles

1.) Lavender - Very Good
2.) Black and White - Good ++
3.) Hazelnut - Good ++ - Very Good
4.) Cognac - Very Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) (estimate) for 4 truffles
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) for 4 truffles
Cost: $1.00 each (quantity pricing for 20 truffles)
Purchased from: XOX Truffles, San Francisco, CA

Bienvenue a (Welcome to) Day #4 of French Chocolate Theme Week.

Today I sampled the last truffle flavors from my recent XOX Truffles (San Francisco, CA) purchase.

The team at XOX offers truffles in the true French style, and they are creamy, authentic and delicious.

The Lavande (Lavender in French) truffle was suffused with beautiful lavender flower flavor. If you like lavender and dark chocolate, you'll love this one.

The Black and White truffle was a dark chocolate truffle covered in white chocolate.

The Hazelnut truffle had authentic hazelnut flavor (a great blend with chocolate) and was rolled in hazelnut bits.

The Cognac truffle was boozy and marvelous. I had tasted this one a few years ago, and decided to re-taste it with the others today, as I remembered it fondly. And while I may occasionally forget other details about life, I felt gratified to find that I wasn't wrong about this truffle.