Patric - Oatmeal Cookie bar - Dec. 18, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Patric Chocolate
Oatmeal Cookie bar
Very Good
Weight: .575 oz. (16.25 g.) / 2.3 oz. (65 g.) total bar
Calories: 86 calories (estimate) in 1/4 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #4 of Chocolate and Holiday Spice Theme Week; and it seemed like a perfect time to brighten up a cold, holiday morning with an Oatmeal Cookie chocolate bar, from bean-to-bar maker Patric Chocolate (Columbia, MO).

This Patric bar was made of sugar and spice and everything nice, including: organic maple sugar, oats, cinnamon, and vanilla. These ingredients were skillfully blended into (and laid on top of) a chocolate bar base, and yielded very tasty results.

I preferred this Oatmeal Cookie bar over an actual oatmeal chocolate chip cookie; but then again the foundation for this "cookie" was a well-crafted, rich and flavorful chocolate that came from one of the best New American chocolate makers in the Show-Me State,* if not the U.S.

*The Show-Me State is an historic, informal name for the State of Missouri.

Patric - Ginger Spice bar - Dec. 17, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Patric Chocolate
Ginger Spice bar
Very Good
Weight: .575 oz. (16.25 g.) / 2.3 oz. (65 g.) in total bar
Calories: 86 calories (estimate) in 1/4 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #3 of Chocolate and Holiday Spice Theme Week.

I don't know how Alan "Patric" McClure at Patric Chocolate (Columbia, MO) hand-crafts such great chocolate bars with layered flavors; but it certainly was a pleasure to taste his Ginger Spice Limited Edition bar today.

You'll be rewarded if you can hold a piece of this bar in your mouth long enough to let the flavors unfold. I experienced the warming of the ginger, followed by a delicious gingerbread-molasses-cookie finish that took me back to childhood. (Ingredients included: cacao, ginger sugar, cocoa butter, cinnamon and vanilla salt.)

It was hard to think of better holiday dessert fare than these warming winter spices combined with great chocolate.

John and Kira's - Ginger and Star Anise chocolates - Dec. 16, 2013

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

John and Kira's
1.) Papohaku Ginger - Good +
2.) Starry Night - Good + - Very Good
Weight: .766 oz (21.7 g.) for 2 pieces / 5.75 oz. (163 g.) box
Calories: 115 calories (estimate) in 2 pieces
Cost: $ N/A previously recorded for this 15-piece Every Flavor Collection box ($32.00)
Purchased from: John and Kira's (online order)

Today was Day #2 of Chocolate and Holiday Spice Theme Week.

Yesterday's featured holiday spice was contained in a colorful, red, heart shaped chocolate from John and Kira's (Philadelphia, PA). A white chocolate ganache was infused with cinnamon and green pistachio nut bits.

Today's two chocolates also hailed from John and Kira's. Each featured a spice accent. The first piece was infused with a faint whisper of Papohaku Ginger (from Ellen Sugawara's farm on Molokai, Hawaii). Ginger and dark chocolate are a natural, harmonious match. I would have liked even a bit more ginger, but what was there was very nice; and those that prefer more subtle spice flavors will appreciate this piece.

The second chocolate, "Starry Night," was flavored with organic star anise and hints of licorice. If you like star anise, this well-executed chocolate was a great example what this spice has to offer. You might also like hot chocolate or a holiday cookie with a little cinnamon and star anise.

John and Kira's - Holiday Hearts and Flowers - Dec. 15, 2013

Chocolate(s) of the Day

John and Kira's
Holiday Hearts and Flowers
1.) Hearts - Very Good - 1 piece
2.) Flowers - Good + - 1 piece
Weight: .66 oz. (18.8 g.) estimate for 2 pieces / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total 9-piece box
Calories: 100 calories (estimate) in 2 pieces
Cost: $29.00 for 1 box of 9 pieces
Purchased from: John and Kira's, online order

Today was Day #1 of Chocolate and Holiday Spice Theme Week. December is the perfect month for gingerbread, mulled cider/wine, and eggnog spices -- blended with chocolate. Cinnamon, with its inherently warm flavor, is perhaps the most versatile and popular holiday spice.

I opened a 9-piece box of Holiday Hearts and Flowers chocolates from John and Kira's (Philadelphia, PA) this afternoon. I sampled both a festively red, dark chocolate Holiday Heart (filled with white chocolate, pistachio nut pieces and cinnamon), and a red, flower-shaped dark chocolate, filled with a 66% dark chocolate ganache (filling).

The heart, with a subtle hint of cinnamon spice, was my favorite. All the flavors were well balanced and cheerful, and the bits of green pistachio provided a bit of crunchy texture and visual eye candy and holiday color.

