The Tea Room - Raspberry Rooibos Dark bar - January 13, 2013

Chocolate of the Day:

The Tea Room
Raspberry Rooibos Dark Chocolate bar
Good
Weight: .36 oz. (10.2 g.) / 1.8 oz. (51 g.) total bar
Calories: 56 calories in 1/5 bar
Cost: $3.29 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Tea Room

This Raspberry Rooibos organic, dark chocolate 60% cacao bar from The Tea Room (San Leandro, CA), was part of a line of colorfully packaged tea and chocolate bars.  And, the company sells flavored tea, drinking chocolate, and tea-infused chocolate truffles, as well.

The relatively thin (good for accessing flavors) dark bar, had a good snap to it. The bar was made with organic dark chocolate from Europe, and organic red raspberry rooibos tea from South Africa. Rooibos is a shrub (native to South Africa) that is naturally caffeine free and lower in tannic acid than black tea, and contains relatively high levels of flavonoids (beneficial compounds found in plants that are often associated with antioxidant properties). The flavors I detected were more than raspberry -- a mix of flavors, and possibly an extract, that were faintly fruity and tea-like, but hard to pin down.

This bar fit in well with my red raspberry infused brunch: raspberry tea; a gluten-free sesame seed bagel with seedless red raspberry spread; fresh raspberries; and a few sections of this smooth, dark raspberry rooibos bar. And, for more seeds in today's entry, one need to look no further than the chocolate itself -- made from the seeds of the cacao fruit from theobroma cacao trees.

Today was Day #6 of Chocolate, Seeds and Berries Theme Week.

Louks - Dark Chocolate Sesame Snaps - January 12, 2013

Chocolate of the Day:

Loucks
Dark Chocolate Sesame Snaps
Good
Weight: 1.4 oz. (40 g.) in 1 package (3 pieces)
Calories: 206 calories in 1 package
Cost: $N/A - holiday gift
Purchased from: N/A - holiday gift

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate, Seeds and Berries Theme Week.

Made in Poland, and imported by BC Imports (Puyallup, WA), these sweet, chewy sesame thins were frosted with diagonal stripes of dark chocolate, and the pressed bar format was a great way to enjoy a concentrated burst of the almost nut-like flavor of these seeds.

These Dark Chocolate Sesame Snaps made for a great international snack, especially when paired with some fresh, organic, red raspberries, grown near the central coast of California.

Ghirardelli - Cabernet Matinee bar - January 11, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Ghirardelli Chocolate
Cabernet Matinee bar
Good
Weight: .4 oz. (12.6 g.)/ 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 60 calories in 1 section/square
Cost: $4.95 for 1 bar
Purchased from: de Young Museum Store, San Francisco, CA

Today was Day #4 of Chocolate, Seeds and Berries Theme Week.

The de Young Museum in San Francisco was promoting an upcoming exhibit featuring the famous painting "The Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. Through an agreement with the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company (San Leandro, CA), the de Young Museum store was selling a specially packaged Ghirardelli Cabernet Matinee dark chocolate bar that was clothed in a limited edition outer wrapper -- with a reproduction of the famous painting.

Part of the Ghirardelli "Intense Dark" series, the Cabernet Matinee bar was infused with "a hint of natural blackberry and cabernet flavor." I did not care for the added flavoring(s). In fairness, both wine and berry flavors are tricky to manufacture and integrate with chocolate. I've found chocolate is often better eaten with, or paired with, whole food or beverage items in the same tasting, but not in the same chocolate.

To test this theory, I paired this bar with a small glass of California Cabernet (red wine), fresh blackberries, and a small tapas plate of almonds, and pumpkin and black sesame seeds. The dark chocolate was smooth, and paired nicely with the Cabernet wine and the fresh blackberries. This pairing also seemed to improve the flavor of this bar.

Ghirardelli also has some recipes and pairings on their site worth a look.

With apologies to a certain musical: Life is a cabernet my friend, life is a cabernet. And a little chocolate doesn't hurt either.

