Chamisa Chocolate - Flower Petal and Sea Salt 65% Belize bar - Sept. 9, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chamisa Chocolate
Flower Petal and Sea Salt 65% Belize bar
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (30 g.) / 2 oz. (60 g.) (per label) for total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chamisa Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #10, the last day, of Chamisa Chocolate Theme Week.

Today's Flower Petal and Sea Salt 65% Belize dark bar was made by Chamisa Chocolate (Santa Fe, NM).

This sweet dark chocolate bar had fairly light, upbeat, fruit and floral notes. The texture was smooth with a thick and creamy melt and mouthfeel. The sea salt helped balance out the sweetness. The cacao was from Belize.

While it was difficult to pick out any individual flower flavor, the colored petals (flecks of blue cornflower, golden marigolds, rose and orange blossom) on the back of the bar were an attractive visual element.

Chamisa Chocolate - Maruya Miso 71% Honduras bar - Sept. 8, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chamisa Chocolate
Maruya Miso 71% Honduras dark bar
Good +++
Weight: 1 oz. (30 g.) / 2 oz. (60 g.) (per label) for total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chamisa Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #9 of Chamisa Chocolate Theme Week.

Today's Maruya Miso 71% Honduras dark bar was from Chamisa Chocolate (Santa Fe, NM).

This umami* bar had subtle and balanced aroma notes of chocolate, fermented sweet grapes, and multi-layered and savory soy**. In fact this bar (made with Honduras cacao) contained a small amount of Maruya Miso.

The bar had a smooth texture and melt, and a flavor not unlike a nice dark milk** chocolate with salt, only salt/sodium with a more depth and mellow flavor.

If you're a fan of chocolate with savory flavors, please do try this bar.

*Umami is a Japanese term coined to describe another dimension of flavor, akin to what some call savory. We often talk about our taste buds being able to detect sweet, sour, salty and bitter flavors. Umami would be closest to salt, but it goes beyond that. (Think mushrooms, cheeses, meats, bacon, soy, etc. ) Umami is often correlated with the presence of glutamates, including (but certainly not limited to) monosodium glutamate.

**There was no milk in this bar. The ingredients list read: "Organic cacao beans, organic sugar, organic cacao butter, Maruya Miso (contains soy)." Maruya Miso is based an an early fermented food that originated in China and Japan, thought to date back to the sixth century A.D.

Chamisa Chocolate - Zanzibar 61% dark blend bar - Sept. 7, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chamisa Chocolate
Zanzibar 61% dark bar with coconut and ginger
Good +++
Weight: 1 oz. (30 g.) / 2 oz. (60 g.) (per label) for total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chamisa Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #8 of Chamisa Chocolate Theme Week.

Today's Zanzibar 61% dark blend bar with coconut and ginger was made by Chamisa Chocolate (Santa Fe, NM).

Today's exotic-sounding Zanzibar chocolate bar had a cocoa and coconut aroma, and a creamy texture—thanks to added cocoa butter and coconut milk.

Coconut palm sugar (as well as flecks of ginger and pieces of coconut adorning the back of this bar) gave this chocolate a subtle, sweet, tropical island flavor. The cacao used to make this bar was an organic blend (multiple origins).

As with the other bars this week from this company, the bar had an appealing, restrained sweetness.

Chamisa Chocolate - a date with chocolate 71% Honduras bar - Sept. 5, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chamisa Chocolate
a date with chocolate 71% Honduras bar
Good +++
Weight: 1 oz. (30 g.) / 2 oz. (60 g.) (per label) for total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chamisa Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #6 of Chamisa Chocolate Theme Week.

Today's "a date with chocolate" 71% Honduras bar was crafted by Chamisa Chocolate (Santa Fe, NM).

This bar was thick and creamy and had light earth (mushroom), cacao and nutty flavor notes.

The incorporation of the dates (as the sole sweetener) was perfect. The dates offered sweetness without being overly sweet (which is often the result when dates are added to a chocolate items).

Chamisa Chocolate - tree of gold (mulberries) 71% Honduras bar - Sept. 4, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chamisa Chocolate
tree of gold (mulberries) 71% Honduras bar
Good +++ - Very Good
Weight: 1 oz. (30 g.) / 2 oz. (60 g.) (per label) for total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chamisa Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #5 of Chamisa Chocolate Theme Week.

