Cowgirl Chocolates - Mild Dark Chocolate 75% Cocoa Chocolate Bar - Aug. 1, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Cowgirl Chocolates
Mild Dark Chocolate 75% Cocoa Chocolate Bar
Good - Good +
Weight: .625 oz. (17.5 g.) / 1.25 oz. (35 g.) in total bar
Calories: 95 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $5.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and Cowgirl Chocolates Theme Week.

Today's Mild Dark Chocolate 75% Chocolate Bar was from Cowgirl Chocolates (Pilot Point, TX).

It had a smooth melt and texture. And, as promised, this dark chocolate bar had a relatively mild, true chocolate (fudge, brownie) flavor. The chocolate was not acidic or bitter, and had a fairly sweet taste as well.

Each square was inscribed with the inspirational word "Dream."

Cowgirl Chocolates - Mild Milk Chocolate Sarsaparilla 33% Cocoa Sarsaparilla Chocolate Bar - July 31, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Cowgirl Chocolates
Mild Milk Chocolate Sarsaparilla 33% Cocoa Chocolate Bar
Good - Good +
Weight: .625 oz. (17.5 g.) / 1.25 oz. (35 g.) in total bar
Calories: 93 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $5.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's Mild Milk Chocolate Sarsaparilla 33% Cocoa Chocolate Bar was from Cowgirl Chocolates (Pilot Point, TX).

This bar had a relatively creamy melt and texture, and a sweet sarsaparilla/root beer aroma and flavor blended in nicely with the milk chocolate.

It powered a hike into a beautiful, iconic western white rock canyon that was so quiet, one could hear a single leaf move on a tree.

This chocolate also brought back childhood memories of summertime root beer floats and root beer popsicles. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we left our room with a view of horses and hard-working horseback riders (and cowgirl), in Abiquiu and moseyed on to Taos, New Mexico, in search for a few more chocolates.

Cowgirl Chocolates - Spicy Milk Chocolate Mint 33% Bar - July 30, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Cowgirl Chocolates
Spicy Milk Chocolate Mint 33% Cocoa Chocolate Bar
Good
Weight: .625 oz. (17.5 g.) / 1.25 oz. (35 g.) in total bar
Calories: 93.5 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $5.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's Spicy Milk Chocolate Mint 33% Cocoa Bar was from Cowgirl Chocolates (Moscow, ID).

This bar was sweet and creamy with natural mint (mint oil) flavor and a hint of spicy cayenne pepper.

Today's bar was sampled near a horse pasture in New Mexico (with a tiny herd of micro cattle on the table in the foreground, for effect). We also enjoyed meeting a real cowgirl, Ellie, who helps care for and train these wild horses in Abiquiu, NM, near the Abiquiu Inn and Georgia O'Keeffe's home. (She also leads trail rides.) Real hat and boots, and the real deal too.

I also realized today that my mother, a real horsewoman and cowgirl in her day, was likely the inspiration for this theme week, and would have loved this view if she were here. Thanks mom!

Fine and Raw Chocolate - Espresso (bar) and Hazelnut Butter (bar) - July 29, 2019

Chocolate of the Day:

Fine and Raw Chocolate
Espresso 70% cacao (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) in total bar
Calories: 171 calories (per label) in 1 bar
Cost: $25.00 for 5 bar set
Purchased from: Fine and Raw Chocolate, online order


Fine and Raw Chocolate
Hazelnut Butter 49% cacao (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) in total bar
Calories: 159 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $25.00 for 5 bar set
Purchased from: Fine and Raw Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Cowgirl Theme Week.

Today's Espresso 70% cacao and Hazelnut Butter 49% cacao bars, from Fine and Raw Chocolate (Brooklyn, NY), were both great bars to sample after getting up in the middle of the night to catch a plane to New Mexico where cowboys and cowgirls still exist. Some caffeine and theobromine will help to stay awake and to drive across this beautiful state.*

If cowboy coffee is made with a pot on hot coals, then perhaps cowgirl espresso is a bit more refined...something like today's Espresso bar. Coffee has been part of ranch and cattle drive culture for some time. (Yesterday we talked about mesquite coffee, which also has a long tradition in the Southwest U.S.)

These two bars were part of the company's Brooklyn Bonnie collection, and were adorned with drawings of girls from the wild west, many of them endowed with a cowgirl spirit.

