ChocolateBet: October 6, 2008

Chocolate of the Day:

2 srvgs. (1 cup)
ConAgra Foods
Poppycock - Peanut Butter and Chocolate
Very Good
Wt.: 60 grams in 1 cup/ 8.5 oz. (240 grams) in total package
Calories: ~ 280 in 2 servings (1 cup)
Cost: $? (need to find receipt)
Purchased from: ? (need to find receipt)

Poppycock indeed. These peanut butter glazed popcorn clusters were drizzled with milk chocolate; and they were somewhat addictive the same way that so many other sweet and salty snacks are. The nutty flavor only increased the appeal.

Scharffen Berger - Antilles dark bar - October 5, 2008

Chocolate of the Day:

Scharffen Berger*
"Antilles" (dark) ("Limited Series No. 9: Trinidad, Grenada, The Dominican Republic and Coastal Venezuela"); 75% cacao
Very Good
Weight: 1.5 oz. (~42 g.) in 1/2 bar/3 oz. (85 grams) in total bar
Calories: 200 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $ 6.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Scharffen Berger, in Berkeley, CA

Scharffen Berger makes dark chocolate worth eating slowly. While the flavors in this bar aren't as varied and complex as some others I remember tasting, it is uniformly good, smooth dark chocolate. These Scharffen Berger bars are just thin enough that I could really taste the flavors in a piece broken off and put in my mouth -- greater surface to mass ratio, and all that stuff.

The wrappers are printed on nice papers and, as shown (in scanned image above right), the "title" of the bar is printed on the edge of the wrapper, so that you may stack these together as you might books on a shelf - or tie a ribbon around a nice bundle of these and give them to someone (or yourself). I think this appeals to those who still enjoy books.

*Scharffen Berger is a division of Artisan Confections Company, which is part of Hershey's.

ChocolateBet: October 4, 2008

Chocolate of the Day:

3 oz. bar
Scharffen Berger
Milk Almond ("Sea Salted Almonds and Milk Chocolate") bar
Very Good+
Calories: 420 calories for 1 bar
Cost: $ 5.00
Purchased from: Scharffen Berger, in Berkeley, CA

I prefer dark chocolate, but this was good milk chocolate. This 41% cacao Scharffen Berger Milk Almond bar had a very nice caramelized flavor.

I've been told that, legally, a chocolate product can be called "dark" if it contains over 35-36 percent cacao solids. High-end chocolate makers tend to include more/higher quality solids and to take steps in the manufacturing process that makes -- well, let's just cut to the chase -- their milk chocolate taste a lot better! In fact, I started out eating just part of this bar, and then...What do you know, it's all gone.

ChocolateBet: October 3, 2008

Chocolate of the Day
1 oz.
Scharffen Berger
Finisterra ("they go to the ends (finis) of the earth (terra) to get the best for you")
10th Anniversary Limited Series Blend (bar)
"Dark chocolate featuring cacao from Venezuela, Trinidad & Madagascar"
Very Good + - a nice dark blend
Wt.: 1 oz. (28.3 g.)/3 oz. (85 g.) total bar
Calories: ~ 134 calories
Cost: $6.50 in total bar
Purchased from: Scharffen Berger, in Berkeley, CA

Buying any food closer to its source increases the odds you'll get to see and hear where it came from. We do like our stories. Scharffen Berger (which was bought by Hershey's a few years ago) is a Berkeley, CA, (San Francisco Bay Area) chocolate maker. You may not get the chance to visit a cacao plantation in your lifetime, but if you sign up for the Scharffen Berger tour, you'll get to hear a great story about their chocolate (and you'll at least see nice color pictures of cocao plantations and pods). The title "chocolate maker" means the company is involved with making chocolate from the cocoa pod stage to the finished product stage.

On the tour, after you hear the story of chocolate and see and taste roasted cocoa nibs and samples of final product, you'll get to walk through their factory, peer into (from a safe distance) vats of chocolate, and watch little dark chocolate bars being poured into molds and shaken slightly (to get the air bubbles out).

Our tour of the Scharffen Berger plant was followed by a chocolate shopping spree in the gift store - which offers a full range of their products and a few other items (e.g. a chocolate-themed book and/or music CD, cocoa/chocolate drink machine, etc.). The tour is free, but bring your wallet if you want to pick up something on the way out.

ChocolateBet: October 2, 2008

Chocolate of the Day:

2 servings
Lincoln Snacks Company
Poppycock Chocolate Lovers (glazed popcorn clusters with almonds, pecans, chocolate drizzles)
Very Good - (pkg states that there are 0 grams of trans fat which is nice)
Wt.: ~ 1 cup (64 grams)/8 oz. (226 grams) in total package
Calories: 320 calories (estimate) in 2 servings
Cost: $ ? (need to find receipt)
Purchased from: ? (need to find receipt)

I bought two different kinds of Poppycock (both with chocolate) to add to the "just-in-case-I-ran-out-of-chocolates" stash bag at home. I had almost forgotten I had them. The company name is The Lincoln Snacks Company. Their headquarters looks like it is in Chicago; however, it appears that these hail from (or at least are made in) Lincoln, Nebraska. So, Nebraska, I am adding you to my list of U.S. states (& countries) that I'm keeping -- where I list the geographic origin of different chocolate I have eaten. Yes, people, there will probably be a wacky chocolate map someday if I can figure out how to get this created and posted.

*Note added later: Poppycock is now owned by ConAgra foods (along with the Fiddle Faddle brand). As kids in the U.S., we grew up eating these two sweet glazed popcorn snacks and - another related brand, Screaming Yellow Zonkers. It looks like Ubiquity Foods owned all three of these brands in 2007, but, in the $24 billion snack food business, who can keep track.

According to a story that ran in September 2007, in the Chicago Sun-Times:

---------------------
ConAgra Foods Inc. is the new owner of Fiddle Faddle and Poppycock snacks, having acquired the brands' owner, Lincoln Snacks, from Chicago-based Ubiquity Brands last week for an undisclosed price.
Lincoln's manufacturing facility in Lincoln, Neb., will continue to produce the glazed popcorn snacks, which will report to ConAgra Food's Snack Foods division headquarters in Edina, Minn.
Lincoln had about 120 employees. Several office and sales employees who did not want to move with the brand will lose their jobs, said Kris Makowlski, Ubiquity's chief marketing officer.
Lincoln Snacks had about $45 million in sales last year.
Omaha-based ConAgra already owns a similar popcorn product -- ...
-----------------
OK, the point of all this is that I probably bought these bags of Poppycock awhile back (ahem), and they still tasted nice and relatively fresh, even after all these changes have taken place. And more important, I can keep Nebraska on my chocolate sources and states list. Hurray Nebraska. You're still on the wacky chocolate map.

ChocolateBet: October 1, 2008

Chocolate of the Day:
1 piece
Shokolaat (restaurant, chocolatier, patisserie)
"Asylum" (dark chocolate, w/ fruit layer)
Very Good - very nice layered flavors
Wt.: ~.5 oz.
Calories: ~ 75 calories
Cost: $2.00 (estim.)
Purchased from: Shokolaat, in Palo Alto, CA

ChocolateBet: September 30, 2008

Chocolate of the Day:

1 serving
Chukar Cherry Company
Dark Chocolate Cabernet Cherry (Dark Chocolate Covered Cherries)
Very Good +
Wt.: 43 grams/ 8 oz. (227 grams) in total package
Calories: 180 calories
Cost: $10.99 for total 8 oz. package
Purchased from: Z. Cioccolatos, in San Francisco, CA

Nice rich chocolate and cherry flavors