Haagen-Dazs - White Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream Bars - Mar. 20, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Haagen-Dazs
White Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream Bars
Good - Good +
Weight: 3 fl. oz. (88.6 mL) / 9 fl. oz. (266 mL) in total box of 3 bars
Calories: 280 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $3.99 for 1 box of 3 bars
Purchased from: Safeway, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate and Ice Cream Bar Week.

Today I tried a relatively new Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar. The (box of 3) White Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream Bars was distributed by Nestle Dreyer's Ice Cream Company (Oakland, CA).

A core of white chocolate ice cream (with embedded raspberry swirls) was dipped in milk chocolate then drizzled in dark chocolate. You experience the chocolate tri-fecta, in a well-designed ice cream bar that also offers layers of flavor.

The first mouthful of this bar revealed what looked like plain ice cream; however, successive bites uncovered the raspberry swirls.

The attractive milk and dark chocolate coating was smooth and natural tasting, with relatively mild chocolate flavor.

Lucerne - Toffee Brittle Ice Cream Bars - Mar. 19, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Lucerne
Toffee Brittle Ice Cream Bars
OK++
Weight: 2.5 fl. oz. (74 mL) / 15 fl. oz. (443 mL) in total box of 6 bars
Calories: 170 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $2.49 in 1 box of 6 bars
Purchased from: Safeway, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #1 of Ice Cream Bar Theme Week. Yes, it's only March, but it's never too early, or too cold outside, for ice cream here at Chocolate Banquet.

Today's bars were a quick pick from a local Safeway grocery store frozen case: Lucerne Dairy Farms Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream Bars with Almond Toffee Candy Pieces and a Chocolatey Coating (artificial flavor added).

The vanilla ice cream filling was soft, cold and creamy, and the caramel-colored toffee pieces had sort of melted into the ice cream. The "chocolatey" coating served it's purpose as a smooth covering, but I'd call it chocolate "lite" in terms of flavor. (Not everyone is looking for serious dark chocolate, and these were relatively inexpensive.)

The long ingredient list for these bars included milk, cream, sugar, almond toffee candy, coconut oil and chocolate liquor. It also included mono and diglycerides, guar gum, locust bean gum, polysorbate 80, carrageenan, etc.—additives that I'd just as soon leave out of my chocolate items, but these may be OK for some.

Cocoa Parlor - Garden of Eden 100 bar with Zante Currants - Mar. 18, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Cocoa Parlor
Garden of Eden 100 with Zante Currants bar
Good
Weight: 1.41 oz. (40 g.) / 2.82 oz. (80 g.) in total bar
Calories: 232.6 calories (per label) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $4.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to the last day (Day #8) of Chocolate and STUVWXYZ Theme Week, where we'll finish our chocolate alphabet series.

Very few chocolate-related or inclusion items begin with the letter "z." However, there will be no zebra bacon or zozzle fruit or Zimbabwe cacao to commemorate the last day of the alphabet.

Instead, the featured chocolate is both ordinary and sublime. The Garden of Eden 100 with Zante Currants bar from Cocoa Parlor (Laguna Niguel, CA) offered a unique blend of 100 percent cacao chocolate with tiny bits of concentrated dark fruit sweetness.

Zante currants are not like other currants. They come from small Black Corinth grapes, grown primarily in Greece (country of origin), California, South Africa and Australia. And the occasional sparkles of dried fruit (raisin/currant) sweetness brightened up and helped balance today's 100 percent-er.

This organic, vegan, dark chocolate bar—listed just two ingredients: Organic cacao* and Organic zante currants, that was it. The finished chocolate bar had a delightful aroma, with light floral, light tropical fruit (banana), spice, green jungle notes.

One bite transported us deep into ultra-dark territory, with earthy, nutty, very slightly bitter (due to lack of any sugar) flavors, encased in a thick, almost chewy bar. (The cool morning in my house further firmed up the cocoa solids and cocoa butter.)

*100% Cacao from Fairly Traded Cocoa Beans from the Dominican Republic. (Note: More recent or future bars may be made from cacao from another origin.)