Odwalla - Dark Chocolate Chip Walnut bar - January 10, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Odwalla, Inc.
Dark Chocolate Chip Walnut - Fiber Bar
Good
Weight: 2 oz. (56 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 220 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $0.99
Purchased from: Miki's Farm Fresh Market, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #3 of Chocolate, Seeds and Berries Theme Week. Featured in an all California product line-up today: Dark Chocolate Chip Walnut Fiber Bar from Odwalla, Inc. (Half Moon Bay, CA, with a plant in Dinuba, CA). Also included today as a companion dish: a raspberry yogurt sundae.

The Odwalla fiber bar was "made with fruit and whole cereal grains." The good news for those eating gluten free: no wheat or barley. The bar is made with plenty of oats (rolled oats, oat fiber, organic oat flour); and it contains flaxseed, as well as plum and date purees. I found it to be chewy, without being too dry.

The semisweet chocolate chips took a backseat to the other flavors and textures, which was fine in this case. I enjoyed the fact that the bar was not overly sweet (not too much brown rice syrup). The fiber in the oats left me feeling satisfied.

Thank you to Odwalla for their "No GMO" choice on this bar, and for including organic fruits and grains where possible (36% organic ingredients in this bar).

As a complement to this dark chocolate chip bar, I enjoyed a Straus organic, nonfat Greek yogurt sundae -- topped with organic Seedless Red Raspberry (gluten-free) fruit spread from Santa Cruz Organics and a few organic, fresh red raspberries. Who says healthy food doesn't taste good?

Note: Odwalla also produces a Berries GoMega juice smoothie, with Omega 3 from flaxseed, (and a Berries GoMega bar), that would be berry nice companion(s) to the Dark Chocolate Chip Walnut bar.

Recchiuti - Sesame Nougatine bar - January 9, 2013

Chocolate of the Day:

Recchiuti Confections
Sesame Nougatine bar
Good
Weight: 1.5 oz. (45 g.) / 3 oz. (90 g.) total bar
Calories: 250 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $5.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Paradise Foods, Corte Madera

Today was Day #2 of Chocolate, Seeds and Berries Theme Week.

I'm from California, and am proud to live in the "land of fruit and nuts." I lived elsewhere for a time. However, I was never so happy as when I returned home and had access to fresh produce again, from  trees in yards, nearby markets, or the occasional road stand.

Even better, has been the access to so many items -- such as seeds and berries -- that grow in the Golden State that combine so nicely with chocolate.

Sesame seeds grow in the Middle East, Asia, and elsewhere, and can be used for either sweet or savory foods. They appear in desserts and dishes from many different cultures in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Today I tried a dark milk chocolate, Sesame Nougatine bar, from Recchiuti Confections (San Francisco, CA)*, a variation on Recchiuti's Sesame Nougatine Truffle.

Bursts of toasted sesame seed clusters, cooked with cane sugar and sea salt (fleur de sel), poked out of this bar. The chocolate was fairly smooth -- no strong or acidic notes; however, the initial flavor (bites of chocolate without sesame seeds) was not quite what I expected. It could have been the vanilla extract I was tasting.

I enjoyed the slightly crunchy areas of sesame nougatine. The sweet and salty flavors were subtle and well balanced.

The fresh raspberries and blackberries that I paired with this bar seemed to improve the overall taste of the chocolate.

*Note: Michael Recchiuti and crew operate a "Chocolate Lab" in San Francisco. Watch for a future write-up or on this Lab location and tasting space. 

Swanton Berry Farm - berry truffles - January 8, 2013

Chocolate of the Day:

Swanton Berry Farm
Olalliberry chocolate truffle
Good - Good +
Weight: .4 oz. (11.32 g.) (estimate) in 1 truffle
Calories: 60 calories (estimate) for 1 truffle
Cost: $N/A gift ($1.50 each)
Purchased from: Swanton Berry Farm store, Davenport, CA

Tayberry chocolate truffle
Good - Good +
Weight: .4 oz. (11.32 g.) (estimate) in 1 truffle
Calories: 60 calories (estimate) for 1 truffle
Cost: $ N/A gift ($1.50 each)
Purchased from: Swanton Berry Farm store, Davenport, CA

Today was Day #8 of Chocolate and Poetry Theme Week, and Day #1 of Chocolate, Seeds and Berries Theme Week.

