Neo Cocoa - Dark Chocolate Mustache; Teaspoon - Oct. 19, 2016

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Neo Cocoa
Dark Chocolate Mustache with Pistachios
Good +++
Weight: 1.1 oz. (31.1 g.) (estimate) for 1 mustache
Calories: 165 calories (estimate) in 1 piece/mustache
Cost: $5.00 for 1 chocolate mustache
Purchased from: Neo Cocoa table/booth (at Palo Alto Farmers Market, Palo Alto, CA)

Welcome to Day #7 of And Now for Something Completely Different Theme Week.

Today's Dark Chocolate Mustache from Neo Cocoa (Belmont, CA) was studded with green, pistachio nut pieces and was quite delicious.

I imagine the Minister of Silly Walks, and others who love fun and chocolate might also approve.

hank you very much dear readers for accompanying us on this week filled with unique and unusual chocolates. We will be returning to more conventional programming tomorrow with a series of sesame chocolates.

In other green + chocolate news...

Later today, I also tried a California Snow Ice special with avocado snow, almonds, mochi, condensed milk and a drizzle of chocolate sauce at Teaspoon (Los Altos, CA location). The large "Husky" cup serving size looked quite large, but this shaved snow style frozen dessert was lighter and less overly sweet than it looked, and was a refreshing late afternoon treat.

"Serving the most unique bubble tea and snow ice desserts" is the Teaspoon (company) motto. And I couldn't I resist one last unique item this week.

Lindt - Lychee Dark Chocolate bar - Oct. 18, 2016

Chocolate of the Day:

Lindt
Lychee Dark Chocolate bar
Good
Weight: .7 oz. (20 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 105 calories in 2 squares
Cost: $2.99 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Lucky Supermarkets, El Cerrito, CA

Welcome to Day #6 of And Now for Something Completely Different Theme Week.

Lychee fruit has a unique, delicate, floral flavor. But, it's rare to see this fruit in U.S. supermarket produce sections, or in chocolate.

So, I was excited to find today's Lychee Dark Chocolate bar from Lindt and Sprungli AG (Kilchberg, Switzerland). This bar was part of the company's Exotic Fruit Collection. (Earlier this year I featured their Pineapple bar.)

I wondered whether the dark chocolate would overwhelm the delicate, complex flavors of this tropical fruit. However, it was the added flavoring that almost overwhelmed the relatively neutral dark chocolate.

The bar had a very sweet and almost artificial perfume aroma. The dark chocolate was smooth, sweet, and uniform in texture and flavor. Happily, a more natural lychee fruit flavor became more evident with the second or third bite. (The bar was made with lychee fruit pieces, as well as other natural and artificial flavors.)

I enjoyed being able to try this flavor blend; although I think I prefer lychee fruit a la carte.

Xocolatl de David - Foie Gras 68% Bolivia bar - Oct. 17, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Xocolatl de David
Foie Gras Chocolate 68 percent cacao Bolivia bar
Good ++
Weight: .55 oz. (15.5 g.) / 2.2 oz. (62 g.) in total bar
Calories: 82.5 calories (estimate) in 1/4 bar
Cost: $ for 1/4 bar
Purchased from: Fog City News, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of And Now for Something Completely Different Theme Week.

Today I tried a Foie Gras 68 percent Bolivia chocolate bar from Xocolatl de David (Portland, OR).

This bar had a very slight foie gras aroma, and a creamy melt. The texture was smooth. The bar had a slightly salty, savory flavor; but the actual flavor inclusion (foie gras) may be difficult to guess for tasters.

Xocolatl de David, known for its creative stable of savory bars, also offers a "Foietella" spread with chocolate.

Thank you to Adam and the team at Fog City News (San Francisco, CA) for their curated selection of chocolates and for their help in finding unique bars for this week.

*Foie gras is a savory spread made from goose or duck liver and sometimes includes chopped pistachio nuts. Foie gras made by traditional methods (that involve "force-feeding" birds to fatten up their liver) is outlawed in California.

Nathan Miller Chocolate - 45% Buttermilk bar - Oct. 16, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Nathan Miller Chocolate
45 percent Buttermilk bar
Good +++ - Very Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (56.6 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Greetings and Welcome to Day #4 of And Now for Something Completely Different Theme Week.

Today's unique twist on a milk chocolate bar was the incorporation of buttermilk.

Nathan Miller, a successful pastry and dessert chef, started making chocolate in Boulder, and later set up shop in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. Miller and team have been busy producing chocolate bars from single origin cacao beans. Some of his award winning bars contain flavor inclusions, and some don't.

The 45 percent Buttermilk Chocolate bar from Nathan Miller Chocolate (Chambersburg, PA), was a flavorful blend of pleasant surprises.

Swaddled in bright pink lokta paper from Nepal and light blue foil, this bar smelled like chocolate brownie with very subtle hints of salt and smoke.* And at one point, I thought I tasted a slightly floral note. The chocolate had more complex, bold character and flavor than most milk chocolate bars—which I liked. The base chocolate was made from Oko Caribe Direct Trade, Organic Hispaniola cacao (from the Dominican Republic).

The organic buttermilk brought out a richer, bolder flavor with a slightly salty tang, that I enjoyed.

Disclaimer:
I really like brownies, salt, smokey* umami flavors and buttermilk. So, I'll likely appreciate this bar more than most. Most critics consider any smokey flavor in cacao to be a defect.