Both were sweetened with coconut sugar and were made with 50% raw and 50% roasted cacao and had pleasing espresso and hazelnut aromas, respectively. Both bars had a creamy melt and had balanced (and complementary) flavors. (Eating them together was like enjoying a hazelnut latte.)

The Espresso bar contained small chewy bits of coffee. And the Hazelnut Butter bar had tiny bits of ground nuts, but were otherwise quite smooth.

Both had a pleasing finish as well.

Sweet 55 - Bonus Chocolates, Cowgirl Creamery for July 28, 2019

Chocolate(s) of the Day (Bonus Entry):

Sweet55

1. Eiger - milk chocolate
2. Eiger - dark chocolate
3. Heart - filled chocolate

Welcome to a bonus, evening entry, as part of Chocolate and Cowgirl Theme Week.


A surprise find of cheese from Cowgirl Creamery (Point Reyes Station, CA) this evening led to the decision to feature a cheese and fruit plate with three flavors of filled chocolates from Sweet55 (Half Moon Bay, CA).

Cowgirl Creamery

Cowgirl Creamery (Point Reyes Station, CA) specializes in making artisan, organic cheeses. While they do have a few chocolate items (high end chocolate milk, and an occasional panna cotta or dessert with chocolate), their wonderful local cheeses are a welcome addition to any chocolate and fruit platter.

And that includes Cowgirl Creamery's Clabbered* Cottage Cheese, made "the traditional way with pillowy non-fat curds tossed in a dressing of cultured cream and organic milk..."

This is not your bulk supermarket cottage cheese. It looks similar. But it was made with a shorter list of higher-quality ingredients and had a pleasingly authentic cheese flavor that big store brands lack.

The cheese was paired with fruit, nuts, gluten-free crackers and three types of filled chocolates.

Sweet55 Chocolates

We enjoyed the three creamy smooth chocolates from Sweet55, a Swiss-style chocolatier. All three paired nicely with fruit, nuts and cheese.

The first two of three chocolates on this cheese plate were milk chocolate and dark chocolate versions of the "Eiger"—filled with almond gianduja and orange caramel crunch. The company developed special 3D molds to accurately capture the shape of this impressive mountain in the Bernese Alps.**

The third chocolate was a pretty heart-shaped chocolate with a light filling.

*Clabbered cream is similar to creme fraiche and is added to the cottage cheese curds.

**The Eiger is a 3,967 meter (13,025 foot) mountain in Switzerland that draws climbers from around the world who are intent on reaching the top of this mountain.

Fine and Raw Chocolate - Mesquite No Sugar Added (bar); Ginger 67% (bar) - July 28, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Fine and Raw Chocolate
Mesquite No Sugar Added 58% cacao (bar)
Good +
Weight: .5 oz. (14.1 g.) / 2 oz. (56 g.) in total bar
Calories: 63 calories (per label) in 1/4 bar
Cost: $8.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Fine and Raw Chocolate, online order

Fine and Raw Chocolate
Ginger 67% cacao (bar)
Good +
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 164 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $25.00 for 5-bar collection set
Purchased from: Fine and Raw Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Cowgirl Theme Week.

Today's Mesquite No Sugar Added 58% cacao and Ginger 67% cacao bars were both made by Fine and Raw Chocolate (Brooklyn, NY).


Rounding up cows out on the range conjures up thoughts of hard work, dusty rides through high chaparral and mesquite tree country, and music around a fire. And speaking of mesquite...

Mesquite
...Mesquite wood smoke is used for barbeques. But lesser known is the fact that the beans these trees produce are edible and can be ground into a flour and eaten.

Roasted mesquite beans are said to have notes of slightly sweet vanilla, cream, caramel, coconut and/or chocolate. They were a food source for native peoples in Mexico and the Southwest U.S., who referred to mesquite as the tree of life, because of its many uses.

People continue to use mesquite flour ground from seeds (pods shown at right), bean pod pulp, in items including gluten free pine nut cookies, roasted mesquite bean "coffee," protein drinks/bars, mesquite bean jelly, and, of course, chocolates.

Today's raw Mesquite bar contained cacao and mesquite powder and none of the usual sugar sweeteners: i.e., coconut, cane, maple or birch sugar. Instead this chocolate was lightly sweetened with organic ground lucuma (a South American fruit with a mild sweet flavor and thick creamy, slightly starchy texture).

This Mesquite bar had a surprisingly sweet and warmly spicy chocolate aroma, and a faint trace of light fruit (apple custard), sweet potato and honey notes in the flavor and finish. The three American native plants: cacao, lucuma and mesquite worked well together. This chocolate had a thick, creamy texture and a very slight granularity.

