Wm. Chocolate - Nicaragua Tenor 85% Dark (bar) - Oct. 12, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Wm. Chocolate LLC
Nicaragua Tenor 85% Dark (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (57 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's Nicaragua Tenor 85% Dark (bar) was crafted from bean-to-bar by William Marx at Wm. Chocolate LLC (Madison, WI). Marx produces great chocolate bars--treasure chests that deserve to be savored slowly. Consume these in a hurry, and you'll likely miss some grand virtues. Today's bar was no exception.

A wonderful, complex chocolate aroma wafted out as soon as I opened the outer packaging. And the chocolate inside broke with a well-tempered, hard snap (a sign of precision craftsmanship not often discussed in consumer forums).

And the choice to go with 85% cacao helped guarantee that this extra dark chocolate wasn't too sweet (thank you!).

The flavor included a balanced, light bitterness; deep roasted, dark chocolate; light wood and very faint aged/smoke notes; and a very subtle, natural green, fruit brightness. (Think Trinitario headed toward Forastero.)

This bar was made from a blend of cacao beans (2018 Harvest, Lot 263264) from Matagalpa (Nicaragua) that received a "special fermentation." And the chocolate was made without "soy, dairy, grain, nuts, refined sugar or animal products."

Ingredients: cacao beans, organic whole unrefined cane sugar, organic cacao butter.

Castronovo Chocolate - 70% Heirloom Cacao - Nicalizo, Nicaragua (bar) - Oct. 11, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Castronovo Chocolate

70% Heirloom Cacao - Nicalizo, Nicaragua (bar)

Good + - Good ++

Weight: 1.1 oz. (31 g.) / 2.2 oz. (62 g.) in total bar

Calories: 150 calories (per label) in 1/2 bar

Cost: $ missing information

Purchased from: missing information

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

Today's 70% Heirloom Cacao - Nicalizo, Nicaragua bar was from Castronovo Chocolate (Stuart, FL). This bar was part of the company's Signature Collection. 

The Nicalizo, Nicaragua cacao (Batch No. 890) was made with heirloom (likely Criollo) cacao known for its subtle flavors and complexity. Aroma included fruit notes (apricot, plum, cherry, and a tiny hint of green).

It had a sweet, pleasing cacao/true chocolate (brownie) aroma with a hint of fruit and a creamy melt and texture. 

Castronovo chocolate maker's notes read as follows: "...The chocolate has fruit flavors of plum, cherry with rich buttery notes of toasted toffee, a little spice of pink peppercorn, and a lovely roasted walnut long-lasting finish..." 

Ingredients: cocoa beans, organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter.

Tabal Chocolate - Nicaragua Two Ingredient 70% (bar) - Oct. 10, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Tabal Chocolate

Nicaragua Two Ingredient 70% (bar)

Good +

Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.5 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar

Calories: 225 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar

Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's Nicaragua Two Ingredient 70% (bar) was crafted from cocoa bean to bar by Tabal Chocolate in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. 

The word Tabal translated into English (from Mayan origin) means "relationship." And with distributed supply chains involved in high-quality craft chocolate--spanning from farmers and suppliers to customers and running a small business, relationships are key.

Tabal Chocolate offers a line of single origin bars, as well as chocolate bars infused with organic teas and "superfoods" (including several different varieties of berries). The company is also involved with supporting Criollo cacao growing efforts.

The cacao grown in Nicaragua used to make this vegan, soy free and gluten free, two-ingredient bar was stoneground for three days in small batches. The resulting texture was smooth. 

The true dark chocolate had both slightly bitter and fairly sweet taste elements, with true dark chocolate and dried (green banana, dried fig) fruit notes in between. 

Ingredients: "Direct-trade single origin cacao, cane sugar"

Omnom Chocolate - Nicaragua 73% (bar) - Oct. 9, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Omnom Chocolate

Nicaragua 73% (bar)

Good ++ - Good +++

Weight: 2.1 oz. (60 g.) in 1 bar

Calories: 316.2 calories in 1 bar

Cost: $9.00 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #1 of Chocolate and Nicaragua Theme Week.

Today's Nicaragua 73% (bar) was from Omnom Chocolate hf. (Reyjavik, Iceland). 

This wonderfully complex, dark bar had a smooth, uniform texture and melt, and a balanced, satisfying, smokey/savory (umami), faint roasted nut, and rich true dark chocolate aroma and flavor. These flavors were intertwined with more subtle dried fruit (dried goji berry) and green tea notes. The finish possessed a lingering chocolate brownie note.

