Barlovento - Gingerbread Truffle - Dec. 22, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Barlovento Chocolates
Gingerbread Truffle
Good + - Very Good
Weight: .4 oz. (11.32 g.) (estimate) for 1 truffle
Calories: 61 calories (estimate) for 1 truffle
Cost: $2.00 for 1 piece (if part of 4-piece box/order)
Purchased from: Barlovento table/booth at California Avenue Farmers Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to bonus day (Day #8) of Chocolate and Holiday Spice Theme Week. The excitement of the holidays (we'll all need to crash and take a nap soon) has been fueled by sugar and spice and gingerbread this week.

So, infused with the thought of more sweets, I skipped off to the local farmers market and bought vegetables, fruit, nuts, and chocolates. I enjoyed today's Gingerbread Truffle from Barlovento Chocolates (Oakland, CA), and had visions of gluten-free gingerbread men cookies (from Mariposa Baking Company, also based in Oakland, CA) dancing in my head. I wondered what gingerbread men ate for breakfast...A bowl of Gingerbread Truffles perhaps?

The Barlovento Gingerbread Truffle, stenciled with a colorful holiday gingerbread motif*, was covered with Venezuelan dark chocolate. The truffle was filled with a white chocolate ganache, flavored with gingerbread spices and perhaps a drop or two of molasses. Sweet, seasonal and delicious.*

Note: this seasonal item may not be available much longer.
* Seen here photographed (upper left) with Barlovento Meyer Lemon truffles and Kirsch truffle

Sixth Course - Pumpkin Spice Truffle - Dec. 21, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Sixth Course
Pumpkin Spice Truffle
Good + - Very Good
Weight: .416 oz. (11.79 g.) / 2.5 oz. (70.7 g.) total box of 6
Calories: 62 calories (estimate) for 1 piece
Cost: $17.00 for box of 6 different chocolates
Purchased from: Heath Ceramics, San Francisco, CA


Today was Day #7 of Chocolate and Holiday Spice Theme Week.

This holiday Caramelized Pumpkin Spice truffle from the two chefs at Sixth Course (San Francisco) was sweet, pumpkin sugar and spice atop a round truffle filled with creamy chocolate ganache.

Madecasse - Winter Spice bar - Dec. 20, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Madecasse
Winter Spice bar
Good +
Weight: .54 oz. (15.6 g.) / 2.64 oz. (75 g.) in total bar
Calories: 89 calories (estimate based on labeling) in .54 oz. (15.6 g.) bar
Cost: $5.99 in 1 bar
Purchased from: Madecasse, online order

Today was Day #6 of Chocolate and Holiday Spice Theme Week; and I tried the Winter Spice bar from Madecasse (Brooklyn, NY; Ambanja, Antananarivo, Madagascar).

Made (in Africa)* with cacao beans from Madagascar, this 63% dark chocolate bar was infused with "warm spice notes and a gingerbread kick." Spices included ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. The dominant flavor was spicy ginger (akin to candied ginger root) and faint spicy acidic fruit and earthy molasses notes in the dark chocolate -- making the bar taste slightly "darker" than 63% cacao.

Dessert

For dessert, I followed today's Madecasse bar with a pair of diminutive, gluten-free gingerbread men from Mi-del. These cookie men could be politely dunked into hot chocolate, or perched atop an ice cream sundae. In the future, after a long mountain hike outside in winter weather I imagine, I'll try dipping these gingerbread cookies, or hunks of freshly toasted gingerbread, into a high-end chocolate fondue. However, while today's Winter Spice bar was, thankfully, not too sweet, I've exceeded my sugar limit. Too many holiday treats this week. Right now, I want nothing more than a colorful holiday salad.

*Made in Madagascar by Shahin Cassam Chenai. (Chocolate is usually made in industrial countries with cooler climates. Most cacao trees are grown and cacao beans (from cacao fruit) are harvested in less industrialized nations closer to the equator.)

Askinosie - Gingerbread Dark Chocolate bar - Dec. 19, 2013

Chocolate of the Day: 

Askinosie Chocolate
Gingerbread Dark Chocolate bar
Very Good
Weight: .75 oz. (21.25 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 115.5 calories in 1/4 bar
Cost: $14.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate and Holiday Spice Theme Week. Another day, another great Limited Edition bar with warm and inviting holiday spices. (This bar even came with crayons to color in a gingerbread factory on the packaging.)

Today's choice: the Gingerbread Dark Chocolate bar from bean-to-bar chocolatemaker Shawn Askinosie, of Askinosie Chocolate (Springfield, MO). This bar tasted "darker" than other chocolates featured this week, in part due to the single origin cacao selected.

The chocolate was made with (Trinitario) cacao beans from Tenende, Tanzania; "minimally processed" and organic cane sugar; cocoa butter (from Tanzania beans); and spices: "ginger, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg, clove."

Gingerbread and chocolate is a match made in heaven, especially for winter holidays. Gingerbread and ginger spice cake have been valued as far back as the days of William Shakespeare:

"And I had but one penny in the world. Thou should'st have it to buy gingerbread." 
-- William Shakespeare, Love's Labours Lost

If Shakespeare had been better acquainted with hot drinking chocolate with gingerbread spices (the more likely exposure to cacao in his day), he might have penned a snappy, quotable tribute to the cacao bean. 

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.