Chocolarder - Maleku Upala, Costa Rica 70% Dark Chocolate (bar) - Apr. 23, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

Chocolarder
Maleku Upala, Costa Rica 70% Dark Chocolate (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight:1.25 oz. (35 g.)/ 2.5 oz. (70 gram in total bar)
Calories: 185.8 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

Welcome to Day #9 of Chocolate and Coffee Theme Week. This week's chocolates include coffee in many forms including: brewed, ground, and whole beans. 

Today's chocolate doesn't contain coffee, but it has coffee taste or "notes"--earning it a spot in this group.

The Maleku* Costa Rica 70% bar was from small batch, craft chocolate maker, Chocolarder (Falmouth, Cornwall, England).

This dark chocolate was made using Costa Rica-grown cacao. (Producer: Nahua Cacao.)

This relatively thick bar broke with a hard snap in a cool room (67 degrees F. / 19.4 degrees C.); and it had a smooth and uniform texture, with a very slight astringency (dryness) toward the finish.

The dark chocolate was a unique blend of complex aromas and flavors. 

Notes included: chocolate (fermented cacao, mocha, ganache), faint light green, floral botanical, citrus, faint pine (faint, fleeting sweet resin), and fruit (ripe yellow/orange fruit: pureed ripe banana, loquat and sweet pumpkin), fig, and fleeting goji berry. An initial faint overripe fruit note subsided after initial detection.

Maker's tasting notes: "Rich cocoa flavours with notes of coffee, fig, and caramelised banana"

Ingredients: Cocoa beans, raw unrefined sugar.

Allergen-related information: Made in a facility that also handles tree nuts and milk.

* The Maleku are "an indigenous people who still inhabit Costa Rica..." One estimate puts their remaining tribe members at only 650. 

The Xocolate Bar - Cafe Con Leche (bar) - Apr. 24, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

The Xocolate Bar
Cafe Con Leche (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 2 oz. (57 g.) in total bar
Calories: 310 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $14.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Phoenix (shop), Big Sur, CA

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

Today's Cafe Con Leche (bar) was from The Xocolate Bar (Berkeley, CA)

Aroma notes included: chocolate, mocha and roasted nut (peanut butter). (There were no nut or peanut ingredients in this bar.)

Rich, creamy, sweet milk chocolate surrounded crunchy whole, roasted (flavorful, relatively low acid) coffee beans (with nut, roasted coffee and mellow wood notes). The crunchy (whole) coffee beans helped balance out the sweetness to create a very harmonious flavor blend. 

Ingredients: Organic, fair trade milk chocolate (organic sugar, 40% cacao, organic milk, sunflower lecithin), roasted coffee beans

Allergy-related information: (None found on packaging.)

Atypic Chocolate - Cafe Latte Coffee Chocolate (bar) - Apr. 22, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

Atypic Chocolate
Cafe Latte Coffee Chocolate with Milk (bar)
Good ++
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) / 2.47 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 203 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.00 (sale) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Bar and Cocoa, online order

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

Today's Cafe Latte Coffee Chocolate (bar) was from Atypic Chocolate (Melbourne Market, VIC, Australia).

Aroma and Flavor

Aroma is a big part of taste. Aroma notes for this coffee milk chocolate bar included: hearty roasted and freshly ground coffee, dark milk chocolate and a double espresso coffee latte/mocha. 

Certain aromatic flavors, like vanilla and some floral/spice notes contribute to overall taste in a chocolate bar. Their smell permeates and uplifts the tasting experience.

Roasted and fermented coffees and cacaos are not delicate florals.* Yet the interplay between these two strong, yet harmonious, aromas and flavors is half the fun.

The coffee aroma of today's bar was strong and seductive with faint roasted earth, aromatic wood and red berry notes--which then undulated into bold/dark cacao milk chocolate flavors. The interplay between these strong, harmonious and overlapping flavors** was half the fun.

This chocolate really captured the smoothness of a creamy milk chocolate, and the seductive aromas and flavors of a double espresso caffe/cafe latte. It was flavorful, balanced, relatively complex, and not too sweet (thank you!). This was chocolate worth savoring slowly, and enjoying any time of day.

Ingredients: Coffee beans, cacao butter, organic cane sugar, Australian milk powder, sunflower lecithin. 

Allergen-related information: Contains milk. May contain traces (of) gluten, tree nuts. 

*Although if you have the chance to be in a coffee plantation when the small ivory-colored coffee flowers blooms, do it. The smell is pure floral perfume heaven.

**Both grow within 20 degrees of the equator and both are some of the rare foods that are both fermented and roasted. Cacao came originally from the Americas, and coffee from north Africa. Traders spread them both far and wide in past centuries. I'm grateful they met up.

South Bay Chocolate Co. - Dark Chocolate Roasted Coffee Bark with Crunchy Toffee - Apr. 21, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

South Bay Chocolate Co.
Dark Chocolate Roasted Coffee Bark with Crunchy Toffee
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. square (28 g.) / 16 oz. (453 g.) in total package
Calories: 140 calories in 1 oz. square (piece)
Cost: $9.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

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

Today's Dark Chocolate Roasted Coffee Bark with Crunchy Toffee was from South Bay Chocolate Co. (produced by Clover Confection Co., Torrance, CA).

Aroma notes for this dark chocolate coffee bark included: freshly roasted coffee and dark chocolate.

Each piece (shard) was a blend of smooth and rich (dark chocolate) and crunchy, and almost crispy, textures (coffee, toffee flecks/"crumbles").

The sweetness level (not too sweet) and balanced flavors were a plus. The coffee's bold, rich flavor(s) helped balance the sweet sparkles of embedded crunchy toffee bits.

