Goodie Girl - Double Chocolate Chip Cookies - Nov. 25, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Goodie Girl Tribeca, LLC

Goodie Girl Cookies - Double Chocolate Chip

Good

Weight: 1 serving (4 cookies) / 6 oz. (170 g.) in total package

Calories: 130 calories in 1 serving (4 cookies)

Cost: $3.75 for 1 package

Purchased from: Whole Foods Market, Los Altos, CA  

Welcome to Day #2 of Cookies with Chocolate Theme Week.

Today's Double Chocolate Chip Goodie Girl Cookies were from Goodie Girl Tribeca, LLC (Ridgefield, NJ). 

These small, ebony-colored chocolate, chocolate chip cookies had a soft crunch and a sweet, chocolatey flavor.  

Like all cookies featured on this site, these were gluten free. The texture may (or may not) be different, depending on the recipe, style of cookie and ingredients used. 

For example, some find rice flour cookies somewhat mealy and crumbly. However, when used in small quantities in, e.g. a florentine, or with crunchy oats and quinoa cookies, a touch of this flour (perhaps as part of a gluten-free flour blend) might work well.

Cafe-Tasse - Noir Menthe; Noir Earl Grey bars + Persimmon Chocolate Chip Cookies - Nov. 24, 2018

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Cafe-Tasse
Noir Menthe (Dark Mint) small bar
Good +
Weight: .31 oz. (9 g.) in total bar
Calories: 48 calories (estimate) in 1 small bar
Cost: $0.80 for 1 small bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere, online order

Cafe-Tasse 
Noir The Earl Grey (Dark Earl Grey Tea) small bar
Good ++
Weight: .31 oz. (9 g.) in total bar
Calories: 48 calories (estimate) in 1 small bar
Cost: $0.80 for 1 small bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere, online order

Welcome to Day #13 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week and Day #1 of Cookies with Chocolate Theme Week.

These small bars were just the right size and thickness to enjoy the chocolate and the different flavor inclusions. Both had a comforting, smooth dark chocolate base and had well-balanced flavor notes.

The mint in the Dark Mint bar did not overpower the dark chocolate. It gradually crept in over the first two or three seconds after taking a bite, and there seemed to be micro up-ticks in peppermint candy flavor. Not completely homogenizing flavors allowed room for the palette to enjoy the separate flavors as well as the overall blend.

The second small, individually-wrapped, Dark bar was flavored with Earl Grey tea, and had lovely lilting, pleasing floral and happy citrus notes from this fragrant tea.

Persimmon chocolate chip cookies
These homemade persimmon cookies with milk chocolate chips and pecans were quite good. Even better, these gluten-free cookies were made with very little sugar. No artificial sweeteners, no sugar substitutes, just a very small amount of maple syrup, and natural sweetness from the persimmons,  baked yam, banana flour and warming sweet spices. No sugar needed. Butter added rich flavor to these free-form, drop cookies.

Dick Taylor - Pepperming Drinking Chocolate - Nov. 23, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Dick Taylor 

Peppermint Drinking Chocolate 

Good +

Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 8 oz. (227 g.) in total package

Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1 serving

Cost: $19.00 for 1 package

Purchased from: Dick Taylor, online order

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

This morning's Peppermint Drinking Chocolate was created by Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor, the multi-talented duo behind Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate (Eureka, CA ). 

This drinking chocolate was made with Dick Taylor 72% cacao Madagascar Sambirano chocolate. What makes that special? First using a high percentage, single origin cacao will likely give drinking chocolate a more distinguished and/or distinguishable flavor profile. 

Cacao grown in Madagascar typically has fruity, slight acidic (tart red berries, citrus) flavor notes. In addition to naturally occurring fruit notes, today's chocolate contained added (powdered)* organic apple, black currant and black carrot in the dry mix. 

The peppermint (supplied by peppermint candy bits and natural peppermint flavor) was relatively low key. The fruit and vegetable inclusions seemed to have mellowed both cacao and peppermint.

*In the past few years, Dick Taylor has offered select/special edition chocolate bars with freeze-dried, fruit inclusions. (The 2018 Valentines Day special Vanilla Raspberry bar with freeze-dried organic raspberry powder featured earlier this year was tasty, well balanced and colorful.)

