The Oakland Chocolate Co. - Walnut Turmeric Chocolate Spread - July 16, 2017

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

The Oakland Chocolate Company

Walnut Turmeric Chocolate Spread
Good
Weight: .5 oz. (14.1 g.)/7 oz. (198 g.) in total jar
Calories: 55 calories (estimate) in 1 TB serving
Cost: $6.50 for 1 jar
Purchased from: The Oakland Chocolate Company, Oakland, CA

Licorice Tea Truffle
Good++
Weight: .4 oz. (11.32 g.) (estimate) in 1 piece
Calories: 60 calories (estimate) in 1 piece
Purchased from: The Oakland Chocolate Company, Oakland, CA

Welcome to Day 4 of Chocolate and Spices Theme Week.

Nancy Nadel, chief chocolatemaker at The Oakland Chocolate Company (Oakland, CA) has created an impressive array of confections and bars from Jamaican cacao. She makes her chocolate from scratch, from bean to bar in Oakland, CA, where she's also been an active member of the community (and served as a former city council member) for many years.

I suspected she might have some interesting chocolates with spices that I might not have tried, and was delighted to find this was the case when I visited her at the Old Oakland Farmers' Market recently.

I enjoyed her creamy dark Licorice Tea truffle and unique chocolate turmeric spread with ground walnuts packed with anti-inflammatory potential that wasn't too sweet (thank you!).

Good Day Chocolate - Chocolate with Turmeric - July 15, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Good Day Chocolate
Chocolate with Turmeric
Good
Weight: .99 oz. (28 g.) in total package
Calories: 120 calories in 1 package
Cost: $2.99 (estimate) for 1 package of 8 pieces
Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA


Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate and Spices Theme Week, which includes chocolates blended with turmeric, ginger, licorice and other plant-based spice flavors.

Today's Chocolate with Turmeric from Good Day Chocolate (Boulder, CO) was part of the company's "chocolate with benefits" line, that are also labeled as dietary supplements. In this case most of the benefits were provided by dark chocolate and turmeric.

What's the big deal about turmeric? This golden spice (included in most curry powder blends) is related to ginger. An active substance called curcumin found in turmeric has been found to have beneficial anti-inflammatory properties.

Today's chocolate packed a lot of goodness into one small, cleverly designed box. Made with fair trade chocolate, the package contained eight generously sized, naturally colored, roundish yellow pieces. Each piece had a turmeric-colored center surrounded by chocolate and covered with a candy shell.

Theo Chocolate - Coconut Turmeric Chocolate Clusters - July 14, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Theo Chocolate
Coconut Turmeric Chocolate Clusters
Good +
Weight: 2.8 oz. (80 g.) in total package
Calories: 460 calories in 10 pieces (1 package)
Cost: $6.00 (estimate) for 1 package
Purchased from: REI, Mountain View, CA

Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate and Spices Theme Week.

Today's crunchy Coconut Turmeric Chocolate Clusters were from Theo Chocolate (Seattle, WA).

The package of haystack-shaped Coconut Turmeric pieces were part of a "snacking cluster" line of relatively new offerings from the company* advertising the benefits of cocoa flavonals.**

The crispy crunchy texture (similar to crisped rice, but with more heft) was provided by sorghum flakes and crisped quinoa, and provided a nice contrast with the chocolate.

These "snack smarter" pieces were, refreshingly, not too sweet but long on well-balanced flavor. While a bit pricey, they'd make a great snack for a hike, bike, ride or lunch.

While this Organic, Non-GMO Project Verified, Kosher Dairy and Soy Free snack was not marked gluten-free, the ingredients list did not include any wheat-containing ingredients. (Manufactured on shared equipment with products containing soy, milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, and other tree nuts.)

