Shekoh Confections - Passion Fruit - June 3, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Shekoh Confections
Passion Fruit 
Good +++ 
Weight: .42 oz. (11.9 g.) (estimate) in 1 piece
Calories: 65 calories (estimate) in 1 piece
Cost: $4.40 (estimate) 
Purchased from: Shekoh Confections, Palo Alto, CA

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

Today's Passion Fruit chocolate was created by Shekoh Confections (Palo Alto, CA).

Chef Shekoh Moossavi offers a variety of filled confections with no preservatives, made fresh to order--and select pieces of high-end, edible chocolate art. (There were life-sized chocolate high-heeled shoes, and pretty yellow cocoa pods (cacao fruit) in display cases in her shop the day I visited.)

Passion Fruit chocolate

The aroma of today's Passion Fruit chocolate was difficult to detect at first. What this glossy yellow beauty may have lacked in scent, due to the "painted" and sealed dome exterior, it more than made up for with appearance and flavor.

This well-executed filled chocolate confection had a pretty daisy yellow exterior, with a creamy, yellow-tinged white chocolate interior, and a slim, firm and smooth dark chocolate shell in between.

The Passion Fruit piece had perfectly balanced textures and flavors: bittersweet dark chocolate paired very nicely with authentic tart sweet passion fruit (seamlessly integrated into the white chocolate ganache). The sweetness was held in check by the choice of dark chocolate and tart tropical fruit. Flavorful? Mai oui (yes indeed).

As with all great chocolates, eat slowly to best enjoy the high-quality, layered flavors.

Description: "Passion fruit puree and white chocolate shelled in Valrhona dark chocolate."

Ingredients: Not listed on small assortment box

Allergen-related information: Not listed on small assortment box

Elemental Superfood, Inc. - Mulberry Cacao + Spirulina - June 2, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Elemental Superfood, Inc.

Mulberry Cacao + Spirulina (bar)

Good +

Weight: 1.8 oz. (51 g.) in total bar

Calories: 200 calories in 1 bar

Cost: $3.29 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and Fruit Theme Week, featuring a variety of chocolate and fruit blends.

Today's Organic Mulberry Cacao + Spirulina bar was from Elemental Superfood, Inc. (Torrance, CA).

Aroma notes for this bar included: soft, botanical sweetness, subtle fruit (red berry + light fig) and floral (honey), and faint seed, nut and cacao notes.

This very textural bar was multi-seeded, nutty, cacao nib-by and buckwheat bit-ted, woven together with softer bits of dried berry fruit; and, surprisingly it had a relatively light (but substantial), integrated chew.

The taste was a tapestry of plant-based ingredients--diverse roughly-ground, largely intact textures that harmonized. The minimally processed ingredients had more layered flavors than a more processed, highly compressed bar would have. 

Happily, this filling, gluten-free bar also wasn't too sweet (thank you!). The bar contained a judicious amount of "organic, raw honey and no refined sugar."

Ingredients: Organic buckwheat, organic almonds, organic raw honey, organic flaxseeds, organic coconut, organic cacao nibs, organic sunflower seeds, organic pumpkin seeds, organic Brazil nuts, organic mulberries, organic sesame seeds, organic cacao butter, organic spirulina, organic vanilla bean, organic vanilla extract, pink Himalayan salt. 

Allergen-related information: "Contains tree nuts."

DSD Merchandisers - Milk Chocolate Raisins - June 1, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

DSD Merchandisers, Inc.

Milk Chocolate Raisins

Good +

Weight: 2 TB oz. (30 g.) / 8 oz. (226 g.) in total container

Calories: 130 calories in 1 serving

Cost: $4.99 for 1 container

Purchased from: Farm Fresh to you, online order (add-in item)

Welcome to Day #8 of Chocolate and Fruit Theme Week, featuring a variety of chocolate and fruit blends.

Today's Milk Chocolate Raisins were distributed by DSD Merchandisers, Inc. (Livermore, CA).

Aroma notes for these raisins included: milk chocolate, faint fruit, and very faint coffee and salt notes.

Smooth, creamy and sweet milk chocolate blended well with plump moist dried grapes (raisins) that contributed their own tart, authentic fruit sweetness. This was a fruit and chocolate snack designed to satisfy a sweet tooth.

Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate liquor, whole milk powder, soy lecithin: an emulsifier, natural vanilla flavor), raisins, tapioca dextrin, confectioners glaze.

Allergen-related information: "Contains milk and soy." "Packed on same equipment as products containing milk, eggs, nuts, peanuts, wheat and soy."

Next by Nature - Dark Chocolate Blueberries - May 31, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Next by Nature 

Dark Chocolate Blueberries 

Good + - Good ++

Weight: 3 oz. (85 g.) in total package

Calories: 380 calories in 1 package

Cost: $5.10 for 1 package ($6.00 less member discount)

Purchased from: Land's End Gift Shop, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate and Fruit Theme Week, featuring a variety of chocolate and fruit flavor blends.

Today's Next by Nature Dark Chocolate Blueberries were produced by Tropical Valley Foods (Plattsburgh, NY).

These ebony-colored pearls had a dark milk chocolate, hot cocoa, and faint/diffuse fruit aroma. I enjoyed the darker 58% dark chocolate and slightly "darker" berry (blueberry) flavor choices with this offering. The pieces may still have been sweet--by single origin dark bar standards--but had richer, deeper flavors than many chocolate covered items.

