Navitas - Cacao Latte Plant-based drink mix - Apr. 26, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

Navitas Organics
Organic Cacao Latte - Plant-based drink mix
Good +
Weight: .42 oz. (12 g.) in 1 (single serving) packet
Calories: 50 calories in 1 packet
Cost: $ Missing information - $2.49 (estimate)
Purchased from: Country Sun Natural Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #12 of Chocolate and Coffee Theme Week.

Today's Cacao Latte Plant-based Superfood Drink Mix (single-serving packet) was from Navitas Organics (Novato, CA).

Aroma notes included: warm, rich hot cocoa, faint warm spice, and very faint coconut marshmallow.

The texture was uniform and smooth (no lumps after stirring).

This warm beverage had a relatively mellow hot chocolate flavor, but wasn't nearly as sweet. (This will thrill some, but may disappoint those with a sweet tooth). It had a slightly bitter cocoa powder flavor edge to it, but otherwise was very satisfactory for a low calorie, plant-based hot cocoa beverage. 

I paired this beverage with two small chocolate and coffee sweets: a piece of organic coffee dark chocolate candy, and a small Chocolat Cafe-Tasse dark chocolate and coffee (Noir + Cafe) square. A perfect match.

Ingredients: Organic cacao powder, organic coconut oil powder, (organic acacia fiber, organic MCT* oil), organic coconut palm sugar, organic guar gum, natural flavor, sea salt, organic cinnamon, organic monk fruit extract.

Allergen-related information: Contains tree nuts (coconut).

*Medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs)--found in coconut, palm (and some other plant-based) oils--are believed to have certain health benefits.

Coblentz Chocolate - Dark Chocolate Espresso Beans - Apr. 25, 2023

Chocolate of the Day

Coblentz Chocolate Company 
Dark Chocolate Espresso Beans 
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 6 oz. (170 g.) total package
Calories: 155 calories (estimate) in 1 oz. (28.3 g.) serving 
Cost: $10.99 for 1 package
Purchased from: The Market at Edgewood, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #11 of Chocolate and Coffee Theme Week.

Today's Dark Chocolate Espresso Beans were from Coblentz Chocolate Company (Walnut Creek, OH). 

Aroma notes for these glossy, ebony-colored pearls included: dark chocolate and faint coconut.

These dark chocolate covered coffee beans were a well-balanced blend of smooth and crunchy, and sweet and dark. Bold, but smooth, unsweetened, espresso roast coffee beans were housed inside a coat of relatively velvety, smooth and uniform dark chocolate. 

Just a small handful of these flavorful, but not overly sweet (or addictive), small dark orbs satisfied a dark chocolate craving; and provided a perfect morning boost.

Ingredients: Dark chocolate (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, chocolate liquor processed with alkali, butterfat, soy lecithin (emulsifier), natural vanilla flavor, salt), coffee beans, water, gum arabic, confectioners glaze, modified starch (tapioca), vegetable oil (coconut, canola)

Allergen-related information: Contains: milk, soy

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.)