*Other Theo Chocolate snacking cluster flavors include Salted Almond and Lemon Hemp.
** Flavanols are phytonutrients found in cocoa beans and other plants. Each 5-piece serving (1/2 package) of this product "provides 50 mg of (cocoa) flavanols." 
***Turmeric has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. And one of the benefits of dark chocolate containing flavanols may be to support healthy blood flow and circulation.

Vosges - Turmeric Ginger bar - July 13, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Vosges
Turmeric Ginger bar
Good
Weight: .375 oz. (10.6 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g) in total bar
Calories: 57.5 calories in 1 square, 1/8 bar
Cost: $8.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Vosges kiosk, O'Hare Chicago Airport, Chicago, IL

Welcome to the first day (Day #1) of Chocolate and Spices Theme Week.

Today's beautifully packaged Turmeric Ginger bar from Vosges (Chicago, IL) was a unique blend of Asian/Indian flavors: turmeric, ginger, coconut, sweet curry powder and black pepper in 45% dark milk chocolate.

Bold spice blends dominate yet complement and enhance mild foods like chicken, vegetables and/or rice.

However, getting all today's spices to harmonize with a bold acidic flavor like chocolate in this (or other chocolate) bar may have been too much to ask. The complex flavor blend would be fine in a "golden milk" coconut milk-based turmeric and spice beverage without chocolate, but maybe not with cacao.

The result was interesting, but some flavors seemed to be fighting each other a bit.

This Vosges bar was labeled as free of gluten and GMO ingredients.

Tillamook - Dark Chocolate Mint Ice Cream - July 12, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Tillamook
Dark Chocolate Mint - Extra Creamy Ice Cream
Good - Good +
Weight: 1/2 cup (98 g.) / 15.5 fl. oz. (458 mL) in total container
Calories: 270 calories in 1/2 cup serving
Cost: $3.99 (estimate) for 1 container
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to a bonus day, Day #8, of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week.

Today's Dark Chocolate Mint ice cream was from Tillamook County Creamery Association (Tillamook, OR).

This dark chocolate Oregon peppermint ice cream—with subtle swirls of ground, peppermint candy bits—was full of rich flavors that harmonized well.

It was flavored with "natural peppermint oil," made from cream and milk with "no artificial growth hormones," and appeared to have no artificial flavors.

It did have vegetable stabilizers (locust bean and guar gums); and while it did not explicitly include ingredients containing wheat or gluten, it was not labeled gluten free.*

*Made in a facility that processes other ingredients; may contain wheat.

Baskin-Robbins - Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream - July 11, 2017

Chocolate of the Day:

Baskin-Robbins
Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream
Good
Weight: 1/4 cup (44 g.) / 14 fl. oz. (414 mL) in total container
Calories: 105 calories in 1/4 cup serving
Cost: $3.99 (estimate) for 1 container
Purchased from: Safeway, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week.

Fond childhood summer memories often include trips to an ice cream store, such as Baskin-Robbins (founded in Southern California, now based in Canton, MA).

Baskin-Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip is one of the company's top selling flavors.* Mint ice cream with semi-sweet chocolate chips is a great summer (or anytime) flavor.

Cream was the #1 ingredient. The rest of the ingredients were more predictable for traditional mass-produced ice creams: sugar, corn syrup, semi-sweet chocolate chips, natural flavor, cellulose gum, mono and diglycerides...guar gum, carrageenan, polysorbate 80, and artificial colors (blue 1, yellow 5).

*The company website listed Mint Chocolate Chip, after Vanilla and Chocolate, as the first three in a short list of top selling flavors.

Seely - Mint Patty - July 10, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Seely Family Farm, Inc.
Mint Patty
Good - Good +
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) in total patty
Calories: 112 calories (estimate) in 1 patty
Cost: $2.65 for 1 patty
Purchased from: Draeger's Market, San Mateo, CA

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week.

This dark chocolate covered Mint Patty from Seely Family Farm, Inc. (Clatskanie, OR) was "hand-crafted with Seely Heirloom Peppermint Oil," and was pure peppermint heaven.