*A smokey flavor can come about in a few different ways. Following fermentation, cacao beans are spread out to dry on flats, or on the ground. In case of rain, beans might be in (or moved to) a covered area, and a fire might be used to help heat and dry cacao. Or smoke may waft in from a nearby cooking fire. In some cases, smoke may cover up less desirable flavors.

Naive - Porcini Organic Dark-Milk Chocolate bar - Oct. 15, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chocolate Naive
Porcini - Organic Dark-Milk Chocolate bar
Good +++
Weight: .97 oz. (27.5 g.) / 1.94 oz. (55 g.) in total bar
Calories: 146 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #3 of And Now for Something Completely Different Theme Week.

Making bean-to-bar, small batch chocolate is challenging enough. However, for a creative and persistent few, experimenting with flavor inclusions in chocolate is the next step, after mastering the technical art of crafting chocolate from scratch (if that's possible).

Today I sampled another unique bar from Chocolate Naive (Rudamina, Lithuania)—a bar made with porcini mushrooms. The first sentence on the back of this package read: "Lithuanians love their mushrooms - that is a fact." Porcini mushrooms are highly valued by mushroom hunters. Each culture seems to have its own king of all mushrooms, and in Lithuania, it may well be the wild porcini.

Chocolate, can be successfully incorporated into both sweet and savory edibles, and vice versa—if properly executed. Happily, this bar was very well balanced and well made.

The Chocolate Naive milk bar was made with Tanzanian cacao and porcini mushrooms; and, as you might expect, the chocolate had an earthy mushroom/umami* aroma and flavor.

Freeze-dried porcini mushrooms were listed as an ingredient that was incorporated into today's bar. The chocolate was very smooth, with a creamy melt and mouthfeel; and I couldn't detect any bits of anything. (Perhaps milk or cream was infused with these mushrooms in advance. I don't know.)

The bar had a pleasant, lingering, tasty mushroom soup finish.

*Umami is a Japanese term that, roughly translated into English, means "pleasant savory flavor." Often called the fifth flavor, umami foods such as meats, vegetables, cheeses, mushrooms, seaweed, and ripe tomatoes. These foods typically contain higher amounts of glutamate, a way to measure umami.

Domori - Cioccolato Al Latte D'Asino bar - Oct. 14, 2106

Chocolate of the Day: 

Domori
Cioccolato Al Latte D'Asino (Donkey's Milk bar)
Good ++
Weight: .44 oz. (12.5 g.) / .88 oz. (25 g.) in total bar
Calories: 66 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #2 of And Now for Something Completely Different* Theme Week.

What do Pliny the Elder, Hippocrates, Cleopatra and Pope Francis have in common?

They've all either expounded on the benefits of, or experienced benefits first-hand from, donkey's milk. Cleopatra took baths in donkey's milk which was/is said to benefit the skin. And Pope Francis apparently was fed a supplement made with donkey's milk when he was an infant.

Well, it's not everyday that you get to try a milk chocolate bar made with donkey's milk. And, where did I find such an odd treasure? At Chocolate Covered (San Francisco, CA) of course. This tiny shop is one of a few places in the Bay Area to carry unusual, high-quality chocolate items that also taste good.


Today's Cioccolato Al Latte D'Asino (Donkey's Milk) Cacao Criollo bar was made by Domori (None (near Turin), Italy).**

This 45 percent bar was quite sweet; but even so, the initial aroma and flavor contained something unique, but it was hard to characterize. I expected a slightly gamey flavor, but that wasn't it.

However, after the first few nibbles, the unidentified flavor softened and brightened to a slightly fruity, rich caramel, and continued to yield interesting caramel and dulce de leche notes—due in part to high-quality Criollo cacao. The bar had a creamy melt and texture, and was well balanced and tempered for a milk bar. The finish tailed off gently and left no real aftertaste.

*For those old enough to remember, the phrase "And now for something completely different" was sometimes uttered by narrator John Cleese, one of several comic performers, who appeared on the British television show "Monty Python's Flying Circus"—as an interlude between bizarre and outrageous skits or stories. 

**Domori has been part of the Illy Group since 2006.

Chocolate Naive - Hops Organic Dark bar - Oct. 13, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Naive
Hops Organic Dark Chocolate bar
Good +++
Weight: .646 oz. (18.3 g.) / 1.94 oz. (55 g.) in total bar
Calories: 97 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $8.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #1 of And Now for Something Completely Different Theme Week.

We kick off this unique week with a Hops Organic Dark Chocolate bar from Chocolate Naive (Rudamina, Lithuania).

Chocolate Naive head, Domantas Uzpalis, makes bean to bar chocolate in a small town in Eastern Lithuania, with similar high standards held by small batch chocolate makers worldwide.

Today's Hops Organic, Dark Chocolate bar tasted a bit beer-like and was part of the company's "Back to the Origins" collection. It was relatively smooth and creamy in texture.

The 67 percent bar had the faint aroma of a malty, frothy beer, and an interesting flavor ride with pleasant flickerings of light bitterness from the hops.

Blending two edibles that people feel passionate about—craft chocolate and hops/beer—may have been risky. Chocolate fans and beer fans may have felt that one flavor might defile the other. But, for those who want to try an artful, creative blend of the two, I recommend giving this happy best of both bar a try.

Hops
Hops are the green flowers/seed cones of the hop plant that are used as a flavoring and stabilization agent for beer. They're also used in other beverages and for medicinal purposes.

Adjectives used to describe hops flavor notes include: bitter, spicy, zesty, citrus and pine.

Hops grow vertically up tall trellises. A few months ago, I was delighted to see some crawling up the side of an old airplane hangar now used as a craft brewery (Faction Brewing) in Alameda, CA.