Chocolita - Blueberry Lotus 78% bar - March 26, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chocolita 

Blueberry Lotus 78% bar

Good 

Weight: .625 oz. (17.5 g.) / 1.25 oz. (35 g.) in total bar

Calories: 70 calories in 1/2 bar

Cost: $4.59 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA  

Welcome to Day #4 Chocolate and Flowers Theme Week.

Today's Blueberry Lotus 78% bar was handcrafted by Chocolita (Sedona, AZ). The company, founded by Sarah Ann Lesslie, offers an interesting line of raw chocolate bars, some with exotic, botanical or floral ingredients.

This attractively packaged, gluten free and vegan dark chocolate bar was made with heirloom Arriba Nacional, fair trade cacao from Ecuador and other organic ingredients* including kava and blue lotus essential oil.

Chocolita bars are made with sweeteners, such as coconut sugar, that score lower on the glycemic index than processed, white (cane/beet) sugar. This chocolate had a slight medicinal aroma. However, the thin bar had a relatively pleasant coconut sugar and chocolate flavor. It had a smooth melt, and an almost soft, crunchy chew. (Note: there was some signs of "bloom" on this bar. This is not unusual when a bar is shipped across the U.S. and occasionally goes through different storage and temperature conditions; it did not seem to affect the flavor.)

The pleasant coconut sugar + chocolate flavor lasted most of the tasting experience. (There was a hint of earthy blueberry and a delayed herb/very slightly bitter plant aftertaste that kicked in several seconds after. That is the trade-off with some novelty inclusions. Fortunately, chocolate blends well with most mix-ins.

If you're interested in chocolate history and about the gods and goddesses who were often associated with cacao in the Americas, visit Chocolita's website. Scroll down on Chocolita's "About" page for a nice summary.

Ingredients: cacao paste*, cacao butter*, coconut sugar*, lucuma*, blueberries*, vanilla*, kava*, passionflower*, Himalayan pink salt, Blue Lotus essential oil. (A "*" denotes an organic ingredient.)

Violet Sky - Pierce the Veil Dark Chocolate with Rose Lime Leaf and Ginger bar - March 25, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Violet Sky

Pierce The Veil

Dark Chocolate with Rose Lime Leaf and Ginger bar

Good + - Good ++

Weight: 1.236 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar

Calories: 185.5 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar

Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate and Flowers Theme Week.

Today's Pierce the Veil Dark Chocolate with Rose Lime Leaf and Ginger bar from Violet Sky (South Bend, IN) sounded very complex and ambitious.

Was this another delicate chocolate confection with rose essence? No. This bar had a bold underlying bean-to-bar chocolate base with the energy of a recently exploded constellation of flavors.*

Violet Sky Founder Hans Westerink produces a wide variety of craft chocolate bars (all swaddled in unique paper wrapper and colored foil wrapper combinations) with creative and interesting flavor blends and inclusions.

Today's Pierce the Veil bar's was made with a blend of Guatemalan cacao (Lachua) and Peruvian cacao (Maranon). And despite the distinctive flavor adds, the dark, fruity, acidic chocolate base shone through nicely.

Citrus notes were amplified by Kaffir lime leaf bits; and pieces of ginger dominated. The rose petals added some nice pink-purplish color to this riot of color, texture and flavor that were applied to this side of the bar. (It was all serious dark chocolate on the flip side.)

Tasting tip: If you want to taste the rose, choose a piece with less ginger (light golden-beige bits) and more of the pink (rose petal) bits.

Look forward to trying more Violet Sky bars, including those with barrel-aged components.

