Zola - Dark Chocolate Organic Banana Chunks - Jan. 14, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Zola
Dark Chocolate Organic Banana Chunks
Good - Good +
Weight: 1/4 cup (40 g.) / 4 oz. (113 g.) in total package
Calories: 180 calories in 1/3 package
Cost: $3.50 (sale) for 1 package
Purchased from: Safeway, Palo Alto, CA

Aloha tropical fruit fans, and welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate and Banana Theme Week.

Today's tasty organic, shiny dark chocolate covered banana pieces were created by Zola (San Francisco).

Zola's focus is on "fruits of the world"—e.g., acai berries from Brazil, coconut from Thailand, or bananas from various countries. The company is perhaps best known for their coconut water (original and flavored).

Zola also makes some fruit offerings with chocolate. (And, after all, chocolate starts as the seeds, or beans, inside a fruit.) The dark chocolate today was made from organic and fair trade certified cocoa.

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.

Barnana Organic Chocolate Chewy Banana Bites - Jan. 13, 2016

Chocolate of the Day:

Wholesome Valley Foods
Barnana - Organic Chocolate Chewy Banana Bites
Good
Weight: 6 pieces (40 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total package
Calories: 170 calories in 6 piece serving
Cost: $3.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to the first day of Chocolate and Banana Theme Week!

Bananas can be found in the same tropical areas where cacao trees grow. Banana leaves are often layered over cacao pulp and beans during a post-harvest fermentation process—one of the first steps in making chocolate.

So, imagine my surprise yesterday—on a cold January day in the San Francisco Bay Area**—when I saw a large, tell-tale burgandy-red banana bloom hanging over a fence, with a group of greenish bananas ripening above, amongst broad, mostly frost-untarnished green banana leaves.

This sighting provided a great inspiration for chocolate and banana week. Banana plants* may be scarce; but, fortunately, chocolate + banana offerings are easy to find.

Today's 54% cacao Organic Chocolate Chewy Banana Bites were created and distributed by Wholesome Valley Foods (Santa Monica, CA). These potassium-rich and preservative-free, organic, dark, glossy chocolate rounds were filled with rich, concentrated organic banana flavor and soft chewy texture.

I found a small handful of these pieces to be satisfying, flavorful and sweet—without being cloying. These bites were non-GMO certified, gluten free and dairy free.

*Banana plants can grow to more than 20 feet (6 meters) tall, but they are not considered trees. Rather bananas are "leathery berries" that grow on one of the world's largest perennial herbaceous flowering plants. 

**It's sometimes possible to grow bananas in cooler climates, in cities adjacent to large bodies of water (that can help moderate temperatures, and minimize the probability of frost).

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.

ohso - Orange ProBiotic chocolate - Jan. 12, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Goodnesse Ltd.
ohso
Orange ProBiotic chocolate
Good
Weight: .5 oz. (14 g.) bar/ 3.45 oz. (98 g.)
Calories: 70 calories in 1 small bar
Cost: $9.99 for package of 7 small bars
Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to the last day (Day #7) of Chocolate and Orange Theme Week.

These (oh so tiny) Ohso Orange Probiotic chocolate bars were only about 6.5 cm x 3.3 cm*—yet, they were scored into even tinier squares like you'd find in larger bars. Cute!

The 53% cacao Belgian dark chocolate Ohso bars had an interesting origin story. The chocolate was a "product of Belgium," manufactured by Goodness Ltd. (Little Yarrowfield, UK), and "proudly distributed by Solgar Vitamins" (Leonia, NJ)...And I bought them at Country Sun, what we used to call a "health food" store. (Wouldn't it be great if all stores sold "healthy" food?)

Interest in probiotics has been growing in the last decade, as more is known (or is now part of public discussion) about one's microbiome**.

This is interesting,  but I admit, I was a little apprehensive when I read on the label that each Ohso, oh so tiny, bar "contains around 1 billion Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium bacteria." Maybe I'll just have one then, I thought. (What happens if someone overdoses? I pondered.)

The gluten-free and nut-free chocolate was smooth, sweet and orange flavored, as promised. The bars came in a package of seven—one for each day of the week.

----o----o----o----

*6.5 cm x 3.3 cm is approximately 2.5 x 1.25 inches in size

**Each person has their own diverse microbiome, a variety of microorganisms within our body that includes microbes in our gut that help protect us from harm, and break down food into nutrients and vitamins. Some bacteria, fungi and viruses can be beneficial, others not so much—especially if there is an overgrowth of certain "bad" ones. Probiotics seek to keep this world in balance by introducing bacteria known to be beneficial, such as you might find in yogurt or certain fermented foods. (Chocolate is a fermented food; without microbes we wouldn't have chocolate as we know it.)

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.

