Marou - Ba Ria 76% bar - May 15, 2013

Chocolate of the Day:

Marou Chocolate
Ba Ria 76% bar
Weight: .875 oz. (25 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 148 calories in 1/4 bar
Cost: $10.00 in 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #6 of Chocolate and Vietnam Theme Week.

Marou Chocolate (Vietnam) packaging and design is so good I could eat it -- or wear it.

I wondered: How expensive would it be to buy enough Marou bars (for their paper wrappers) to make a top or a dress to wear? A small fortune, no doubt. (See some of my imagined Marou red dresses, bottom right. More to come...)

In the meantime, I was completely satisfied with eating the lovely chocolate bar inside today's Ba Ria 76% bar wrapper. It had some bold fruit acidity with a slight earthy taste in the finish.

Marou tasting notes for this bar stated: "A bold and fruity chocolate made from Trinitario cacao (beans) sourced directly from family-owned farms in the province of Ba Ria."

Marou - Lam Dong 74% bar - May 14, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Marou Chocolate
Lam Dong 74% dark chocolate bar
Good ++
Weight: .875 oz. (25 g.) in 1/4 bar / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 150 calories in 1/4 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today's 74% dark chocolate bar from Marou Chocolate (Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, Vietnam) was made (in micro-batches) from cacao beans "cultivated (in the Lam Dong province) in the hilly woodland at the edge of the Vietnamese Central Highlands between Madagui and Bao Loc."

If you're like me, you have a somewhat vague idea of where this origin area is located in Vietnam. However, the beans and bar that hail from this region (described as rare) had clear and consistent citrus (acid) notes, and rich dark flavor.

So, while I haven't been to Vietnam (yet), I appreciated the opportunity to taste this bar (and the series of Marou single origin bars I've been tasting this past week*). Thank you to bean-to-bar chocolate maker, Marou Chocolate, and The Chocolate Garage, for making this possible. And thank you to Laurie for tasting help this evening.

*Today was Day #5 of Chocolate and Vietnam Theme Week.

Socola Kheer truffles - May 13, 2013

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Socola Chocolatier
Vegan Kheer Truffles
Good + - Very Good
Weight: .8 oz. (22.68 g.) in 2 pieces / 4 piece-box
Calories: 120 calories (estimate) in 2 pieces
Cost: $9.95 (estimate) for 1 4-piece box
Purchased from: Socola Chocolatier, San Francisco, CA

Today was Day #4 of Chocolate and Vietnam Theme Week.

Kheer is a milky rice-pudding like dessert in India, with similar versions in other Southeast Asian countries. Fragrant with cardamom, with touches of nuts and other spices, and maybe a touch of saffron and pandan, or dried fruit, these flavors were all tantalizingly present in today's Vegan Kheer Truffles from Socola Chocolatier (San Francisco, CA).

These Socola Kheer truffles inspired me to make a creamy, cardamom infused kheer-like dessert of my own -- with a Straus Family Creamery Greek yogurt base, and sweetened with golden-orange hued saffron honey. I also added some finely chopped almonds, cinnamon, vanilla, and other aromatic (pandan) and floral (rose water) ingredients.

To finish off this sweet, Socola (Vietnamese for chocolate) dessert tray: two hand-rolled, individually wrapped chocolate caramels. Life is good. Thank you to Wendy, Susan and Harriett at Socola, for making it so.

Kumquat, Guava Chocolates - May 12, 2013

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

Socola Chocolatier

1.) Kumquat
Very Good
Weight: .4 oz. (11.32 g.) (estimate) in 1 piece / 4 piece box
Calories: 60 calories (estimate) in 1 piece
Cost: $9.95 for 1 4-piece box
Purchased from: Socola Chocolatier, San Francisco, CA

2.) Give it to Me Guava
Very Good
Weight: .4 oz. (11.32 g.) (estimate) in 1 piece / 4 piece box
Calories: 60 calories (estimate) in 1 piece
Cost: $9.95 for 1 4-piece box
Purchased from: Socola Chocolatier, San Francisco, CA


Today was Day #3 of Chocolate and Vietnam Theme Week.

Happy Mother's Day to the moms out there. I celebrated this day with a small 4-piece Mother's Day Collection box from Socola Chocolatier (San Francisco, CA). (Socola is the word for chocolate in Vietnam.) I was excited to open this box and try new Socola flavors with ties to Vietnam this week.

The four flavors in this collection: Passion Fruit Vanilla Bean, Give it to Me Guava, Jasmine Tea, and Kumquat. Kumquat was a new Socola flavor. And now it's one of my new favorites.