Raaka - Yacon Root Dominican Republic bar - Mar. 17, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Raaka Virgin Chocolate
Yacon Root Dominican Republic bar
Good
Weight: .9 oz. (25.4 g.) / 1.8 oz. (50.9 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 146 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $7.95 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Raaka Virgin Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and STUVWXYZ Theme Week. Today the focus is on the letter "y," as in yacon root.

What is yacon? It's a South American/Peruvian root that's naturally sweet and can serve as a refined sugar replacement. (It's available in powdered or syrup form if you're interested in experimenting with it in your own chocolate kitchen or lab.)

Today's Yacon Root Dominican Republic bar was crafted by Raaka Virgin Chocolate (Brooklyn, NY). I'd previously enjoyed another, similar Yacon Root bar from the same company; however, that 79 percent bar was made from cacao grown in Belize, and today's bar was made of cacao from the Dominican Republic.*

The team at Raaka makes bean-to-bar, mostly single origin and organic, chocolates from un-roasted cacao. The company offers a variety of bars with interesting flavor inclusions, such as today's featured yacon root. (I recently featured another Raaka bar with ghost chili pepper.)

This bar had even flavor throughout the bar, with some tart, sour cherry fruit, and slight bitter notes. The tasting notes on the package suggested: "beet, oat, raisin."

It was refreshing to try a bar with a touch of natural plant-based sweetness, rather than an avalanche of sugar.

*I consider these two different chocolate bars, just as one might consider wines made from merlot and cabernet grapes to be different wines.

Phi Kind - Cherry Almond Butter truffles - Mar. 16, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Phi Kind
Cherry Almond Butter
Good - Good +
Weight: .565 oz. (16 g.) / 1.13 oz. (32 g.) in 1 box
Calories: 80 calories (estimate) in 2 pieces
Cost: $7.95 for 1 box of 4 pieces
Purchased from: Seed Bank, Petaluma, CA


Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and STUVWXYZ Theme Week. Today, "x" is for xylitol, specifically birch xylitol, a sweetener for that serves as a sugar substitute.

Xylitol is naturally occurring "sugar" alcohol found in most plants, fruits and vegetables. Commercially available xylitol is typically made from corn cobs or birch bark.

This box of lightly-sweetened Cherry Almond Butter truffles from Phi Kind (Santa Rosa, CA) was sweetened with a blend of birch xylitol, sunchoke syrup and stevia (from the stevia plant).

Phi Kind founder Jonathan (Jon) Pantalis is committed to making organic, zero-glycemic index sweetened chocolates that are dairy, gluten and sugar free, vegan, paleo and raw. (To accomplish the latter, a low-heat stone-grinding process is used.)

These Phi Kind truffles had authentic, mild cherry flavor, and a slightly crunchy texture (likely from cacao nib and almond bits), without health concerns that arise from some chocolate truffles.

Ingredients: Cocoa nibs, Non-GMO birch xylitol, almonds, dried cherries, sunchoke syrup, coconut, vanilla, sea salt, stevia

Note: I bought these at the Seed Bank in downtown Petaluma, CA. What a great concept. A seed company took over an older bank building with a beautiful interior. Worth a stop if you're in the area, even if you're not a gardener. Small, but nice selection of chocolates there too.

Lula's Chocolates - Wine Truffles - Mar. 15, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Lula Lund's Chocolates, LLC
Lula's Chocolates - Wine Truffles
Good
Weight: 1.1 oz. (31 g.) / 2.2 oz. (62 g.) in total box of 4 pieces
Calories: 165 calories (estimate) in 2 pieces
Cost: $10.99 (estimate) for 1 box of 4 pieces/truffles
Purchased from: Lula's (shop), Monterey, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and STUVWXYZ Theme Week, the last in our chocolate alphabet series.

Today "w" stands for wine. With the proper pairing, wine and chocolate can make wonderful tasting companions. Or, one can infused chocolates with wine flavor, like today's Wine Truffles from Lula's Chocolates (Monterey, CA).