*Ingredients: Cocoa beans, cane sugar, ginger root, rose petals, Kaffir lime leaf

Elements Truffles - Rose infused with Cardamom - March 24, 2018

Chocolate of the Day:

Elements Truffles

Rose infused with Cardamom 70% cacao bar

Good +++

Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) / 2 oz. (56 g.) in total bar

Calories: 130 calories in 1/2 bar

Cost: $6.99 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

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

Today's Rose infused with Cardamom 70% Cacao bar was made by Elements Truffles (Kearny, NJ). Like yesterday's Peppermint infused with Lavender bar (from the same company), this chocolate was well balanced and full of natural flavor. 

This bar had a beautiful aroma and flavor, with authentic, rose floral notes, and a hint of cardamom (think chai tea). The chocolate had a buttery/creamy melt and texture (cacao butter was the first ingredient), and a pleasing rose finish.

The bar was "sweetened just with local honey," which gave it a more delicate quality (less of a sugar buzz) and contributed to a floral experience.

Elements Truffles raw chocolate bars are handmade in micro batches without dairy, refined sugar, soy/emulsifiers or preservatives. Today's bar was made with Fair Trade organic cacao ethically sourced from Peru.

Ingredients: organic raw cacao butter (Peruvian Criollo), raw honey, organic raw cacao powder, rose geranium essential oil, cardamom essential oil, organic rose petals, organic raw pumpkin seeds, Himalayan sea salt.

25% of profits go toward education of underprivileged children 

Elements Truffles - Peppermint Lavender - March 23, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Elements Truffles

Peppermint Lavender 

Good ++

Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (56 g.) in total package

Calories: 130 calories in 1/2 package

Cost: $6.99 for 1 package

Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #14 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week, and Day #1 of Chocolate and Flowers Theme Week.

What do you do as a follow-up act when you're a high-powered trader on Wall Street? Start making chocolate might not be the most obvious answer to this question. But, fortunately for us, this is just what Alak Vasa, founder of Elements Truffles (Kearny, NJ) did.*

Vasa created a line of raw, Ayurveda Inspired Artisanal Chocolate. Her chocolates are handmade in small batches, with no refined sugar, dairy, soy/emulsifiers or preservatives; and they're sweetened with local honey. She used Fair Trade organic cacao sourced from Peru in today's bar.

Today's 70% cacao Peppermint infused with Lavender bar was made with raw cacao butter, raw honey, raw cacao powder, peppermint essential oil, lavender essential oil, organic lavender flowers, and Himalayan sea salt.

This relaxing, but invigorating (is this possible?) chocolate was firm (it broke with a snap); yet, had the buttery melt of a truffle. Lavender buds and oil were well balanced with the mint and provided a natural tasting, balanced floral and herbal experience. The chocolate had a pleasing lavender finish, and was designed to support Vata and Pitta ayurveda doshas.

Loved that it was not ultra-sweet. The amount of honey used was just right, and didn't overpower the other elements/inclusions.

*25% of proceeds go towards education of underprivileged children. 

Divine - 70% Dark Chocolate with Mint Crisp; Easter Egg - March 22, 2018

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Divine 

70% Dark Chocolate with Mint Crisp bar

Good+

Weight: 1.6 oz. (45 g.) / 3.2 oz. (22.5 g.) in total bar

Calories: 260 calories in 1/2 bar

Cost: $5.99 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Divine 

Easter Egg Dark Chocolate 70% cocoa

Good+

Weight: .95 oz. (27.5 g.) / 1.99 oz. (55 g.) in total package

Calories: 160 calories in 1/2 package

Cost: $1.99 (guess) for 1 package

Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #13 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week. Today's two featured 70% dark chocolates were both produced in the UK and distributed by Divine Chocolate Inc. (Washington, D.C.). The first was a Dark Chocolate with Mint Crisp bar and the second was a Dark Chocolate Easter Egg.

These relatively new offerings included new packaging and design elements as well. 

Divine Chocolate is unique in that cocoa farmers own 44% of the company and share in the profits. (Fairtrade cocoa is grown by family farmers in Ghana.)