Ingredients: Dark Chocolate (unsweetened cocoa liquor processed with alkali; sugar; cocoa butter; cocoa powder; milk fat; non-GMO soy lecithin (an emulsifier); vanilla extract), dried blueberries (cultivated blueberries, cane sugar, sunflower oil), dextrin (non-GMO), confectioners glaze (regular lac resin)

Allergen-related information: "Contains milk, soy."

Crunchies Natural Foods - Freeze-Dried Bananas in Milk Chocolate - May 30, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Distributed by Crunchies Natural Food Company, LLC

Freeze-Dried Bananas in Milk Chocolate

Good +

Weight: 2.12 oz. (60 g.) / 5 oz. (142 g.) in total package

Calories: 280 calories in 2 servings

Cost: $3.99 for 1 package

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

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Fruits Theme Week.

Today's Freeze-Dried Bananas in Milk Chocolate were distributed by Crunchies Natural Food Company, LLC (Calabasas, CA).

These glossy, milk chocolate covered pieces had an aroma with mild milk chocolate and faint fruit (banana milkshake) notes.

The authentic, light (almost airy) and crunchy banana slices that lay at the center of these chocolate confections were a cause for celebration. The company offers a line of crunchy freeze-dried fruits, including some that are chocolate-coated (strawberry, banana and blueberry).

The smooth creamy and fairly sweet milk chocolate (coating) was the metaphorical "icing on the cake." These pieces also had an addictive snack quality (real milk chocolate with whole milk powder will do that to me sometimes). So if you're overly hungry or craving something sweet, you may eat more than you planned.

Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, whole milk powder, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, soy lecithin (emulsifier), natural vanilla extract), freeze-dried banana, confectioners glaze, gum arabic.

Allergen-related information: "Contains milk, soy" "May contain eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat"

Exquisito Chocolates - Apeeling Chocolate (Plantain Clusters) - May 29, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Exquisito Chocolates
"Apeeling Chocolate" - Chocolate Covered Plantain Clusters
Good +
Weight: 1.5 oz. (42.45 g.) / 6.88 oz. (195 g.) in total package
Calories: 225 calories (estimate) in 1.5 oz. (42.45 g.) serving/piece
Cost: $12.00 for 1 package
Purchased from: Exquisito Chocolates, online order

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Fruit Theme Week, featuring a variety of chocolate and fruit items. 

Today's "Apeeling Chocolate" Chocolate Covered Plantain Clusters were from Exquisito Chocolates (Little Havana, Miami, FL).

The package of generously-sized, bark-like pieces had an aroma of rich milk chocolate and faint plantain/banana chips. The smooth and flavorful dark milk chocolate paired well with the embedded crunchy pieces of authentic plantain (chips).

Maker's description: "...crispy milk chocolate-covered plantain chips which bring the perfect balance of Miami sweet and salty."

Ingredients: "Cacao, cocoa butter, unrefined cane sugar, milk, plantain. Contains cow's milk. Processed in a facility that also processes milk, peanuts, tree nuts and wheat."

Miette et Chocolat - Third Culture Ube Bar With Coconut - May 28, 2022

Chocolate of the Day

Miette et Chocolat

Third Culture Ube Bar With Coconut 

Good +

Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) (estimate) / (total weight not listed on packaging)

Calories: 155 calories (estimate) in 1 oz. (28.3 g.) of bar

Cost: $12.00 for 1 bar

Purchased from: Third Culture, Berkeley, CA

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

Today's Third Culture Ube Bar with Coconut was from French patisserie and chocolate shop Miette et Chocolat (Aurora, CO). 

As one might expect from the name (and the subtle, beautiful purple color), this bar had an aroma with chocolate, coconut and fruit (ube, sweet purple yam and sweet black/blue berry) notes.

Ube, a starchy tuber that looks like a purple yam or sweet potato, is popular in Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Hawaii, California and elsewhere as a dessert (Ube Halaya) and ice cream flavor, often paired with coconut or coconut milk. (Ube is also the name of the African pear, a purple fruit in West Africa.*)

I'm guessing today's bar was an homage to beautifully bright purple-pink ube glazed and coconut sprinkled (gluten-free) doughnuts I thought I spotted at Third Culture in Berkeley, CA---a bakery known in the San Francisco Bay Area for their mochi muffins. 

The percentage of cocoa solids in this bar may have been relatively low; but the thick and creamy, almost fluffy, melt and texture was likely due to a generous amount of cocoa butter. It had the mouthfeel and sweetness level of a white chocolate. (I'm guessing here as there was no detailed ingredients list on the packaging.)

Flavors detected were similar to the aroma notes mentioned above. These flavors included: cocoa butter, sugar, purple sweet potato, very faint tropical fruit and coconut--and a milky, plant-based (coconut milk) chocolate.

This was a fun bar to try. (I pair this Ube bar with an unflavored dark chocolate--a single origin filled dark chocolate from Exquisito Chocolates.)

Ingredients: (Not listed on package)

Allergen-related information: (None listed on package) Contained coconut.

*The ube tuber (Dioscorea alata) here is not the same species as the African Pear aka Safou fruit (Dacryodes edulis) (an edible drupe) that grows in West Africa and also has a purple (skin) color. In Nigeria it is called "ube."