These attractively packaged box of four good-sized chocolates were made with pure dairy cream and "wine and natural flavorings."

The company's full name is Lula Lund's Chocolates, LLC.
Lula's founder and owner, Scott Lund, named the company after his grandmother Lula, who also made confections and toffees.

If you're visiting in the Monterey or Carmel area in California, Lula's shops are worth a stop. (Their Baja toffee is a great take a traditional toffee; it's spicy enough to be flavorful without being too hot.)

Vintage Plantations 90% Dark bar; Valenza Chocolatier Sesamo Milk Bar - Mar. 14, 2017

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Vintage Plantations
90 percent Dark Chocolate bar
Good +
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 3.2 oz. (90 g.) in total bar
Calories: 159 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $ missing information
Purchased from: missing information

Valenza Chocolatier, Inc.
Sesamo Venezuelan Milk Chocolate Bar
Good +
Weight: 1.03 oz. (30 g.) / 3.1 oz. (90 g.) in total bar
Calories: 155 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $N/A sample from Valenza (included in a larger order)
Purchased from: (part of a larger order from Valenza Chocolatier, Inc. (Costa Mesa, CA)

Welcome to Chocolate and STUVWXYZ Theme Week. Today we focus on two companies that start with the letter "v": Vintage Plantations and Valenza Chocolatier, Inc.

Both companies have founders with European ties/heritage, who are creative and passionate about origins and quality and who have an appreciation of single origin chocolate.

Both have offered chocolates made from Venezuelan beans (or chocolate), a venerable origin, vraiment, veramente (truly in French and Italian). And both offer a variety of chocolate bars as well as very enticing confections/truffles.

These two companies also exemplify two different approaches to making chocolates: that of a bean-to-bar chocolate maker (Vintage) and a chocolatier (Valenza).

Today's two bars also represented two points along the cocoa content spectrum: Vintage Plantations' 90 percent almost pure Dark Chocolate crafted from scratch, and Valenza Chocolatier's flavorful Sesamo light milk chocolate with sesame seeds. One's a bean-to-bar maker, and the other is a chocolatier who uses premium sourced chocolate. Each is making unique chocolates with well-balanced layers of flavor.

Now, let's taste some chocolate...

Vintage Plantations
The 90 percent Dark Chocolate bar from Vintage Plantations (Costa Mesa, CA) had a sweet cocoa, fruity (fig, goji berries, banana) aroma with very faint green notes. And the first taste was one I'd also associate with a bar with more sweetness (lower cocoa solids and more sugar).

However, like virtually all of my favorite ultra-dark bars, this bar was full of complex flavor. The initial flavor gave way to slightly sharper fruit notes and the sweet flavor transformed into deeper, richer, well-balanced slightly bitter flavor.

I've had a Vintage Plantations 90 percent dark bar before back in 2010, made with a slightly different batch of beans. The previous bar was made with Ecuadorian cacao I believe. (There was no origin or plantation listed for this bar.) Vintage has worked with beans from different origins, including Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru.

As the description on the packaging explains, chocolate makers assess cacao each year, and the chocolate may vary from year to year and from harvest to harvest. This bar was gluten free, vegan and soy lecithin free.

Valenza Chocolatier - Sesamo bar
The Sesamo bar from Valenza Chocolatier, Inc. (Costa Mesa, CA) was made from a blend of two chocolates: a white chocolate (cocoa butter) and a single origin Venezuela milk chocolate "with a slash of 61% dark chocolate."

The resulting bar had a cocoa butter aroma and a creamy, velvety chocolate base that was lighter not only in cocoa solids but also in appearance. (It had a lovely light caramel color.) A generous helping of embedded, roasted sesame seeds provided crunchiness in every bite.

And a touch of Sicilian sea salt tied everything together. It balanced the sweetness as well as the slight seed aftertaste from the sesame seeds in this bar.

*Don't leave this bar (or any chocolate bar) in direct sun. This bar softened very quickly. I offer as proof my fingerprints that I accidentally left on this bar, as I was holding it to take a photo.