ChocolateBet: December 30, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:

1/6 bar
Alter Eco
Dark Chocolate Velvet bar
Very Good
Weight: .583 oz. (16.5 g.) in 4 squares / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) total bar
Calories: 88 calories in 1/6 bar
Cost: $N/A - sample
Purchased from: N/A - obtained from Alter Eco, at a benefit event

I toyed with the idea of having a Theme Week(s) around Chocolate and paper, cloth or concept art in 2010. I could not find seven different items under this category for a full 7-day theme week. However, I did find a few wonderful chocolate-related things to share today, Day #7 of Chocolate and Something Different Theme Week.

First, a bar from Alter Eco -- a maker of Fair Trade Certified bars made from cacao beans from El Ceibo Cooperative in Bolivia. Alter Eco also sells quinoa (and a chocolate bar with quinoa), sugar, rice, coffee and olive oil. I hope to visit them in their San Francisco facility one day soon. Their Dark Chocolate Velvet bar (Velvet is a type of fabric/cloth, no?) contained a "delicate touch of milk" -- giving this bar a sweet, smooth milk chocolate mouth feel and taste. This bar is also GMO Free, Gluten Free, Soy Free and contains no emulsifiers.

* * * * * * * *

"Enjoy Revolution" Project - Liudmila and Nelson

The second item I'd like to share today is a concept for a series of chocolate bars by Cuban artists Liudmila and Nelson. It's a chocolate bar that, for now, exists on paper, and in a photograph below.

The husband and wife team have imagined chocolate bars (made with Cuban chocolate), with wrappers inspired by billboard and revolutionary images from different parts of Cuba (photographs from their "Cuban Landscapes" series). Above is an example of an image from their "Enjoy Revolution" project. I hope we will be able to see, and taste, the manifestations of this creative concept in the new year (2011).

ChocolateBet: December 29, 2010

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

Just Born, Inc.
Peeps

1.) Chocolate Mousse flavored Marshmallow Reindeer
Good+
Weight: .39 oz. (11.16 g.) in 1 reindeer/ 2 3/8 oz. (67 g.) total pkg.
Calories: 40 calories in 1 reindeer
Cost: $1.39 total package of 6
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

2.) Milk Chocolate Covered Mint flavored Marshmallow
OK+
Weight: .10 oz. (2.8 g.) in 1 package/tree
Calories: 11 calories in 1 bite

3.) Dark Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Pumpkin
OK+
Weight: .10 oz. (2.8 g.) in 1 package/pumpkin
Calories: 12 calories in 1 bite

Peeps! Who can argue with Just Born, Inc.'s famous marshmallow
Peeps, especially chocolate flavored and chocolate covered ones.

Today is Day #7 of Chocolate and Something Different Theme Week. I would have done a full Peeps theme week in 2010, but I couldn't find seven different kinds with chocolate.

My favorite was the reindeer. It could easily imagine this Peep lolling around in a large mug of hot chocolate.

ChocolateBet: December 28, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:

1/2 bar
Chuao Chocolatier
Firecracker (bar)
Very Good
Weight: 1.4 oz. (40 g.) / 2.8 oz. (80 g.) total bar
Calories: 190 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $3.97 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Walmart, in American Canyon, CA

What? I can't hear you. There are tiny little explosions going off in my head. It's the chocolate and popping candy. Today was Day #6 of Chocolate and Something Different Theme Week. I've been exploring unique chocolate-related flavor combinations and ideas this week.

Chuao Chocolatier's Firecracker 60% cacao dark chocolate bar was flavored with chipotle, salt and popping candy. I had previously enjoyed a bonbon version of this bar. Both were very good.

But, why leave well enough alone? If a little popping candy was good, would flavored popping and/or fizzing candies be even better? I tried lemon, watermelon, orange, clementine (tangerine), and lime flavors. My opinion: tangerine and lime flavors showed the most promise, followed by orange.

It would be interesting to try cola flavored popping candy. Maybe next year.

ChocolateBet: December 27, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:
1 piece
Tootsie Roll Industries/TR Brands
Tootsie Roll Midgees
Good
Weight: .21 oz. (6 g.) /.64 oz. (18 g.) total lunchbox
Calories: 23 calories in 1 piece
Cost: $1.49 for Midgees collectible tin lunchbox
Purchased from: World Market/Cost Plus, in Mountain View, CA

What in the name of Batman lunchboxes is this mess of items? It's Day #5 of Chocolate and Something Different Theme Week. Each day this week I've been focusing on a different theme that involves a unique take on chocolate.

Tootsie Rolls have been around in some form since 1896 -- an impressive fact. They may have been consumed as a lunchtime treat back then. However, today's modern-day lunchboxes probably contain more things like this lovely array of candy meats and other fast food items. One can argue that everyone had lots of fun making lunches more convenient and less nutritious in the mid- to late-1900s; and now we're trying to make lunches healthier again. I still like being creative and playing with my food though. Tootsie Roll is careful to point out that Midgees are "a low fat food." So, my apologies for mucking this up by wrapping one in bacon. (A piece of solid chocolate or a salt caramel filling might be another option.)

