ChocolateBet: February 27, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
1 serving
Vermeer Dutch Chocolate Cream
(+ Rum + Milk + Coffee Liqueur)
Good +
Weight: 3 oz. (estimate)
Calories: 180 calories
Cost: $3.00 (estimated cost for all ingredients)
Purchased from: BevMo, in Mountain View, CA + Safeway, Palo Alto

A famous Dutch girl from a Vermeer painting escapes and vacations in the Caribbean. That is the story behind today's chocolate (drink) of the day. Well, I imagined she won the lottery in Holland and sailed for the New World. And if she did so, she might have invented a drink with milk or cream, chocolate, coffee and rum.

Today was Day #7 of Chocolate and Rum/Spirits Theme Week.

ChocolateBet: February 26, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
1 piece
Chocolate Momotombo
Cashew Rum - fresh chocolate
Very Good
Weight: .5 oz. (14.1 g.) (estimate)
Calories: 70 calories (estimate)
Cost: $N/A - part of chocolate tasting/workshop
Purchased from: Chocolate Workshop - The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

It's not every day that I get a chance to experience 600 years of chocolate history in one sitting. Ometeote is a small organization dedicated to educating people about the history and production of chocolate in Nicaragua. Fortunately, Carlos Mann of Ometeote was at the Chocolate Garage in Palo Alto, California, this afternoon to conduct a workshop and tasting.

This workshop was a unique opportunity to sample cacao-based beverages from pre-Columbian and Colonial times well as chocolates being made today by Mann's company, Managua-based Chocolate Momotombo. Unique chocolates include Momotombo's fresh chocolates, that come in multiple flavors. I selected a blue-foil wrapped, Cashew Rum fresh chocolate as today's chocolate of the day (pictured next to a Coconut fresh chocolate).

Today was Day #6 of Chocolate and Rum/Spirits Theme Week.

ChocolateBet: February 25, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
1 serving
NutriSystem, Inc.
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pudding
(with Bacardi Silver Label Rum)
Good +
Weight: .9 oz. (25 g.) packet + liquid + rum
Calories: 130 calories w/ soymilk and rum
Cost: $N/A - donation from Alec - thank you
Purchased from: N/A

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate and Rum/Spirits Theme Week. After dinner with a friend, I still hadn't found a chocolate and rum concoction for today, so I stopped at Alec's house on my way home. Thank you Alec for letting me rummage through your kitchen cupboards. Voila! There they were, ingredients for chocolate rum pudding. A tiny splash of rum made this instant Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pudding taste even better. Probably not what NutriSystem had in mind though.

ChocolateBet: February 24, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
1 piece
Tropical Chocolate Company
Island Breeze Mint
Very Good
Weight: .3 oz. (8.49 g.) (estimate)
Calories: 45 calories (estimate)
Cost: N/A - thank you to Alec, Ardis
Purchased from: N/A - gift (Tropical Chocolates, San Luis Obispo, CA)

Today was Day #4 of Chocolate and Rum/Spirits Theme Week. When the weather is cold and dreary, the chocolate themes turn toward the lively and the tropical. Today's Tropical Chocolate Island Breeze Mint (mint with a Columbian dark chocolate ganache) was fresh tasting, and was accompanied by a very small sip of aged rum from St. Croix.

Note: island dancer and ukelele player sold separately.

Amadei - Granada bar; Chocolate Decadence Cake; Chocolate Ice Cream Cake - February 23, 2011

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

1.) Amedei - Tuscany
Cru Cioccolato Fondente Extra 70% Mono Origine Grenada bar
Very Good +
Weight: .35 oz. (10 g.) / 1.75 oz. (50 g.) total bar
Calories: 52 calories (estimate)
Cost: $9.00 (member price)
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage

2.) Chocolate Decadence Cake
1 slice
(from Gourmet Express - San Francisco Bay Area Distributor)
Very Good
Weight: Unknown
Calories: Unknown
Cost: $3.65
Purchased from: Valona Cafe Market Delicatessen, Crockett, CA

3.) Chocolate Ice Cream Cake
1 small slice ice cream cake with chocolate chip ice cream + chocolate cake and pink frosting
Baskin Robbins 

with Mount Gay Eclipse Barbados Rum

Very Good with Rum

Weight: 2.9 oz. (estimate)

Calories: 200 calories (guesstimate)

Cost: $N/A - at parent's house

Purchased from: N/A at parent's house

Today was Day #3 of Chocolate and Rum/Spirits Theme Week. I had to try three times to get this right. That meant getting the rum and the chocolate together in one sitting.

