SweetWorks - Creme d'Amaretto and Creme de Menthe chocolates - Jan. 1, 2020

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

SweetWorks Confections, LLC
(A Chocolat Frey Company)
Ovation Break-A-Parts by Frey
Creme de Menthe
Good +
Weight: .3 oz. (8.75 g.) /6.17 oz. (175 g.) in total package
Calories: 47.5 calories in 1 segment
Cost: $1.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

SweetWorks Confections LLC
Ovation Break-A-Parts by Frey
Creme d'Amaretto
Good +
Weight: .31 oz. (8.8 g.) /6.17 oz. (175 g.) in total package
Calories: 48 calories in 1 segment
Cost: $1.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Happy Chocolate New Year and New Decade to all! Welcome to the final day (Day #11) of Holiday Tea and Spirits Theme Week, and Day #1 of 2020.

Today's Ovation Break-A-Parts by Frey were manufactured by SweetWorks, LLC (A Chocolat Frey Company (Buffalo, NY).

I enjoyed these two variations on a holiday chocolate foil-wrapped "orange" tradition that I first encountered in the UK.*

After a few quick whacks on the edge of the kitchen counter....citrus-like chocolate segments were freed and ready to eat. And each segment was filled with a flavored filling: Creme de Menthe and Creme d'Amaretto respectively.

*Terry's Chocolate Oranges originally made their appearance in the early 1930s, the creation of family firm Joseph Terry's and Sons/Terry's Chocolate Works in York, England. (Mondelez International bought Terry's in 2012.)

Chocolate Frey, founded in 1887 by brothers Robert and Max Frey, is a Swiss business enterprise of the M-industry and has been a part of the Migros Group since 1950.

barkThins - Dark Chocolate Mint - Dec. 27, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

barkThins
Dark Chocolate Mint
Good
Weight: 1.4 oz. (40 g.) / 4.7 oz. (133 g.) in total package
Calories: 190 calories in 1 serving
Cost: $3.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Safeway, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #2 of Crunchy Chocolate Theme Week.

Today's Dark Chocolate Mint barkThins were "manufactured exclusively for" Ripple Brand Collective, LLC* (New York, NY).

These dark, bark-like snack pieces were generously studded with bits of peppermint candy, making them fairly sweet and crunchy. Dark chocolate was a good choice. (Milk chocolate may have made these barkThins too pliable, sticky and very sweet.)

*The barkThins brand was made for Ripple Brand Collective, LLC—an entity that was purchased by The Hershey Co. in 2016. The barkThins were Non-GMO Project Verified and contained Fair Trade ingredients.

Dolfin - Dark Chocolate with Mint Leaves bar - Nov. 20, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Dolfin SA

Dark Chocolate with Mint Leaves bar 

Good - Good +

Weight: 1.235 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar

Calories: 190 calories in 1/2 bar

Cost: $4.95 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Chocosphere, online order

Goedemorgen and Bonjour. We're taking a virtual chocolate voyage to Europe this morning.


Belgian chocolate roots run deep
Chocolate fans in the U.S. can be forgiven for thinking that chocolate originated in Switzerland or Belgium.

Both countries played an important role in the rise of popularity of chocolate as we know it in the past century or two. Belgium's association with chocolate began almost four centuries ago, when the country was under Spanish occupation—after Spanish explorers brought cacao to Europe from the Americas, and were consuming chocolate in beverage form.

Eventually, chocolate dynasties and prestigious houses of chocolate arose, and many are still on the scene. Creamy chocolate pralines (bonbons) appeared in Belgium in the early 1900s and quickly spread elsewhere.

Dolfin Chocolate appeared on the scene years later, but honors Belgian chocolate manufacturing traditions.

Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week. Today's Dark Chocolate with Mint Leaves bar hailed from Dolfin SA (Wauthier-Braine, Belgium).

This well-packaged, made-in-Belgium chocolate bar was well-tempered and broke with a hard snap. It had a slightly natural, slightly artificial aroma of mint and was a balanced, relatively sweet I'm guessing 60% cacao chocolate. (The cacao percent of this blended-origin bar was not disclosed on the label.)

Coolhaus - Dirty Mint Chip ice cream - Nov. 16, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Coolhaus
Dirty Mint Chip ice cream
Good - Good +
Weight: 1/2 cup (90 g.) / 1 Pint (473 mL) total container
Calories: 195 calories in 1/2 cup serving
Cost: $4.99 (sale) for 1 container
Purchased from: Safeway, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week.

