ChocolateBet: May 3, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:
1/5 bar (3 small squares)
World Market/Cost Plus, Inc.
Chili and Lime Dark Chocolate (bar)
Very Good
Weight: .6 oz. (16.99 g.) in 3/15 or 1/5 bar - / 3 oz. (85 g.) total bar
Calories: 88 calories for 1/5 bar
Cost: $1.99 for total bar
Purchased from: World Market, in Mountain View, CA

This dark chocolate (64% cacao) bar from World Market was a real mouth burner when I first tried it, last month. After that first taste, I wrapped it up, and decided to save it for today (Day #3 of Chocolate and Spicy Theme Week.) It's odd, most chocolates would have lost something over time. However, this bar seemed to improve, and the spiciness of the chili flavor seemed to have died down a bit (more to my liking). While this is the first time I remember a chocolate item improving with time, this surprise result may speak to the difficulty of mixing any added flavor with chocolate 100% evenly. Also, this was a very fresh bar (not due to expire until Aug. 2011, more than a year from now).

ChocolateBet: May 2, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:

2 pieces
Polo Dolce
Aztec Chile (Cinnamon, Ground Chiles, and Pumpkin Seeds)
Good + - Very Good
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.)/6 oz. (170 g.) total 8-piece box
Calories: 218 calories for 2 pieces/tiles (estimate)
Cost: $ (don't have receipt)
Purchased from: Poco Dolce, in San Francisco, CA


These Bittersweet Chocolate Tiles, topped with Grey Sea Salt, had just the right amount of spicy burn for me. Enough to be interesting, without being overwhelming. The pumpkin seed pieces also provided a nice texture and taste counterpoint for the chiles. Perfect choice for Day #2 of Chocolate and Spicy Theme Week.

ChocolateBet: May 1, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:

2 small squares (2/15 bar)
World Market/Cost Plus Inc.
Chipotle Chili Dark Chocolate (bar)
Good +
Weight: .4 oz. (11.3 g.)/3 oz. (85 g.) total bar
Calories: 58.6 calories in 2 small squares (2/15 of bar)
Cost: $1.99 total bar
Purchased from: World Market, in Mountain View, CA

The chipotle chili pepper in this reasonably priced, 64% cacao dark bar produced a faintly smoky chili flavor up front and a gradually increasing heat at the finish.

Welcome to Day #1 of Chocolate and Spicy Week.

ChocolateBet: April 30, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:
3/5 bar
Safeway Select
Milk Chocolate with Nibbed Hazelnuts (bar)
Good +
Weight: 2.1 oz. (60 g.)/ 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 327 calories for 3/5 bar
Cost: $2.00 (sale)
Purchased from: Safeway, in Palo Alto, CA

This bar was an authentic mix of milk chocolate and ground and nibbed* hazelnuts. It had a very slight mealy texture to it, due to the small hazelnut pieces, but tasted fine. It probably would be good melted over vanilla ice cream, with a dash of Frangelico (hazelnut flavored) liqueur.

And there was what I call the big bar challenge. I was planning to eat only a little bit...(Chocolate stories that begin like this rarely end well.) I unwrapped this large bar when I was very hungry. Rookie mistake. Enough said.

Today marked the end of (Day #7 of) Chocolate and Hazelnut Theme Week.

* While this is the first time I've seen word "Nibbed" used this way, it made sense. Nibs are small pieces or points of items, e.g. a nib is a corner of a pillow. Cacao beans, processed and ground into small bits, are called nibs, or cacao nibs.

ChocolateBet: April 29, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:
1/3 bar
Blanxart
Chocolate con Leche Avellanas (bar)
Good +
Weight: .56 oz. (15.9 g.)/ 1.7 oz. (48 g.) in total bar
Calories: 96 calories (estimate) for 1/3 bar
Cost: $2.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: (deli)

This morning I traveled to Spain -- well at least I pretended to -- for Day #6 of Chocolate and Hazelnut Theme Week. This Milk Chocolate with Hazelnuts bar hails from Blanxart, based in Barcelona, Spain.

I hope to travel to Barcelona some day. It certainly sounds like an interesting food and chocolate city. Blanxart got its start there in 1954. At that time, the company's distinctive mark and logotype were developed based on an Arts and Professions image in the Barcelona History Museum --  chosen in part because it reflected the company’s philosophy of carefully crafting chocolates.

ChocolateBet: April 28, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:
2 pieces
La Suissa
Gianduiotto Bitter
Good +
Weight: .75 oz (21 g.) (estimate) for 2 pieces
Calories: 107 calories for two pieces (estimate)
Cost: $1.50 for two pieces
Purchased from: The Candy Store, in San Francisco, CA

Today's choice for Day #5 of Chocolate and Hazelnut Theme Week were these two very smoothly blended, oblong-shaped hazelnut chocolates from Europe (Italy), via The Candy Store in San Francisco.

ChocolateBet: April 27, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:
5 pieces
(The Wynn) Chocolat Frederic Robert
Very Good - Very Good +
Weight: 1.77 oz. (50 g.)/ 4.3 oz. (120 g.) total bag (~ 12 pieces)
Calories: 256 calories in 5 pieces
Cost: $8.00 for total package
Purchased from: The Wynn/Encore Las Vegas gift shop, Las Vegas, NV

Today was Day #4 of Chocolate and Hazelnut Theme Week, where dark chocolate disks were topped hazelnuts, pistachios, and dried fruits: pineapple and apricot.