After a week of milk chocolates with muted cacao flavors, this dark bar that hit so many pleasant chords on the chocolate tasting wheel was like walking into a chocolate factory and taking a deep breath of fresh, roasted cacao air. 

Ingredients: "Organic cocoa beans from Nicaragua, organic cane sugar, cocoa butter, sunflower lecithin (E322).*"

*E322 refers to a group of phospholipids (lecithins) used in foods, found in plant and animal tissues, used as an emulsifier or stabilizer--commonly derived from soy, sunflower, peanuts, corn or egg yolk and other "animal resources." Lecithins are used to blend oils/fats and can frequently be found in margarine, chocolate, mayonnaise, ice cream and milk powder.

Chocolate Naive - Peanut Butter Specialty Milk Chocolate 47% (bar) - Oct. 8, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Chocolate Naive
(Producer/Gamintoja: Mulate UAB)
Peanut Butter Specialty Milk Chocolate 47% (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: 2 oz. (57 g.) in 1 bar 
Calories: 414.6 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Grass Fed Milk Theme Week. 

Today's Chocolate Naive Peanut Butter Specialty Milk Chocolate 47% (bar) was created by chocolatier, Domantas Uzpalis, and produced by Mulate UAB (Vilnius, Lithuania).

This unique, guitar-shaped 47% cacao milk chocolate bar was velvety smooth and devilishly delicious. 

Twenty percent of the content was peanuts, that were ground for 4 days into creamy, whipped peanut butter, that was then so well incorporated you might miss the specific peanut flavor.  Further upping the creamy factor was the inclusion of grass-fed milk powder. 

Ingredients: cacao butter*, sugar*, specialty cacao*, peanuts* (20%), grass-fed milk powder*, sea salt*.

*"wild or all natural farming!"

Garden of Life - Organic Whey Protein Grass Fed Certified Fair Trade Organic Chocolate Cacao - Oct. 7, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Garden of Life LLC
Organic Whey Protein Grass Fed Certified Fair Trade Organic Chocolate Cacao
Good
Weight: 1.16 oz. (33 g.) in 1 package
Calories: 130 calories in 1 package
Cost: $ missing information
Purchased from: Rainbow Grocery, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Grass Fed Milk Theme Week.

Today's Organic Fair Trade Chocolate Cacao Grass Fed Whey Protein was from Garden of Life (Palm Beach Gardens, Florida).*

Milk adds protein. Today's single serving package provided an impressive 21 grams of protein (42% of daily value), and only 7 grams of total carbohydrate.

Once mixed (thoroughly stirred) with water, the texture was smooth. The (de-acidified) cocoa used to supply the "chocolate cacao" flavor provided a chocolatey aroma and uniform cocoa flavor. 

The flavor was sweet, but a bit too (slightly artificially) sweet for me. This mix did not contain sugar, and was sweetened with erythritol and stevia extract (leaf).  

As an added bonus, this contained 2 billion colony forming units (CFUs) worth of a strain of beneficial (probiotic) bacteria thought to improve immune function.

*Note: Garden of Life became part of Nestle Health Sciences in 2017.

Ingredients: Organic Whey Protein Concentrate, Certified Fair Trade Organic Cacao, Organic Creamer Flavor, Organic Erythritol, Organic Chocolate Flavor, Sea Salt, Organic Stevia Extract (leaf), 2 billion CFU Bifidobacterium lactis B1-04.
 

Tera's Whey - Grass Fed Organic Whey Protein - Dark Chocolate - Oct. 6, 2020

Chocolate of the Day

Tera's Whey
Grass Fed Organic Whey Protein - Dark Chocolate 
Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28 g.) in total package
Calories: 110 calories in 1 package
Cost: $ missing information
Purchased from: Rainbow Grocery, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Grass-Fed Milk Theme Week.

Today's Tera's Whey Grass Fed Organic Whey Protein was from Wisconsin Specialty Protein (Reedsburg, WI).

The 20 grams of protein in this single-serving packet was supplied by, presumably, dairy cows in Wisconsin. 

The cocoa powder had been de-acidified (processed with alkali), so the flavor was relatively mild. The sweetness level was about right. There was no sugar, just stevia leaf extract, which tasted fairly natural.

Ingredients: Organic dairy whey protein concentrate, organic cocoa (processed with alkali), organic stevia leaf extract, sunflower lecithin.