This morning's gluten-free, Dirty Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream was constructed by the team at Coolhaus (Culver City, CA) using California milk, fresh mint leaves, cane and brown sugar, dark chocolate chips and other ice cream ingredients and vegetable gums.

The mint leaves gave this creamy, premium ice cream a very natural, slightly herbal mint flavor, that was not too overpowering (thank you!). And the miniature chocolate chips imparted tiny bursts of dark chocolate flavor.

Coolhaus itself was created by two women, Natasha and Freya, who founded the company in 2008.

Blue Bunny - Mint Chocolate Chunk Load'd Sundae - Nov. 15, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Blue Bunny
Load'd Sundaes - Mint Chocolate Chunk
Good
Weight: 4.25 fl. oz. (125.5 mL) / 8.5 fl. oz. (251 mL) in total sundae
Calories: 265 calories in 1/2 sundae
Cost: $3.00 for 1 sundae
Purchased from: Safeway, Palo Alto, CA

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

Sometimes chocolates most easily available for theme weeks are weighted in an odd direction. Just as last week's Ecuador cacao-themed week somehow ended up featuring mostly very high percentage cacao bars, this week's mint-themed week is conspicuously weighted in the direction of frozen chocolate and mint dessert items.

Truth be told, with a few exceptions, I'm hunting for quality vs. quantity in a chocolate. And, frozen treats and ice creams tend to be mass produced and loaded with sugar. However, they're also sometimes attached to childhood memories—the hidden icebergs of exceptions mentioned above, and which seem to justify occasional tumbles off the virtuous bean-to-bar bandwagon. (And I do have lots of good childhood memories associated with ice cream.)

Today's single-serving, Mint Chocolate Chunk sundae was part of a "Load'd Sundaes" line from Blue Bunny (manufactured by Wells Enterprises, Inc. (Le Mars, IA)).

"Load'd" with what you might ask? Definitely sugar (61 grams of sugars in 1 sundae). And, lots of toppings in soft mint ice cream, including swirls of fudge sauce, chocolate chunks, and tiny chocolatey fudge bunnies.* A few bites may satisfy the curious; and a few chocolate chunks, and chocolate-like bunnies, probably will not irreparably harm your health.

*Yes, we're still suckers for small chocolate animals, including certain chocsimiles (chocolate facsimiles of certain animals and items).

Chocolate and Love - Mint 67% Dark Chocolate Mint Crunch bar - March 14, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chocolate and Love Ltd. 

Mint 67% Dark Chocolate and Mint Crunch bar

Good ++

Weight: 1.75 oz. (50 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar

Calories: 263 calories (per label) in 1/2 bar

Cost: $6.79 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week

Today's Organic Mint 67% Dark Chocolate and Mint Crunch bar was from Chocolate and Love Ltd. (Crescent Perth, UK), and was imported by Belgium's Chocolate Source (Milton, MA).

The "crunch" in this smooth, almost creamy, dark chocolate mint crunch bar came from a swarm of uniformly tiny, barely visible peppermint candy bits. Audible, but not visible. Research was surely done to achieve this feat.

Jonny Pops - Vanilla Mint Chocolate and Cream pops - March 11, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Jonny Pops

Vanilla Mint Chocolate and Cream 

Good +

Weight: 2.4 oz. (68 g.) / 7.19 oz. (213 ml) in total box of 3 pops

Calories: 190 calories in 1 pop

Cost: $3.39 for 1 box of 3 pops

Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week.

Vanilla Mint Chocolate and Cream from Jonny Pops (St. Louis Park, MN). 

These gluten-free, chocolate-dipped pops had refreshing mint flavor and were made with real cream.

The number one ingredient was heavy cream (heavy cream and organic guar gum), followed by purified water, cane sugar and dark chocolate (chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural vanilla extract). The remaining ingredients: coconut oil, vegetable oil (soybean), natural mint flavor, vanilla extract and salt.