Perugina - Dark Chocolate Orangello bar - Jan. 11, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Nestle
Perugina
Dark Chocolate Orangello bar
Good - Good +
Weight: 3.5 oz. (99.2 g.) in total bar
Calories: 500 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $1.99 (sale) for 1 bar
Purchased from: World Market, Mountain View, CA

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

Orange candy pieces integrated into today's Dark Chocolate Orangello bar from Perugina conveyed the "orange" in this bar. These fruit flavored bits contained orange, sugar, apple and pineapple fiber; and they delivered a pleasant orange flavor, with a slight sparkle, throughout the tasting experience.

Had this been a milk chocolate bar, I think it would have been too sweet. The smooth dark chocolate blend was just right.

Perugina was founded in Perugia, Italy, in 1907. The company is now part of Nestle S.A. (Vevey, Switzerland).

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.

World Market - Blood Orange bar - Jan. 10, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

World Market
Milk Chocolate Blood Orange with Hawaiian Alaea Sea Salt bar
Good - Good +
Weight: 1.125 oz. (31.8 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 165 calories in 3/8 (3 squares) of bar
Cost: $3.49 for 1 bar
Purchased from: World Market, Mountain View, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Orange Theme Week.

Today's Milk Chocolate Blood Orange with Hawaiian Alaea Sea Salt bar was from World Market (distributed by Cost Plus, Inc., Oakland, CA).

This bar had a mild, natural orange candy aroma, and a flavor and texture spectrum that tumbled out across the tongue—first orange flavor (blood orange oil) in sweet, smooth milk chocolate, followed by crunchy crystals of sea salt, followed by a tiny chewy fleck or two of bittersweet orange peel, mellowed with a hint of vanilla. Overall the flavors harmonized nicely, and I like "layers" of flavor that unfold like this.

It's also an exquisite balancing act to balance layered flavors like this. Too much salt or orange peel in one bite can be overwhelming. On the other hand, flavors that are uniformly ground down together might not work either. So hats off to anyone making inclusion bars like this.

"Hawaiian Alaea Red Sea Salt gets its color from a volcanic red clay used in traditional Hawaiian ceremonies to cleanse and purify."

Today's bar was part of World Market's "The Exotic Collection...of Sea Salt Chocolate" bars, so named because they contain flavor and salt inclusions from around the globe. I love the detailed illustrations that grace the packaging. If you look closely at the label for this bar, you'll see an orange tree (orchard) and some sea symbols around the edges.

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.

Integrity Cacao - Orange Essence - Jan. 9, 2016

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Integrity Cacao
Orange Essence
Nibbs N Cream
Celtic Sea Salt
Good ++
Weight: 1.58 oz. (44.7 g.) (estimate) for 4 pieces
Calories: 237 calories (estimate) in 4 pieces
Cost: $N/A - gift (Thank you Katy!)
Purchased from: N/A - gift from family member

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

My sister gifted me some chocolates from a friend (Merissa) in Southern California, who happened to be founder and CEO of Integrity Cacao (Thousand Oaks).

A small container held three different chocolate flavors: Orange Essence, Nibbs N Cream, and Celtic Sea Salt.

The pretty, Orange Essence rose-button shaped dark chocolates possessed a soft melt and a delicately fudgey soft middle. These chocolates were flavored with an authentic-tasting, lilting orange flavor (Orange Oil) with perhaps a touch of floral (rose?).

(I'd tasted a previous iteration of the Orange Essence piece more than a year ago when the company was called Love Bites Raw Confections.)

The other two chocolates were: 1.) Nibbs N Cream (a creamy white chocolate with Tahitian vanilla bean and crunchy cacao nibs)—a healthy version of cookies and cream; and 2.) Celtic Sea Salt - dark chocolate squares with tiny chunks of grey Celtic Sea Salt, that the maker suggested pairing with wine and fruit.

I really enjoyed these satisfying chocolates made with quality ingredients. Toned down sugar levels prevented them from being too sweet, which I appreciated.

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.

Nussli 118 - Chocolate Orange Rounds - Jan. 8, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Nussli 118
Chocolate Orange Rounds
Good +
Weight: 2 oz. (57 g.) in package of 3 pieces
Calories: 162 calories (per label) in 3 pieces
Cost: $4.59 for 1 package of 3 pieces
Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate and Orange Theme Week. It's January, and it's gray outside. But the sight of a tree loaded with bright orange citrus fruits peeping over a fence brightened my day.

Today's Chocolate Orange Rounds from Nussli 118 (Cambridge, MA), also were uplifting.

These "plant-based, sprouted and organic" confections were round balls sweetened with dates, flavored with cacao powder and orange oil, and rolled in raw coconut shreds. (They also contained coconut oil, coconut flour, vanilla, Himalayan salt and maple syrup.)

The subtle orange, almost floral, aroma and flavor in these natural* confections prevented the coconut from dominating too much, and helped balance the sweetness.

* These sweets were natural in the way I wish the term really meant: no artificial or extra preservatives or flavorings, made with organic (as in organic farming practices) ingredients, with minimal processing.

The content and images in this post belong to ChocolateBanquet.com.