Haagen-Dazs - Belgian Chocolate Vanilla and Blackberry Ice Cream - July 4, 2019

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Haagen-Dazs
Crispy Trio Layers Belgian Chocolate Vanilla and Blackberry Ice Cream
Good +
Weight: 1/3 cup (62 g.) / 14 fl. oz. (414 mL) total container
Calories: 180 calories in 1/3 cup
Cost: $1.99 for 1 container
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Island Nations Theme Week.

Happy 4th of July!—also known as Independence Day in the U.S. It was a great evening to see fireworks, on an island.

To honor the red, white and blue today, an appropriately tri-colored ice cream sundae was created and eaten, starting with Crispy Trio Layers Belgian Chocolate Vanilla and Blackberry Ice cream from Haagen-Dazs (distributed by Nestle Dreyer's Ice Cream Company in Oakland, CA).

This ice cream was topped with fresh blueberries, red raspberries, and a drizzle of Raspberry Aqua Perfecta from St. George's Distillery (based in Alameda, CA, Island #1). It was a great dessert for a backyard, pre-fireworks meal, and it was followed by a chocolate cigar.

Venchi Cuba Chocolate Cigar

Today we also celebrated Independence Day with a Venchi Cuba (Island #2) chocolate and hazelnut cigar, made with cacao from New Guinea (Island #3).

Mirzam Chocolate Makers - 85% Dark Chocolate from Cuba bar - July 3, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Mirzam Chocolate Makers
Kakaw Manufacturing Co. LLC
85% Dark Chocolate from Cuba bar
Good ++
Weight: 1.236 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 148 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate and Island Nations Theme Week. The focus this week is on chocolate made with cacao grown in island nations, such as Grenada, The Philippines, Fiji and, in today's case, Cuba.

Many of these countries have been gradually increasing their exports of high-end cacao beans and could be poised to increase their market share in the future; but have also faced challenges.*

Today's Mirzam Chocolate Makers 85% Dark Chocolate from Cuba bar was manufactured by Kakaw Manufacturing Co. LLC (Dubai, UAE). The cacao used to make this bar was likely grown in Cuba's Baracoa* area, a coastal area on the eastern end of this island nation.

This well-balanced and well-crafted ultra dark bar had an even, smooth melt, and had a smooth, complex bold flavor with light bitterness and relatively low acidity, light musk, red fruit, earthy dark chocolate flavor with subtle green, spice, floral and nutty flavor notes.

The finish had a mild touch of astringency. The chocolate was refreshingly not too sweet (expected for an 85% bar), but also we were grateful that the maker did such a nice job with other aspects as well.

*Baracoa is a city in the Guantanamo Province in eastern Cuba that is favorable for cacao cultivation. Unfortunately, this area is also susceptible to hurricane damage, affecting people and cacao production. Best wishes for calm weather this season.

Jouvay Chocolate - Granada Cocoa Farmers' Coop - Jouvay 60% Cocoa with Nutmeg (bar) - July 2, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Jouvay Chocolate
Grenada Cocoa Farmers' Coop - Jouvay 60% Cocoa - touch of Nutmeg (bar)
Good +
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 210 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $ missing information
Purchased from: missing information


Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate and Island Nations Theme Week.

Today's Jouvay Chocolate 60% Cocoa (with a) Touch of Nutmeg bar was made with cacao from the Grenada Cocoa Farmers' Coop (Grenada, West Indies). Grenada is a lush tropical island in the Caribbean Sea known for its cacao and spices.

Jouvay Chocolate is a partnership between Grenada cacao farmers and LA Burdick Grenada. The company is majority-owned by the cacao growers who are also involved in the manufacturing process, doing "value-added processing" (several steps further than the fermentation of beans) in-country, where the beans are grown—vs. shipping cacao beans to other countries (U.S., Europe, Australia, etc.) for chocolate making, as is often the case.

The base chocolate in this four-ingredient** bar was sweet and pure. However, it was difficult not to be swept away by the presence of nutmeg, which made itself known in the aroma and flavor.