Honey Stinger Mint and Wildflower Waffles - Aug. 14, 2017

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

En-R-G Foods, LLC

Honey Stinger
Gluten Free Organic Chocolate Mint Flavored Waffle
Good - Good +
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) in 1 waffle
Calories: 140 calories in 1 waffle
Cost: $1.50 for 1 package/waffle
Purchased from: REI store, Mountain View, CA

Honey Stinger
Gluten Free Organic Waffle -  Wildflower Honey
Good
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) in 1 waffle
Calories: 140 calories in 1 waffle
Cost: $1.50 for 1 package/waffle
Purchased from: REI store, Mountain View, CA

Welcome to the last day (Day #7) of Chocolate and Honey Theme Week, and Day #1 of Chocolate and Flowers Theme Week.

It's not a huge stretch to transition from a honey-themed chocolate week to one focused on chocolate and flowers. Bees gather both pollen and nectar from flowers. Nectar from flowers is later concentrated down by bees and made into honey.

Today's two different flavors of ulta-slim, round Honey Stinger waffle sandwich confections were manufactured in Canada for En-R-G Foods, LLC dba Honey Stinger (Steamboat Springs, CO).

The makers managed the near impossible. They made a knife-edge thin waffle "cookie" that didn't crumble that was chewy and crunchy, delicate yet rich and flavorful and sweet without being too sweet.

The Organic Chocolate Mint Flavored Waffle was surprisingly tasty with subtle hints of chocolate and mint (peppermint). It was my favorite of the two.

The Wildflower Honey Waffle was a toasty, light golden brown; and the lack of other flavor inclusions allowed more authentic honey flavor to shine through.

Experimental Mint Flower Notes:
Instead of syrup on these "waffles" I sprinkled some almost invisible, experimental mint flower and pollen "pixie dust" from my yard on the last bites of these confections. The tiny spearmint and lemon mint blooms gave the waffles a light flavor boost. Mint flowers are milder than mint leaves and are almost always edible if the plant is unsprayed/safe to eat and is washed first. 

Trader Joe's - Dark Chocolate Honey Mints - Aug. 11, 2017

Chocolate of the Day:

Trader Joe's

Dark Chocolate Honey Mints 

Good

Weight: 1.1 oz. (33 g.) / 7 oz. (198 g.) in total package

Calories: 140 calories in 3 pieces (approx. 1/6 package)

Cost: $2.99 (estimate) for 1 package

Purchased from: Trader Joe's, Alameda, CA

Hello and welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Honey Theme Week.

Today's sweet, refreshing Dark Chocolate Honey Mints from Trader Joe's (Monrovia, CA) had only three ingredients: honey, chocolate liquor and peppermint oil. 

Each individually-wrapped round was filled with a soft, ivory-colored, natural tasting honey and mint center and coated in dark chocolate.

These mints (with a slightly spicy, rich dark chocolate aroma) had a honey sweet beginning and a slightly bittersweet finish. A 3-piece serving satisfied a hankering for something sweet in a relatively healthy way.

Rick's Rather Rich Ice Cream - Chocolate Chip ice cream + mint - July 9, 2017

Chocolate of the Day:

Rick's Rather Rich Ice Cream
Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Good - Good+
Weight: 1/2 cup / 1 Quart container
Calories: 250 calories (guesstimate) in 1/2 serving
Cost: $9.00 for 1 Quart container
Purchased from: Rick's Rather Rich Ice Cream, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week.

Today's Chocolate Chip ice cream from Rick's Rather Rich Ice Cream (Palo Alto, CA) didn't have any mint in it.

However, this satisfying, light and creamy ice cream with flecks of dark chocolate was whirled in a blender with fresh mint leaves and a splash of mint tea and transformed into a tiny, refreshing mint milkshake.

The subtle hint of mint (from the backyard) worked very nicely in the blender—resulting in a home-grown version of mint chocolate chip ice cream that was less sweet than most (a good thing).

The South Bend Chocolate Company - Irish Almods - April 9, 2017

Chocolate of the Day:

The South Bend Chocolate Company
Irish Almonds
Good ++
Weight: 3 oz. (85 g.) in total package
Calories: 440 calories (estimate) in 1 package
Cost: $4.00 (estimate) for 1 package
Purchased from: The South Bend Chocolate Cafe, Indianapolis, IN


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

Indiana is home to several fine universities, including Purdue and Notre Dame.

The "Fighting Irish" is the collective name of the varsity (sports) teams at University of Notre Dame. While the University's school colors are gold and blue, today's green and gold packaged Irish Mint Almonds would likely please Fighting Irish fans—and all others as well.

The mint flavor added a refreshing touch to these jumbo sized chocolate confections with a crunchy almond center.