Ingredients: Dark chocolate (unsweetened chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, butterfat, soy lecithin, vanilla extract), toffee bits (sugar, vegetable oil (palm oil, sunflower oil), butter, almonds. Contains less than 2% of the following salt, soy lecithin, chocolate), coffee.

Allergen-related information: Contains milk, soy, and almonds. Made on shared equipment. May contain trace amounts peanuts, wheat, other tree nuts, eggs and sesame.

*South Bay Chocolate Co. is a registered trademark of Clover Confection Co., LLC (Torrance, CA).

Ethereal Confections - Coffee Infused Chocolate Topped with Cacao Nibs and Coffee Beans (bar) - Apr. 20, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

Ethereal Craft Chocolate
Coffee Infused Chocolate Topped With Cacao Nibs and Coffee Beans (bar)
Good ++ 
Weight: .83 oz. (23.6 g.) / 2.5 oz. (71 g.) in total bar
Calories: 148 calories in 1/3 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Flax Art and Design, San Francisco, CA

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

Today's Coffee Infused Chocolate Topped with Cacao Nibs and Coffee Beans (bar) was from Ethereal Confections (Woodstock, IL). The company offers a variety of bean-to-bar chocolate bars and chocolate confections.

Aroma notes for this bar included: dark chocolate, cacao (nibs), and roasted coffee.

Smooth dark chocolate was interspersed with crunchy cacao nibs and tiny pieces of coffee bean.

Flavor notes included: dark chocolate (ganache, fudge brownie) faint earth and nut, authentic cacao (nib) and coffee. 

This 66% cacao dark chocolate wasn't too sweet (thank you). It tasted a bit darker than 66%--more like 70% dark chocolate--thanks to the presence of coffee, cacao nibs and coffee bean pieces that added texture and balanced out the sugar. 

The flavors were nicely balanced, complementary; and there were no "off" notes (that can occasionally happen with the odd cacao bean nib. Not here.

Ingredients: Organic chocolate (organic cocoa beans, organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter), organic coffee beans, organic cocoa nibs

Allergen-related information: Made on shared equipment with peanuts and tree nuts. (Vegan.)

Ethel's Baking Co. - Brownie (GF) with coffee - Apr. 19, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

Ethel's Baking Co.
Brownie (Gluten Free, contained coffee)
Good +
Weight: 2.66 oz. (75.6 g.) / 8 oz. (227 g.) in total container of 3 brownies
Calories: 340 calories in 1 brownie/bar
Cost: $6.59 for 1 container (3 brownies)
Purchased from: The Market at Edgewood, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Coffee Theme Week.

Today's Gluten Free Brownie was from Ethel's Baking Co. (Shelby Township, MI).

Aroma notes included: sweet chocolate (brownie and chocolate cake).

These generously sized, gluten free brownies (3 bars in one container) were soft, sweet and chocolate-y on the inside, and had a very thin, flaky crust layer. 

These relatively dense, fudge-y cake brownies had an authentic egg and butter richness and heft to them.  

They were also very sweet. So much so that even all that rich chocolate and faint touches of coffee and salt couldn't balance all the sugar for me. (I found myself enjoying this brownie with a handful of pecans, walnuts and a dash of small cinnamon to help cushion a potential blood sugar spike--that did not happen.)

Those with a sweet tooth who enjoy a good, hearty brownie and are looking for a substantial gluten-free dessert will rejoice. However, the relatively high sugar level made it difficult to detect other possible chocolate flavor nuances. 

Next time, I'll share one of these large brownies with a friend; or will pair this thoughtfully constructed (gluten free, and made in a GF dedicated facility) sweet brownie with a stronger coffee beverage.

Ingredients: Semi-sweet chocolate chips (sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, soy lecithin or sunflower lecithin, vanilla), cane sugar, butter (sweet cream, salt), eggs, Ethel's gluten-free flour blend (brown rice flour, modified tapioca starch, potato starch, corn starch, corn flour, white rice flour, xanthan gum), bittersweet chocolate chips (unsweetened chocolate, sugar, cocoa powder, soy lecithin, vanilla), water, vanilla extract (water, ethyl alcohol, extractives of vanilla beans, coffee, leavening agent (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate).

Allergen-related information: Contains eggs, milk, soy. Made in a facility with tree nuts. Gluten free (made in a gluten free dedicated facility).

World Market - Kyoto Style Cold Brew Coffee Dark Chocolate (bar) - Apr. 18, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

Manufactured for World Market
(Chocolates of the World series)
Kyoto Style Cold Brew Coffee Dark Chocolate (bar)
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories in 1/3 (1 oz. of) bar
Cost: $N/A - gift from family member
Purchased from: N/A - Gift from Megan (thank you!)

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

Today's Kyoto Style Cold Brew Coffee Dark Chocolate (bar) was manufactured for World Market* by Astor Chocolate Corp. (Lakewood, NJ). 

Kyoto style refers to a cold brew style coffee also known as cold drip coffee.

Aroma notes for this bar included: dark roast coffee (and cacao), dark chocolate, and faint vanilla.

The well-tempered broke with a snap in a cool room (67 degrees F. (18.3 degrees C.)). The smooth dark chocolate was embedded with tiny bits of ground, roasted coffee beans and cacao nibs (pieces of cacao bean), that contributed a mild grittiness

The flavors were well balanced and smooth and were well integrated (uniform). The individual roasted notes of chocolate and coffee were difficult to identify and distinguish (between each other).

Ingredients: Dark chocolate (chocolate liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural vanilla flavor), cocoa nibs, ground roasted coffee beans

Allergen-related information: Contains soy. May contain milk, wheat, peanuts, and tree nuts.

*Formerly Cost Plus World Market.