Ginger
If you like ginger, you might like Fine and Raw Chocolate's 67% dark ginger bar, made with organic ginger powder.


The ginger was thoroughly incorporated and not visible to the naked eye. However, it was evident in the aroma and flavor of this bar and lingered into the finish. The melt was even, and the texture was slightly granular.

The added ginger gave the "50% raw and 50% roast(ed)" cacao bar a warm, satisfying zing. Ginger is from Asia originally, but we've adopted it as one of our own.* (Many of us have fond childhood memories of homemade ginger molasses cookies.)

We paired this Ginger bar with a sweet, spicy kick of music from Ginger Cowgirl, (aka Stacy Antonel, originally from the Bay Area, who moved to Nashville in 2017. We wish her well. She's got a great sound. (Photo source: Ginger Cowgirl website.)

*True, ginger is from Asia and not the wild west. However, there are very capable horsewomen—cowgirls in spirit—in Asia too. Just ask someone who has visited Mongolia or ridden in the Mongolian Derby. (Photo Source for image of Mongolian girl riding horse: Daily Travel Photos)

The spice closest to ginger that's native to the Americas and has co-evolved with chocolate historically would likely be allspice. Allspice is not uncommon in Caribbean-adjacent cuisines, local chocolates and drinking chocolate.

Fine and Raw Chocolate - Habanero Salt 70% bar - July 27, 2019

Chocolate of the Day:

Fine and Raw Chocolate
Habanero Salt 70% Cacao (bar)
Good +
Weight: .5 oz. (14.1 g.) in total bar / 2 oz. (56 g.) in total bar
Calories: 82.5 calories (per label) in 1/4 bar
Cost: $8.50 for 1 bar (plus shipping)
Purchased from: Fine and Raw Chocolate, online order

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

Today's Habanero Salt 70% Cacao (bar) was from Fine and Raw Chocolate (Brooklyn, NY).

Aroma is an important aspect of chocolate tasting. The smell of a chocolate can be very similar to its taste, or it can be different in a surprising way (e.g. the first time you take a bite of a 100% cacao bar with no sugar or sweeteners or a dark chocolate with multiple layers of flavor that seem to blossom in your mouth).

Some flavor inclusions in bars may have a very weak aroma, but pack a flavor wallop, like hot chili peppers.

So, it was with some anticipation that I bit into today's Habanero Salt 70% bar containing organic habanero* powder. The bar smelled like relatively mild chocolate with a trace of coconut sugar and a very faint salt or savory vegetable note.

The habanero flavor was tied to small salt crystals. And unless you bit into a piece with more crunchy salt flecks, the burn on your lips and the tears in your eyes will be very manageable. The heat index (at least in the pieces I sampled) was relatively low, due to judicious use of this powerful pepper (thank you!).

There was also not a big heat flare at the finish of the tasting curve. So fear not. Unless you want to steer completely free of chilis altogether, you'll probably be OK, and you'll still be able to taste the chocolate.

And speaking of the chocolate, this 70% cacao gluten free bar with habanero salt was made using "50% roast and 50% raw," ethically sourced cacao, from bean-to-bar, with no refined sugar.

Ingredients: Organic cacao bean(s), organic coconut sugar, organic cacao butter, organic habanero powder, sea salt.

*Habanero peppers are from the Americas, in the West. Early Spanish explorers found them and spread them across the globe. They are widely cultivated in Mexico. They can also be found growing in Belize and other Latin American countries and remains of these peppers have been found from centuries ago, as far south as Peru, and as far north as the southwestern U.S. 

As every cowboy and cowgirl knows, a little of this small, fiery cherry red pepper goes a long way in a chile, stew or sauce. (Image of ripe, red habanero pepper above is from www.habaneromadness.com)

On that note, we're taking this chocolate on a hike around some California sagebrush and Coastal Live Oak trees, and we'll say hello to the cows for you.

**Cows Eat Chocolate?
Oh, and by the way, did you know that some specialty ranchers feed their cows chocolate? Yes, chocolate is a small part of a special diet that helps build unique flavor. A herd of Cadbury's chocolate-fed Wagyu beef cattle at Mayura Station in Australia are on the menu of some pretty fancy Michelin-starred restaurants. (Note: Please don't feed cows chocolate without their owners permission. Not all animals can eat cacao.)