Divine 70% Mint Crisp Bar

The Divine 70% Dark Chocolate with Mint Crisp bar had a relatively strong, but balanced peppermint aroma. The flavorful, slightly earthy, chocolately base dark chocolate shone through.

A similar (but not identical) Divine mint chocolate bar was previously featured on this site. It was segmented into scored, rectangular pieces and the packaging, adorned with green and gold African-inspired symbols, covered the entire bar.

This new bar, decorated by a fine smattering of small mint crisp bits, was designed as uniform chocolate bar (longer segmented into rectangles), and was viewable through a clear window.

The company name "Divine" was printed in a repeating pattern on the back of the bar. 

Divine 70% Easter Egg

Because Easter is upon us, it seemed appropriate to include a 70% Dark Chocolate Easter Egg, also from Divine. The sunny yellow box design incorporated an attractive array of large gold pattern symbols. 

The hollow egg was carefully broken, and shards of egg were sampled and enjoyed.

The 70% cocoa dark chocolate for this second chocolate, however, tasted very different than the more bold 70% cocoa Mint bar above. The Easter Egg had hints of coconut, milk chocolate toffee. (It contained vanilla; but there was no milk, coconut or toffee in this chocolate.) 

LetterPress Chocolate - San Juan Mint 70% Dark bar - March 21, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

LetterPress Chocolate LLC

San Juan Estate Mint 70% Dark Chocolate bar

Good + - Good ++

Weight: 1.15 oz. (32.5 g.) / 2.3 oz. (65 g.) in total bar

Calories: 172 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar

Cost: $10.00 (estimate) for 1 bar

Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #12 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week.

Today's small batch San Juan Estate Mint 70% Dark Chocolate bar (Batch 0072) was crafted by bean-to-bar maker LetterPress Chocolate LLC (Los Angeles, CA).

And it was another very aromatically mint dark bar. The menthol notes eclipsed the subtleties of the chocolate flavor, and gave the bar a "clean" tasting, lasting finish and conveyed more sweetness than likely was actually present in this 70% cacao bar.

Tasting Notes printed on the packaging read: mint, marshmallow, vanilla. Ingredients: organic cacao beans, organic unrefined sugar, organic cocoa butter, organic mint oil.

The Trinitario cacao used to make this bar was grown in the Gran Couva area of central Trinidad.* And this Trinitario cacao was "the first to be made into a single estate bar by the Valrhona Chocolate company." Careful cultivation by early chocolate makers like Valrhona has contributed to today's stock used by craft chocolate makers like LetterPress.

Happily, chocolate consumers benefit from cumulative expertise and sharing of knowledge.

*The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is a two-island nation located in the southern Caribbean Sea. Three varieties of cacao dominate most of the chocolate world. This bar was made with Trinitario cacao, a hybrid of Forastero and Criollo cacao, and likely first evolved in this part of the Caribbean.

Summerdown Mint - Chocolate Peppermint Cream Dominoes - March 20, 2018

Chocolate of the Day:

Summerdown Farms Ltd
Summerdown Mint 

Chocolate Peppermint Cream Dominoes

Good +

Weight: 1.174 oz. (33.3 g.) / 7.05 oz. (200 g.) in total package

Calories: 159 calories in 3 pieces 

Cost: $18.00 for 1 box/pkg. of 18 pieces

Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #11 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week.

Today's Chocolate Peppermint Cream Dominoes were from Summerdown Farms Ltd. (Hampshire, UK).

The company is known for its farm, where pure English single estate Mitcham peppermint is grown in the foothills of the Hampshire Downs. This mint is also used to make chocolates and herbal teas.

The thin, domino-shaped pieces (embossed with a mint sprig design) had a very minty aroma that was detectable before the box was even opened. And each piece contained an ultra-thin, light-colored sweet, creamy peppermint-infused filling.

Ingredients: sugar, cocoa mass, glucose syrup, invert syrup, emulsifier, humectant: glycerol, Black Mitcham Peppermint