Kumquats and Umami
I love kumquats, and the bursts of flavor contained in these small orange fruits -- that have a sweet rind and a tart center. (I have a small, recently planted kumquat tree in my yard. I'm hoping for my own tiny harvest to combine with chocolate next year.) Fresh, tropical fruits are often served as a dessert in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. And with the delicious flavors like this, I can see why.

Socola's description of this new chocolate reminded me that the tiny slivers of salt-preserved kumquat (also made into a drink in Vietnam), that were embedded in a 61% dark chocolate ganache, were high in umami flavor. (Other umami foods include parmesan cheese, mushrooms, truffles, fish and cured meats, green tea. I'm a big umami fan, so it's no wonder this chocolate rang some bells for me.)

Guava
The second flavor I'm counting for today, Give it to Me Guava, contained a tropical guava fruit gelee (pate de fruit) and dark chocolate ganache. Like the kumquat (and passion fruit) chocolates today, it was very authentic and fresh, with real fruit (in this case, guava) flavor. The Guava truffle was decorated with a white stencil of "Harriett", the flying llama, a creative mascot for the company.

Jasmine & Memories
The Jasmine Tea truffle I'd tasted and featured before on this site. It was infused with a lovely floral tea flavor. The two sisters (Susan and Wendy) behind Socola remembered sips of their grandmother's Jasmine tea when they were growing up.

Marou Dong Nai 72% bar - May 11, 2013

Chocolate of the Day:

Marou Chocolate
Dong Nai 72% bar
Good ++
Weight: .875 oz. (25 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 146 calories
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #2 of Chocolate and Vietnam Theme Week.

I've been working my way through a line of single origin dark chocolate bars from Marou Chocolate (based in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, Vietnam). The five Marou bars I have range from a 70% Tien Giang bar to a 78% Ben Tre bar.

Today's attractive, glossy Marou 72% dark chocolate bar was made from cacao beans grown in the upper Dong Nai region. The bar had good balanced fruit acidity with a slight raisin flavor; however, I did not taste the cinnamon note that I enjoyed in yesterday's 70% Tien Giang bar.

Merci to the French for introducing cacao to Vietnam in the late 1800s. I'm guessing cacao is largely grown in the southern part of Vietnam, in the Mekong River Delta area, and in the Highlands, in areas with taller trees that can help provide shade for cacao trees.

Marou 70% Tien Giang bar - May 10, 2013

Chocolate of the Day:

Marou Faiseurs de Chocolat
Tien Giang 70% (bar)
Good ++ - Very Good
Weight: .865 oz. (25 g.) in 1/4 bar / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 147 calories in 1/4 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Tasting chocolates from one country has been a great way to learn more about the history, culture and flavors of a specific place in the world. Welcome to Day #1 of Chocolate and Vietnam Theme Week. There aren't that many artisan chocolate makers from Vietnam. One of the first (of possibly more to come) is Marou - Faiseurs de Chocolat, whose founders have French roots.

Today's 70% dark chocolate Tien Giang bar from Marou (Saigon, Vietnam) was made with Trinitario cacao beans, "organically grown by farmers in the Cho Gao Co-op in the Mekong (River) Delta."

Tasting notes on the packaging describe this bar as full-bodied. The bar gave off a very faint smell of sweet tobacco, although when I bit into the bar, there was no tobacco taste, but rather a nice, acid-fruit flavor spectrum -- primarily raisin/plum with some spice, rum raisin cinnamon toast.

Très Jolie
The beautiful "wallpaper" packaging used to wrap this line of single origin bars (from different regions, farmers, co-ops in Vietnam) was mesmerizing, as good design often is. I found myself laying out the family of five different Marou bars I bought from The Chocolate Garage (Palo Alto, CA) -- onto a large, lush green, banana leaf-colored paper with a side of pearls, just so I could admire them all. Très chic.

Brownie Babies - May 9, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Sun Flour Baking Co.
Premium Brownie Babies
Good
Weight: 1.2 oz. (34 g.) in 2 pieces / 6 oz. (169.8 g.) total box of 10
Calories: 161 calories in 2 pieces
Cost: $4.19 for 1 box of 10
Purchased from: Oceana Market, Pacifica, CA

Today was Day #7 of Chocolate Brownie Theme Week. All this week's entries have been gluten-free brownies or brownie-like items (bars, cookies, thins).

Today's dense, slightly chewy, round Brownie Babies were made by Sun Flour Baking Co. (Sacramento, CA), a company specializing in vegan baked goods. The Brownie Babies were made with a special Sun Flour Baking Co. blend of rice flour, pinto bean flour and other ingredients. Walnut bits added some texture and classic brownie nut flavor. And, potato and tapioca starch helped replace eggs (that bind ingredients together).