Ethereal - Coriander, Orange, Ginger bar - Jan. 18, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Ethereal Confections
66% Cacao Topped with Coriander, Candied Orange Peel and Ginger
Good - Good +
Weight: .75 oz. (23 g.) / 2.25 oz. (64 g.) in total bar
Calories: 112 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $7.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: ordered online from Ethereal Confections

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

This 66% Cacao bar, Topped with Coriander, Candied Orange Peel and Ginger, from Ethereal Confections (Woodstock, IL), was loaded with a luscious and colorful jumble of Candied Orange Peel and Ginger pieces.

I did not see, or taste, much Coriander, but this lovely spicy seed but may have gotten overshadowed a bit by the generous serving of orange peel and ginger.

This bar was Dairy and Gluten Free, with no added preservatives. All the ingredients that I remember reading about on the label were also organic.

L'Amourette Ginger bar - Jan. 17, 2015

Chocolate of the Day:

L'Amourette LLC
Ginger Chocolat Noir bar
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 160 calories (estimate) in 1 oz. of bar
Cost: $5.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Ginger Theme Week. I sampled a piece of the Ginger Chocolat Noir (Dark Chocolate) bar from L'Amourette (San Francisco, CA).

There is something wonderful about eating seven chocolates with ginger, and having them all taste completely different. Part of a larger industry trend, most of these chocolatiers (and chocolate makers) talk about wanting to produce a natural chocolate product with authentic ginger taste.

Today's 72% cacao dark chocolate had dark, slightly fruity/acidic and roasted coffee flavor notes. The pieces of ginger embedded in this glossy, multi-square bar tasted very authentic, and gave the bar a bit of ginger root texture and spicy flavor without being overly sweet as some sugared candied gingers can be.

According to the company's website, this bar is soy-free, gluten-free and vegan -- and the ginger was free of sulfur dioxide. (Also included on the website was printed a rumor about French notable, and mistress of King Louis XV, Madame Du Barry, offering her lovers a concoction with ginger in it.)

SunRidge Farms - Wild Ginger Harvest mix - Jan. 16, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

SunRidge Farms
Wild Ginger Harvest mix
Good - Good +
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 8 oz. (227 g.) in total package
Calories: 120 calories in 1 serving (per packaging)
Cost: $5.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Trail mixes are great for hikes, trips or snacks on the go. I often load mine up with nuts (some toasted, some raw), seeds, chocolate, fruits, a pinch of savory salt and/or a hint of cinnamon.

Today's Wild Ginger Harvest Mix from SunRidge Farms (Santa Cruz, CA) seemed like a good choice, as I contemplated a drive down the rugged Pacific coast dotted with small farms and wild birds.

The mix was full of flavorful, natural-tasting (no preservatives, sulphur dioxide, artificial colors or preservatives) ingredients: chocolate chips, candied ginger, tamari* almonds, cranberries, papaya, roasted cashews, and an occasional sparkle of pineapple and apricot.

This blend delivered lots of satisfying chewy, sweet dried fruit texture and flavor, and some crunchy, nut taste. Generous chunks of ginger provided zingy bursts of sweet heat. The ingredients all meshed well together. While chocolate chips were listed as the first ingredients, the concentrated flavor of the dried fruit and ginger dominated the mix.

In my homemade version of this mix, I generally opt for a little less dried fruit and a few more nuts (walnuts in this case), to give the nuts and chocolate more of a chance to shine, and to cut the sweetness a little. But, that's the beauty of any good trail mix -- it's easier to customize or tweak to one's liking than a finished chocolate bar or confection. And a trail mix doesn't melt as fast as pure chocolate if left in the sun.

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

*Note: there may be very small amount of wheat in the tamari sauce.

Sulpice Chocolat - Ginger and Lemon bar - Jan. 15, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Sulpice Chocolat
Ginger and Lemon bar
Good - Good +
Weight: .92 oz. (26 g. )/ 2.3 oz. (65 g.)
Calories: 135 calories (estimate) in 2/5 bar
Cost: $4.49 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Draegers, San Mateo, CA

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

Ginger is one of my favorite spices to blend with chocolate. And ginger, lemon and chocolate are wonderfully universally on their own --- they can work in either sweet or savory dishes.

So, today's Non-GMO and Gluten-Free, Ginger and Lemon Dark Chocolate bar from Sulpice Chocolat (Barrington, IL) felt like a natural choice of blended flavors.

This attractively hand-painted bar had a very faint chocolate and ginger aroma and broke with a hard snap (a sign of a good temper). It was very smooth in both flavor and texture.

Chocolate ginger and lemon flavors were uniformly melded together; and the bar had an almost creamy texture perhaps due to some additional cocoa butter and soy lecithin, an emulsifier. (Fortunately, not so much of the latter -- which can sometimes result in a gummy-creamy mouthfeel I find.)

The company name -- Sulpice Chocolat -- is named after Sulpice Debauve, an influential Frenchman who opened a chocolate shop in 1800, and became the official purveyor of chocolate to the Royal Court of France.