Nutmeg

This bar had a sustained spike of nutmeg* flavor throughout. Like vanilla, saffron, and many other flowers and "baking" spices, there is a happy warmth that comes with tasting nutmeg—an uplifting spice with a faint hint of aromatic peppercorn. (If you've never tried grating fresh nutmeg into a beverage or dish, I highly recommend trying this.)

*Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) is a ground or grated spice from a seed of an evergreen tree, that originated in the Moluccas (Banda), or Spice Islands, in Indonesia. The British removed nutmeg trees from Indonesia and spread them to British colonies with similar climates in the early 1800s. Today, nutmeg is widely cultivated in Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, and in the West Indies (especially in Grenada).

**Ingredients: cacao beans, cane sugar, cocoa butter, nutmeg.

Mirzam Chocolate Makers - 45% Milk Chocolate Loqaimat bar - July 1, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Mirzam Chocolate Makers
(Kakaw Manufacturing Co. LLC)
45% Milk Chocolate Loqaimat bar
Good +
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 142 calories in 1 oz. (28.3 g.) of bar (per label)
Cost: $14.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Peruvian Superfoods Theme Week, and Day #1 of Chocolate and Island Nations Theme Week. Chocolate, with its far-flung supply chain, and delicious flavor, ties many geographic areas and peoples together.

Today's 45% Milk Chocolate Loqaimat* bar was created by Mirzam Chocolate Makers (Dubai, UAE).

Dubai is the largest city in the United Arab Emirates. And while it is not technically part of an island, it has nonetheless taken island design and building to a whole new level. Some of the created islands are shaped like palm trees. And what prized fruit grows locally on palm trees there? Dates.

Mirzam Chocolate Makers was highlights great chocolate blended with ingredients linked to extensive, historic Arab maritime trade routes, such as dates.**

Today's confection of a bar was made of high-quality, sweet milk chocolate (45% cacao). The chocolate had toffee and caramel flavor and a crunchy, slightly sticky texture, all achieved from two inclusions: 1.) puffed quinoa (there's our Peruvian reference) caramelized with 2.) date syrup (Arab trade item). The results of this blend: pretty, copper-colored flecks seen on the inside wrapper and a sweet treat.

Quinoa
Quinoa, a high-protein pseudo-cereal prized for its nutritious seeds, originated in the harsh upper elevations of Peru, and is now being cultivated around the Mediterranean and in parts of Africa. (It is also similar to millet or Fonio, an up-and-coming West African "superfood" that also grows "where nothing else will grow.") There has been a resurgence of interest in these humble, gluten-free seeds and grains in recent years.

*Loqaimat or luqaimat or lukma is a sweet, fried dough dessert that resembles American doughnut holes.

**The line up of Mirzam chocolate bars features a few bars containing dates. My favorite so far has been their bar with dates and fennel. Dates, have an incredible natural sweetness and have been cultivated in the Middle East for thousands of years. (The largest producers of dates today are: Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.)

Original Beans - Piura Porcelana 75% bar - June 30, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Original Beans
Piura Porcelana 75% bar
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) /2.46 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories:  calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $7.95 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocosphere.com

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Peruvian Superfoods Theme Week.

Today's Piura Porcelana 75% bar from Original Beans (Amsterdam) was made in Switzerland. It was made using with treasured "white" Porcelana (Piura Valley, Peru) cacao beans from the Piura Valley or Peru.

The inside of the Porcelana cacao seed (bean) is creamy white (instead of the more common purple and white) and these beans are prized for their delicate, complex flavor.

The bar had light, balanced fruit (berries, black currant), faint forest floor earthiness and fermentation notes. It had a smooth dark chocolate melt and taste, with balanced blackberry, black raspberry, black currant and red grape flavor notes. The fruit was subtle, full and round, complex and lower in acidity than most "bright" berry/fruit chocolate.

The flavor finish had a very subtle but long tail. It tapered off but then had a small fruit blip late in the curve, and a very slight earthiness even later.