Attempt #1: A bite of chocolate from an Amedei dark chocolate 70% single origin bar from Grenada with rich, almost raisin-like notes; but I forgot the rum.

Attempt: #2: A tasty piece of chocolate cake after lunch at the Valona Cafe Market Delicatessen. Very good, but again there was no easy way to combine this dessert with rum since I was not home, or in a bar. (Although the Valona Cafe Market Deli did serve wine and beer and has live jazz some nights.)

And, finally, attempt #3: a small slice of Baskin Robbins ice cream cake with a splash of Mount Gay rum at my parents house. Good thing I walked almost 4 miles today in the hills.

ChocolateBet: February 22, 2011

Chocolate of the Day:
1 piece
Nacional Chocolates - Chocolate Santander
Single Origin 65% Dark Chocolate Rum Truffle
Good - Good +
Weight: .38 oz. (11 g.) - 1 truffle
Calories: 60 calories
Cost: N/A - sample
Purchased from: N/A - The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #2 of Chocolate and Rum/Spirits Theme Week. Yo ho ho and a truffle full of rum -- well, rum flavoring perhaps. The 65% single origin Columbian dark chocolate coating around these rum centers was rich and pleasant. The artificially flavored rum filling in these truffles reminded me of butter rum flavored Lifesavers we used to pilfer as kids from the candy drawer. We used to crunch on these until they stuck to our fillings. (Those did taste good, I have to admit.)

Thank you to the Chocolate Garage for the sample box containing two truffles. Note: if one of these 2 truffles was Aguardiente and one was Rum, I couldn't taste the difference. (Aguardiente loosely translates as "firewater" and in Columbia often refers to anise-flavored spirits.)

ChocolateBet: February 21, 2011

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 
Sweet Earth Chocolates

1.) Rum Raisin Truffle(s) 
2 truffles
Good - Good +
Weight: .8 oz. (22 g.) (estimate) for 2 truffles
Calories: 120 calories (estimate)
Cost: $3.50 (estimate)
Purchased from: Sweet Earth Chocolates, San Luis Obispo, CA

2.) Bananas Foster Truffle
1 truffle
Good +
Weight: .4 oz. (11 g.) (estimate)
Calories: 60 calories (estimate)
Cost: $1.75 (estimate)
Purchased from: Sweet Earth Chocolates, San Luis Obispo, CA

Today I'm kicking off a theme week (Day #1) in honor of chocolate and rum/spirits. These two truffles from Sweet Earth Chocolates were both inspired by dishes flavored with rum. Rum raisin ice cream is an occasional favorite of mine.

Bananas Foster is a flambe dish that was the 1951 creation of Chef Paul at Brennan's restaurant in New Orleans -- according to the Brennan's website. The recipe calls for bananas, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, banana liqueur, dark rum and vanilla ice cream. Sweet Earth's Bananas Foster truffle does a good job of approximating these flavors in a chocolate coated truffle. The banana flavoring tastes natural.

Rum is typically made from sugar cane, often grown in Caribbean or "warm weather" tropical islands. And, since it's a cold wintery day today, warm tropical islands sound good to me now. Rum does blend nicely with chocolate items under the right conditions. Unfortunately, there are restrictions on the use of alcohol in products that are sold to the public, leading chocolatiers to substitute rum extracts or flavorings in place of the real thing. This may impact the flavor of the finished item. So, I will also feature a few items this week with "real" spirits.