TCHO - Peppermint Mocha bar - Nov. 22, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

TCHO
Peppermint Mocha - milk chocolate with espresso and peppermint bar
Good ++
Weight: 1.25 oz. (35 g.) / 2.5 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 200 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $3.79 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #11 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week; and Happy Thanksgiving* to all in the U.S.!

Today's creatively-constructed Peppermint Mocha - milk chocolate with espresso and peppermint bar was from TCHO (Berkeley, CA). It allowed us to lean into the holidays, and feel thankful for local Bay Area chocolate makers, all in one delicious fell swoop.

The organic, 45% cacao chocolate was embedded with a bold but very nicely balanced blend of milk chocolate, espresso and peppermint oil and mint in the form of freeze-dried mint gelato (creative!).

*We felt thankful for freshly rain-washed air and blue skies, after being swallowed up by hazardous air and haze for the past few weeks due to California wildfires. Even chocolate couldn't brighten up the apocalyptic conditions. Hoping all who were displaced from their homes have found shelter. 

Falize - Mint Dark Chocolate bar - Nov. 21, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Falize (DIPA Carole Martin)

Mint Dark Chocolate bar

Good +

Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 3.52 oz. (100 g.) in total bar

Calories: 165 calories in 3 squares of bar

Cost: $1.99 for 1 bar

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

Welcome to Day #10 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week.

Today's Falize Mint Dark Chocolate bar was made in France (DIPA Carole Martin, Cedex, France) and was similar to other, smooth dark chocolate mint bars featured this week.

This chocolate broke with a well-tempered* snap and had a pleasing aroma. The bar had the richness of dark chocolate (cacao percent was not listed) suffused with sweetness (sugar was the number one ingredient) and refreshing "natural mint flavor." It did contain some milk fat as well.**

*Well tempered refers to the process of heating and cooling chocolate in such a manner that in its final state it (the cocoa butter) possesses a stable crystalline structure (generally form V crystals) which produces chocolate with a longer shelf life as well as other desirable qualities. One of the characteristics of a well-tempered chocolate bar is that it breaks with a hard snap.

**Ingredients: sugar, unsweetened chocolate, anhydrous milk fat, cocoa butter, sunflower lecithin (emulsifier), natural mint flavor 0.4%, natural vanilla flavor. 

Dolfin - Dark Chocolate with Mint Leaves bar - Nov. 20, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Dolfin SA

Dark Chocolate with Mint Leaves bar 

Good - Good +

Weight: 1.235 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar

Calories: 190 calories in 1/2 bar

Cost: $4.95 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Chocosphere, online order

Goedemorgen and Bonjour. We're taking a virtual chocolate voyage to Europe this morning.


Belgian chocolate roots run deep
Chocolate fans in the U.S. can be forgiven for thinking that chocolate originated in Switzerland or Belgium.

Both countries played an important role in the rise of popularity of chocolate as we know it in the past century or two. Belgium's association with chocolate began almost four centuries ago, when the country was under Spanish occupation—after Spanish explorers brought cacao to Europe from the Americas, and were consuming chocolate in beverage form.

Eventually, chocolate dynasties and prestigious houses of chocolate arose, and many are still on the scene. Creamy chocolate pralines (bonbons) appeared in Belgium in the early 1900s and quickly spread elsewhere.

Dolfin Chocolate appeared on the scene years later, but honors Belgian chocolate manufacturing traditions.

Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week. Today's Dark Chocolate with Mint Leaves bar hailed from Dolfin SA (Wauthier-Braine, Belgium).

This well-packaged, made-in-Belgium chocolate bar was well-tempered and broke with a hard snap. It had a slightly natural, slightly artificial aroma of mint and was a balanced, relatively sweet I'm guessing 60% cacao chocolate. (The cacao percent of this blended-origin bar was not disclosed on the label.)

Lindt and Sprungli - Lindt Excellence Intense Mint Dark bar - Nov. 19, 2018

Chocolate of the Day: 

Lindt and Sprungli

Lindt Excellence - Intense Mint Dark bar

Good - Good +

Weight: .7 oz. (20 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar

Calories: 95 calories in 1/5 bar

Cost: $2.99 (estimate) for 1 bar

Purchased from: Stanford Theatre, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and Mint Theme Week.

Today's Lindt Excellence Intense Mint Dark bar made by Lindt and Sprungli (USA) Inc. (Stratham, NH). 

The bar broke with a snap, had a slow, smooth melt and dark chocolate base flavor—bolstered by a peppermint flavor and finish.