The makers tasting notes described the flavor as having: lime, raspberry and pecan notes.

Also important to Original Beans founder, Philipp Kauffman, that the origin be honored for its treasured resources, like the Peruvian butterflies part of today's packaging design. Kauffman has pledged to plant one tree for every bar sold "...preserving some of the Earth's rarest places."

More superfoods...
Peruvian cacao could certainly be described as a superfood. A lot of people are using that term to market exotic foods with high nutritional value. But, of course, flavor and texture of the food in question are important too. And high-quality, bean-to-bar chocolate, like today's three ingredient bar (cacao mass, raw cane sugar and cocoa butter) gets high marks in all these areas.

Also consumed today was an Antioxidant Sweet Berry powdered mix from Amazing Grass (Newport Beach, CA), stirred into a glass of water.

The mix contained a variety of fruit and vegetable ingredients, green tea, as well as maca (discussed earlier this week) and camu camu* powders.

It may not have been as yummy as today's chocolate, but the company does produce offer offerings with cacao, as well as a convenient way to hydrate with a beverage full of vitamins and minerals, particularly if you have a tough time eating your greens before they wilt in your fridge.

*Camu Camu is an Amazonian, tart fruit high in Vitamin C. It looks like a bit like a large cherry plum or a miniature red apple in photos.

Primordial Chocolate - 70% Cacao Salted Maca Crunch bar - June 29, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Primordial Chocolate
(Distributed by Fungi Perfecti, LLC)
70% Cacao Salted Maca Crunch bar
Weight: 1.4 oz. (40 g.) in total bar
Calories: 230 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $4.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Peruvian Superfoods Theme Week.

Today's Primordial Chocolate 70% Cacao Salted Maca Crunch bar was distributed by Fungi Perfecti, LLC (Olympia, WA).

This bar had a slightly woodsy, chocolate aroma with a fleeting hint of coconut sugar.

The bar contained chocolate, cacao nibs, maca root and a blend of mushrooms/fungi: including: Lions Mane Mycelium, Reishi Mycelium, Cordyceps Mycelium, Chaga Mycelium; and Myceliated Brown Rice. A subtle touch of Peruvian Pink Salt rounded out this not-too-sweet (thank you!) bar.

A generous helping of cacao nibs gave the bar the "Crunch" that appeared in the title.

*Mycelium has to do with this little white/beige threads that eventually produce mushrooms (the "fruiting body"). Yes, this does make one wrinkle the nose a bit, and perhaps it's better not to know, as the chocolate tasted fun.

Skratch Labs - Skratch Anytime Energy Bar - June 28, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Skratch Labs
Skratch Anytime Energy Bar
Good - Good +
Weight: 1.76 oz. (50 g.) in total bar
Calories: 200 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $2.95 for 1 bar
Purchased from: REI, Mountain View, CA

Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and Cashew Theme Week, and Day #4 of Peru Superfoods Theme Week.

Today's Skratch Anytime Energy Bar with chocolate chips and almonds was from Skratch Labs (Boulder, CO).

This chewy nut and fruit energy bar contained a nut and seed butter blend (cashew butter and tahini (sesame seeds, salt)), chocolate chips and almonds. Dried cranberries added some sweet-tart concentrated fruit flavor.

And, oats, quinoa crisps and sorghum flakes gave the bar some heft and soft crunchy texture.

Quinoa
Quinoa (pronounced keen-whah), a flowering plant related to spinach with edible starchy seeds grows in the the high plains of the Andes, and has become a popular export crop in Peru.

This pseudo-cereal was enjoyed by the Incas and peoples of Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador for thousands of years before it became popular in other countries. Some peoples in northern South America who may have been consuming cacao as a beverage may have also been enjoying quinoa seeds as well.

Regardless of what you may think of the term superfood, quinoa is higher in protein and vitamins and minerals than some true grains. It's been a welcome alternative to wheat and other gluten-containing grains for vegetarians and people with gluten sensitivities and allergies. And it's found its way into chocolate bars too.