Today, I tried a mashup of candy lunch meat and chocolate. In the photo: realistic-looking Ford Gum bubble gum bolagna and hot dogs; less realistic looking tiny e.frutti gummi candy hamburger and hot dog items; and a miniature Tootsie Roll metal lunchbox filled with individually wrapped Tootsie Roll Midgees. In the foreground: real strips of bacon -- so that I could make a version of pigs in a blanket* -- a Midgee wrapped in bacon. Lunch is served!  But remember to add candy fruits and vegetables.

*Pigs in a blanket are typically made by wrapping a small cocktail weiner in dough and cooking them in an oven.

ChocolateBet: December 26, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:


3 squares
World Market/Cost Plus
All Natural Milk Chocolate 42% Cacao (bar)
Good + - Very Good
Weight: .6 oz. (16.9 g.) in 3 squares / 3 oz. (85 g.) total bar
Calories: 88 calories
Cost: $1.99
Purchased from: World Market/Cost Plus, in Mountain View, CA

Mixed With....

Part of 1 spider
Jelly Belly Candy Company
Pet Tarantula - gummi candy ("100% Vitamin C")
OK + - Good
Weight: .2 oz. (5.6 g.) in 1 bite (estim.)/ 1.5 oz. (42 g.) total tarantula
Calories: 17 calories
Cost: $1.75 total tarantula
Purchased from: Jelly Belly Candy Company, Fairfield, CA

Today is Day #4 of Chocolate and Something Different Theme Week -- a week of seven different, unique themes. Today I focused on a favorite combination of...well, almost no one it turns out. Chocolate and Spiders. Previous attempts to try chocolate covered (real) insects met with limited success, so, in this case, the spider was a pet tarantula made of gummi candy.

In the photo to the right, you can see the spider demonstrating good taste as it headed for the chocolate fondue, made from a World Market milk chocolate bar. However, for its trouble, it had the tips of its two front legs bitten off. Poor spider.

ChocolateBet: December 25, 2010

Chocolate(s) of the Day:

1/3 lump of chocolate coal
Maramor Chocolates
Premium Milk Chocolate - "You Deserve a Lump of Coal!"(R)
Good +
Weight: .41 oz. (11.5 g.) in 1/3 pc. / 1.25 oz. (35 g.) total package
Cost: $ (need to find receipt)
Purchased from: Blockbuster, in Palo Alto, CA

Maramor Chocolates "You Deserve a Lump of Coal!" was another example of a theme that was too limited for its own theme week in 2010: chocolate and minerals/carbon. There are chocolate diamonds; but those aren't edible. And I doubt chocolate covered anthracite would be a big hit.

It's also a little depressing to think about deserving only a lump of black foil wrapped coal in your stocking on Christmas Day. So, in addition to a few bites of "coal," I ate a Chocolate Banquet's worth of other goodies today.

As a child, we could count on finding candy canes and tangerines in our stockings. So, I felt obliged to sample a bit of Brown and Haley's Candy Cane Roca as well. And, yes, tangerines are good and refreshing as a palette cleanser between chocolates.

I hope Santa was good to everyone.

ChocolateBet: December 24, 2010

Chocolate of the Day:

1 bite
Tom and Sally's Handmade Chocolates, Inc.
Reindeer Pies
Good
Weight: .2 oz. (5.6 g.) / 2 oz. (57 g.) total package/pie
Calories: 30 calories (estimate)
Cost: $
Purchased from: Michael's in Mountain View, CA

Today is Day #2 of Chocolate Theme Weeks that didn't quite make the cut in 2010. Every day this week I'm focusing on a different theme that was too unique for a whole theme week, but worthy of mention in its own special way.

It's Christmas Eve. Please pass the reindeer pies. Somehow that doesn't quite fit in with today's Christmas Eve holiday meal. However, Tom and Sally's Handmade Chocolates is one of several companies that have had fun with chocsimiles (chocolate facsimiles) of animal poop. Over the past four + years I've sampled chocsimiles of Montana moose poop, Wyoming bear poop, Monterey Bay otter poop....So, why not poop from one of  Santa's reindeer? The package assures me that "Yule love them" and the pie in question is, in fact, "Pure Chocolate, No Doo-Doo"-- Belgian Milk Chocolate with Almonds to be exact. In closing, Tom and Sally's also leaves us with this bit of advice: "Beware of UFOs: Don't look up on Christmas Eve"...and..."Santa leaves the presents. The reindeer leave the pies."

Happy Christmas Eve to all who celebrate this occasion. May visions of sugar plums dance in your head -- and may these plums crowd out any other images I've just conjured above.