Wild Ophelia - Mined Salt bar - Dec. 14, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Wild Ophelia
Mined Salt and Milk Chocolate bar
OK
Weight: 1/2 bar
Calories: 150 calories for 1/2 bar
Cost: $4.99 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Walgreen's, Palo Alto, CA

The Wild Ophelia Mined Salt and Milk Chocolate bar (part of Vosges Chocolate (Chicago, IL), was one of a line of bars with promotional ties to the 2013 movie "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire." (Included in these bars was information on how to win a year's worth of chocolate.)

The story that accompanied this bar seemed to draw a correlation between the mined pink Himalayan salt in this bar and Mining and "District 12" (featured in the movie). I haven't seen the movies, and I didn't see (or taste) any salt in the bar. So, I missed parts of the story here.

So, how did the chocolate taste? The 41% cacao milk chocolate bar base was OK, but slightly bland and gummy -- a texture I associate with the addition of soy lecithin (used as an emulsifier).

More on Salt, Salt Mines
Pink Himalayan salt is mined in Pakistan and other regions near the Himalaya mountains. The pink color (due to traces of iron oxide) might have been more obvious in appearance (and flavor) if it had been sprinkled atop the chocolate, rather than blended in. Either way, I missed the salt.

I unwrapped and ate this bar in a partially underground (subway) tunnel on the way to a gathering of Santas, elves and reindeer in San Francisco, and pondered what salt mining must be like in underground mines. Hard, and possibly dangerous, work (as noted on the bar's packaging). Thank you to all miners who provided salt for holiday chocolates featured this month.

Today was the last day of Chocolate and Salt Theme Week.

Pacari - Cuzco Pink Salt bar - Dec. 13, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Pacari
Cuzco Pink Salt and Nibs bar
Good ++
Weight: 1.76 oz. (50 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 260 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: N/A - sample
Purchased from: N/A - sample from Pacari Chocolate

One of the most delightful things about salt is that there are so many different kinds. Salt can be infused with many different minerals, colors and flavors depending on its origin and who is packaging it for sale.

Today's 4-ingredient* Cuzco Pink Salt and Nibs bar from Pacari Chocolate (Quito, Ecuador) was part of the company's Andean Flavors Collection of bars. The blend of organic Arriba cacao beans (and cacao nibs) yielded a chocolate bar with hot cocoa, light fruit and floral notes.

The pink salt (from the Cuzco area of Peru) and the unsweetened cacao nibs gave the bar a satisfying bite -- a slight, soft crunchy texture with micro-bursts of salt and nibs. The pale pink salt came from warm water seeps (generally fed into salt collection ponds) located high above sea level. I'm guessing that the Incas used this salt; and maybe some of them even mixed this salt with cacao paste or drink.

The Dreaded Wine Analogy
I would classify the cacao flavors in this chocolate as closer to a white wine vs. a red wine -- if that analogy works at all. Whites can have a slightly more delicate, nuanced flavor arc, with lighter floral notes possible. Following this comparison, this Pacari bar would be a complex, interesting fine white wine that I'd be happy to serve at my table. If you're a fan of bolder red wines with high acidity, red fruit notes or a tannic bite, then other high-end, bean-to-bar dark bars in the new American maker style might be more to your liking.

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

*I'm a fan of bars that are made with 5 ingredients or less. 

Akesson's Bali 45% fleur de sel bar - Dec. 12, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Akesson's (AO GmbH)
Bali, Sukrama Farms 45% Milk Chocolate with Fleur de Sel and Organic Coconut Blossom Sugar
Very Good
Weight: .69 oz. (20 g.) / 2.12 oz. (60 g.) total bar
Calories: 104 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $8.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today's Akesson's (AO GmbH, Zug, Switzerland) sea salt bar was assembled from several interesting ingredients. The 45% milk chocolate was made with cacao beans from a single plantation, Sukrama Farms, in Bali. The addition of a bit of fleur de sel (salt) gave the bar a pleasing, rounded caramel taste. However, I'm guessing, what really amped up the caramel flavor in a wonderful way was the addition of organic, coconut blossom sugar.

I've enjoyed several chocolates with coconut palm/blossom sugar over the past several years, and this sweetener does yield a rich, interesting flavor -- where these flavors complement the inherent flavors in cacao beans being used.*

Akesson's founder, Bertil Akesson, owns land or has forged relationships with growers on plantations in Madagascar, Brazil, Bali and elsewhere. (He also sells peppercorns.)

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate and Salt Theme Week.

*On the other hand, "pure" cane sugar is a popular choice, where the undiluted flavor arc of certain cacao beans is the desired focus. For three-ingredient bars (cocoa solids, cocoa butter and sugar), especially, every ingredient must be of a high quality and play well with the others to yield optimal, clear as a bell, results. Disclaimer: I love playing with the "browner" richer, natural sweeteners when cooking. A touch of molasses, organic coconut sugar, natural brown sugars, can improve sweet or savory dishes.