Chocolate Momotombo - Ginger and Coriander - Jan. 14, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chocolate Momotombo
Ginger and Coriander chocolates
Very Good + - Yum
Weight: .3 oz. (8.8 g.) (estimate) in 1 piece / 4.6 oz. (132 g.) (estimate) for total box of 15 pieces
Calories: 46 calories (estimate) in 1 piece
Cost: $22 for 1 box
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

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

This small box of 15 pieces of Ginger and Coriander chocolates, from Chocolate Momotombo (Managua, Nicaragua), were big on flavor. These bean-shaped beauties were fresh and glossy looking. Every bite was tremendously satisfying, and worth every penny. The chocolate was rich, flavorful and dark, and harmonized well with the bursts of fresh, spicy-floral coriander seed, and ginger.

These were made in Nicaragua (by Carlos Mann and team) for The Chocolate Garage (Palo Alto, CA). The Chocolate Garage is one of the few places where one can find Momotombo chocolates in the U.S. The chief curator and founder of the Garage, Sunita de Tourreil, has a loyal following among her customers for choosing (and crowd-funding) great chocolates that have a happy supply chain.

Warning: Momotombo chocolates can be addictive.

Lake Champlain - Gingerbread Molasses Bar - Jan. 13, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Lake Champlain Chocolates
Organic, Milk Chocolate Gingerbread Molasses bar
Good ++ - Very Good
Weight: .81 oz. (23 g.) / 3.25 oz. (92 g.) in total bar
Calories: 125 calories in 1/4 bar
Cost: $2.64 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Today was the last day of Chocolate Baked Goods Theme Week, and Day #1 of Chocolate and Ginger Theme Week.

This Organic, Milk Chocolate Gingerbread Molasses bar from Lake Champlain Chocolates (Burlington, VT) was part of a ginger-fueled trio. I paired this bar with two of my favorite gluten-free ginger cookies:

1. Ginger Zinger cookies from Tate's Bake Shop (Southampton, NY) - thin, buttery and crunchy cookies with embedded chunks of crystallized ginger
2. Ginger molasses cookie from Ginger and Fox Baked Goods (Santa Clarita, CA) - jumbo-sized, chewy, fragrant and flavorful ones just like mom used to bake.

Each square of this bar had a slightly raised area (embossed with the Lake Champlain stag by the lake and stars logo); and the raised pocket area held a smooth, gingerbread-chocolate ganache (with heavy cream, molasses, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg).

Winter Fancy Food Show - SF, Jan. 11, 2015

Winter Fancy Food Show
San Francisco, CA -- Jan. 11-13, 2015

The Winter Fancy Food Show (San Francisco, CA -- Jan. 11-13, 2015) was held this week. I saw as many of the 1,300 exhibitors from around the world as I could (in both halls of the Moscone Center Convention Center). I scouted for trends and new products, and spoke with colleagues and friends.

If you are part of the specialty food and beverage industry, I recommend attending this show at least once. Two full days are preferable than trying to do it one; but it's a bit easier if you focus on one food category, say cheese, or olive oil. Or, in my case, chocolate.

Chocolate: something for everyone
The chocolatiers and makers at this show ran the gamut -- novelty, classic, artisan, big and small. And the products range from chocolate bars, truffles and confections to chocolate being used as an inclusion in another food or dessert item -- energy bars, kale snacks, cookies, you name it.

It was great to see classic companies like Idaho Candy Co. (Boise, ID), maker of the potato-shaped,  Idaho Spud candy bar, the Cherry Cocktail and the Old Faithful. This is still a family run company after 100 years. Amazing. (Photo of three brothers at right.)

I enjoyed seeing marketing innovators like Vosges (Chicago, IL). They had a beautiful booth, decked out with great images, greenery, flowers, and new flavor combinations.

Chocolat (Fredericksburg, TX) impressed with liquor/spirits-filled chocolates (liquid centers encased with a crunchy corn starch casing and covered with chocolate). Toffee is a competitive market, there are several good, gluten-free ones out there these days. I enjoyed catching up with local (Bay Area-based) Toffee Talk founders/owners. They make some great toffees.

And, even after eating more than 3,000 chocolates, I'm still discovering companies with new flavors, and meeting great new chocolate-makers, and single origin bar chocolatiers.

For example, Lourdes Delgado de Pandzic, President of Chchukululu Arriba Dark Chocolate, traveled to the Bay Area from Guayaquil, Ecuador. She was very interesting to talk with, and a great booster for her country and cacao farmers there.


Across the aisle from her, was Richard O'Connor, co-founder of Chocolate and Love (U.K.), maker of "organic and ethical chocolate." I also enjoyed their fun bar packaging that featured celebrity-look-alike dog images.

Trends
More gluten-free and organic offerings were on display. For someone like me who can't have wheat or gluten, but who loves good food, the pasta and baked good sections are looking more appealing with each passing year. E.g., Walkers Shortbread (U.K. company known for their shortbread, biscuits and oatcakes) will be offering gluten-free regular (and chocolate chip) shortbread cookies. Look for them in stores this spring.


Other trends called out in a Show Press fact sheet included the growing number of items with Asian flavors (think higher quality green teas, soy, wasabi, rice, etc.); more snack bars and spreadable products. The "Melt" chocolate spread (made with coconut oil) was very light and could be incorporated into a variety of desserts and confections, as could some of the nut butters we saw.

I'd been looking for items to create a Chocolate and Indian Snack Theme Week. And now, after this show, I have enough for a theme week in February or March on this site, ChocolateBanquet.com. (Think spicy cashews, mango chutney, crispy peanuts, lentils, cardamom and chai spices, etc.)

For more information, check out the Specialty Food Association website.