Today's tree of gold (mulberries) 71% Honduras bar was crafted by Chamisa Chocolate (Santa Fe, NM).

This bar had a chocolate, light fruit and sweet vegetable (tomato) aroma notes. The melt and mouthfeel was thick and creamy, with a fleeting very soft (not unpleasant) graininess (from dried fruit/berries is my guess).

The chocolate had smooth, dried, dark berry flavor notes mellowed by the dark smooth, almost nutty Honduras cacao. The absence of sugar in this lovely, 3-ingredient, mulberry*-sweetened bar was palpable, and delightful.

I would enjoy eating this unique (mulberry-sweetened + no added sugar) bar any day of the week.

Ingredients: "Organic cacao beans, organic dehydrated mulberries, organic cacao butter"

*Mulberries are wonderful. They're occasionally available at a local farmers market here in the Bay Area. And they sell out very quickly. Red mulberries are native to the Eastern U.S. And black and white mulberry trees came from Asia (China) to the U.S. as early as the 1600s. The latter were imported in part for sericulture or silk production. (Silk worms are fed almost exclusively white mulberry leaves.)

Note: The illustration used on the packaging was from a painting, The Mulberry Tree, by Vincent Van Gogh

Chamisa Chocolate - oat milk chai spice 61% bar - Sept. 3, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chamisa Chocolate
oat milk chai spice 61% cacao bar
Good +++ - Very Good
Weight: 1 oz. (30 g.) / 2 oz. (60 g.) (per label) for total bar
Calories: 152 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chamisa Chocolate, online order

Welcome to Day #4 of Chamisa Chocolate Theme Week.

Today's oat milk chai spice 61% cacao bar from Chamisa Chocolate (Santa Fe, NM) was made with cacao grown in Tumaco, Colombia.

I enjoyed the flavors in this bar very much. Fond childhood memories about making ginger molasses cookies with my mother and sipping chai tea surely created a positive bias when tasting today's chocolate with warming chai spices.

However, I was also intrigued with the maker's comments (see her note below) about the sweetness of this (and another) bar featured this week due to dairy milk alternatives that were included.* (Maker, Amanda Hatherly, shares our taste preference for less sugar sweetness in dark chocolate.)

Amanda wrote: "...even though the 61% (bars) seem a lot sweeter, they...have the same sugar content as the darker 71% bars...as that extra 10% is the coconut or oat "milk." They taste a lot sweeter...because of that."

*Yes, there was sugar in today's bar, but it was further down the list than one might expect. Ingredients: "Organic: cacao beans, GF oats, tiger nuts, cacao butter, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, black pepper, Himalayan pink salt."

Chamisa Chocolate - Bochasweet 71% bar - Sept. 2, 2019

Chocolate of the Day: 

Chamisa Chocolate
Bochasweet 71% bar
Good ++ - Good +++
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.4 g.) (estimate) in total bar
Calories: N/A - no information
Cost: $N/A - sample bar (from Chamisa)
Sent from: Chamisa Chocolate, part of an online order

Welcome to Day #3 of Chamisa Chocolate Theme Week.

Today's Bochasweet 71% bar from Chamisa Chocolate (Santa Fe, NM). Founder, Amanda Hatherly, has never been a fan of sweet dark chocolate. She has explored various sugar alternatives, including dates, freeze-dried fruit, and Bochasweet.*

Thank you to Amanda at Chamisa Chocolate for sharing this special bar.

The chocolate was dark and creamy and not too sweet, and had a certain refreshing coolness about it. Like sitting in a cool forest. (Sugar tends to feel "hotter" on the palette.) Dried blueberries added concentrated, natural, moist, berry sweetness. And a sprinkling of chopped almonds added a soft accent crunch.

The bar's natural cocoa finish also had a lingering low level of sweetness I found hard to pinpoint (and likely from the Bochasweet). This sweetness was not unpleasant, unnatural, bitter or "off" in any way. Just a very mild sweet presence. There was a distinct calm feeling with this bar. No sugar rush.

*Bochasweet is a "zero calorie, zero glycemic" sugar substitute made of kabocha extract, that is available from Bochasweet LLC (Las Vegas, NV). Kabocha is a green, pumpkin-like winter squash from Japan.