I spent yesterday on a road trip along the California coast. It was a beautiful, winter day, a great opportunity to walk by the waves, enjoy a nice sunset, and discover new chocolates. We stopped at Swanton Berry Farm (Davenport, CA), a great place out of the city, with a smattering of small farms; and where it was easy to slow down and enjoy life.

Davenport is in an area of the coast (north of Santa Cruz and south of Half Moon Bay), that is famous for berries, berry pies, and, occasionally, berry chocolates.

This morning I enjoyed two generously sized, dark chocolate truffles from yesterday's adventure -- 1 Olalliberry and 1 Tayberry* -- filled with fresh berry flavored chocolate ganache (centers). I believe they may have folded in some fresh berries, or berry jams into the ganache, as there were berry seeds in these chocolates as well.

Poetry and Chocolate
After a trip by the Pacific coast, it was hard not to include a few lines from poets and authors who were great appreciators of the outdoors, such as Wallace Stegner or John Muir. However, I settled on this poem which captured memories of lush, ripe, blackberries:

"Blackberrying" by Sylvia Path

Nobody in the lane, and nothing, nothing but blackberries,
Blackberries on either side, though on the right mainly,
A blackberry alley, going down in hooks, and a sea
Somewhere at the end of it, heaving. Blackberries
Big as the ball of my thumb, and dumb as eyes
Ebon in the hedges, fat
With blue-red juices. These they squander on my fingers.
I had not asked for such a blood sisterhood; they must love me.
They accommodate themselves to my milkbottle, flattening their sides.

Overhead go the choughs in black, cacophonous flocks ---
Bits of burnt paper wheeling in a blown sky.
Theirs is the only voice, protesting, protesting.
I do not think the sea will appear at all.
The high, green meadows are glowing, as if lit from within.
I come to one bush of berries so ripe it is a bush of flies,
Hanging their bluegreen bellies and their wing panes in a Chinese screen.
The honey-feast of the berries has stunned them; they believe in heaven.
One more hook, and the berries and bushes end.

The only thing to come now is the sea.
From between two hills a sudden wind funnels at me,
Slapping its phantom laundry in my face.
These hills are too green and sweet to have tasted salt.
I follow the sheep path between them. A last hook brings me
To the hills' northern face, and the face is orange rock
That looks out on nothing, nothing but a great space
Of white and pewter lights, and a din like silversmiths
Beating and beating at an intractable metal.

If you are moved to write poetry about chocolate, you may want to visit sites like this for inspiration: www.poemhunter.com, where there are hundreds of submitted chocolate poems.

*Tayberries are a cross between red raspberries and loganberries/blackberries

Chocolove - Strong Dark Chocolate bar - January 7, 2013

Chocolate of the Day:

Chocolove
Strong Dark Chocolate bar
Good
Weight: .533 oz. (15 g.) / 3.2 oz. (90 g.) total bar
Calories: 80 calories in 1/6 bar
Cost: $4.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: BevMo!, Mountain View, CA

Today was Day #7 of Chocolate and Poetry Theme Week.

I was reading poetry quotes as I sampled this Chocolove (Boulder, CO) "Strong Dark Chocolate" (70% Cocoa Content) bar. I was trying to select a few pretty words to pair with today's bar.

Made from Belgian chocolate, this bar had a strong snap to it. I wondered if I should find a poem from a Belgian poet, or a strong poet?

I stumbled on this poem, from Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda:

"I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
In secret, between the shadow and the soul."
-- Pablo Neruda

It sounded almost wrong to ascribe this poem to one's desire to eat chocolate. But, if the poem fits...

Ultimately, I decided to go with part of the William Shakespeare verse from "Venus and Adonis" that was printed on this inside of this Chocolove bar wrapper. (All Chocolove bars I've seen come with a poem inside.) This selection from Shakespeare read in part:

"...'Ay me,' quoth Venus, 'young, and so unkind?
What bare excuses mak'st thou to be gone;
I'll sigh celestial breath, whose gentle wind
Shall cool the heat of this descending sun:
I'll make a shadow for thee of my hairs;
If they burn too, I'll quench them with my tears..."

-- William Shakespeare

Note: Another few verses from this spicy love poem was printed inside the current (expir. Jan. 2013) wrapper of Chocolove's Ginger Crystallized in Dark Chocolate bar.