Trader Joe's - Ghana bar - Dec. 5, 2014

Chocolate of the Day: 

Trader Joe's
Ghana 70% bar
Good ++ - Very Good
Weight: .8 oz. (22.5 g.) / 1.6 oz. (45 g.) in total bar
Calories: 230 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $ 9.99 for total pack of 8 bars
Purchased from: Trader Joe's, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #3 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Week.

The Ghana 70% bar featured today was part of the Chocolate Passport, this year's single origin tasting pack, from Trader Joe's (Monrovia, CA).

The Western African nation of Ghana (a little smaller in area than Wyoming)

is the second largest cacao exporting country in the world. Given this fact, there were surprisingly few Ghana single origin bars for a long while. Thanks in part due to growing interest in fine flavored cacao and single region and plantation high-value bars in general, this has changed.

Today's 70% cacao dark bar broke with a good snap, had a slight spice and nut aroma. It had a nice buttery melt and nut butter like creaminess, and a hint of fruit flavor. All in all this was a smooth, very approachable bar with no bitter or funky overtones.

Trader Joe's Tanzania Bar - Dec. 4, 2014

Chocolate of the Day: 

Trader Joe's
Tanzania 73% bar
Good ++ - Very Good
Weight: .8 oz. (22.64 g.) / 1.6 oz. (45 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 120 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $9.99 for pack of 8 bars
Purchased from: Trader Joe's, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #2 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Week.

Trader Joe's (Monrovia) offers a tasting pack of single origin chocolate bars once a year. These packs sell out quickly and they're usually gone until next year. So, when I saw this year's Chocolate Passport package of 8 different bars, I grabbed one. In this year's pack, there were three bars from Africa, including today's Tanzania 73% bar.


Many years ago, cacao seeds/trees were exported from Central and South America to Africa, where they became a successful cash crop. Now two countries in West Africa (Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana) account for more than half of the world's cacao.

According to one source, Tanzania (located in East Africa) exported 6,500 metric tonnes of cocoa a year (2009 data). While not in the top 10 exporting countries, this amount is still plenty for many good single origin bars.

Today's 73% Cacao Dark Chocolate bar was made with cacao from a single region, possibly a single plantation, in Tanzania. The well-balanced bar had a slight roasted, smoky/earthly taste and a relatively smooth melt, with enough subtle but uniform fruit/acid flavor to feel balanced; and it had a slight sweet, marshmallow finish.

Lillie Belle Farms Ramblin Rose; Strawberry bars - Dec. 3, 2014

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Lillie Belle Farms
Ramblin Rose - 70% bar
Good ++
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2.5 oz. (77 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories (estimate) in 1 oz. (28.3 g.) of chocolate
Cost: $8.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Lillie Belle Farms, Central Point, OR

Today was the last day of Chocolate, Rose and Strawberry Theme Week, and Day #1 of Chocolate and Africa Theme Week.

The bar that came closest to matching these two overlapping themes was the Ramblin Rose 70% Madagascar Bean-To-Bar Dark Chocolate bar from Lillie Belle Farms (Central Point, OR).

And, because I chose to lash together Rose and Strawberry items this past week, I added two more bars. I've paired the hand-crafted Ramblin Rose single origin bar, made carefully from scratch....with two widely available strawberry flavored nostalgia bars: the Ricolino Bubu Lubu bar and the Strawberry flavored Charleston Chew bar.

The Ramblin Rose dark chocolate bar doesn't really have "rose" in it; and the two nostalgia bars may not have much chocolate, or maybe even real strawberry, in them. (One is "chocolate flavored" and the other is "chocolaty".) That's OK, there's room for everyone here; although these last two bars belong in a different candy bar category.

Ramblin Rose 70% bar

The Ramblin Rose 70% cacao bar was made from scratch, using organic cacao beans from Madagascar (a large island nation of the east coast of Africa), and organic sugar.

When tasting dark chocolate bars, one looks for an aroma, a hard snap, good melt, flavor, texture and finish, among other attributes.

The Ramblin Rose bar broke with a snap. A good, hard snap is an indication that the bar was very precisely heated and cooled to create the optimal crystalline structural alignment, as part of a process called tempering -- before chocolate is poured into bar molds or made into confections.

This bar had a slight roasted aroma and finish, and the chocolate was smooth, rich and satisfying with no off flavors. It's worth noting that when a chocolate maker crafts a bar with just two ingredients: cacao beans and sugar, there is no place to hide if you've made any mistakes or if you're dealing with flawed cacao beans.

Strawberry Nostalgia bars

Now let's switch to a rose relative -- the strawberry.

Both the Strawberry Charleston Chew (Tootsie Roll Industries) and the Ricolino Bubu Lubu (Grupo Bimbo) bars were made by large companies and contained a long list of ingredients (very common for popular, high-volume confections where consistency and long shelf life are important). And both bars are sometimes eaten frozen. Somehow I missed trying frozen Charleston Chew bars when I was young, but today I was determined to remedy that childhood nostalgia deficit.

Both strawberry bars were fun to try, if only because I would never eat a single origin dark chocolate bar frozen. These strawberry candy bars do break with a hard snap too, if frozen.

I particularly liked the frozen Strawberry Charleston Chew. Nougat and hard taffy bars were once referred to as "filling pullers" by my dentist. However, to my surprise, this chocolatey-coated, chewy nougat bar became much easier to bite off a piece in its frozen state.

There wasn't much of an aroma (because it was frozen); however, it had a pleasant, strawberry ice cream candy flavor throughout the tasting experience, with a sweet taffy finish.

Alprose - Two Tone bar - Dec. 2, 2014

Chocolate of the Day: 

Alprose
Two Tone - Double Milk and White Chocolate bar
Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 160 calories (estimate) in 1 oz. (28.3 g.) bar
Cost: $3.79 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Safeway, Crystal Springs, CA

Today was Day #6 of Chocolate, Rose and Strawberry Theme Week.

I incorporated bits of this Alprose Two Tone bar into a tiny batch of chocolate chip gluten-free strawberry and rose gluten-free scones. Made in Switzerland, and imported into the U.S., the bar's milk chocolate bottom layer was topped with a layer of white chocolate.

The chips added a hint of chocolate and cocoa butter flavor to the already buttery-rich baked scones that had strawberry and rose jam baked into them.

Bovetti - Dark Rose Petals bar - Dec. 1, 2014

Chocolate of the Day: 

Bovetti Chocolats
Dark Chocolate with Rose Flower Petals bar
Good ++ - Very Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 150 calories in 1 oz. (28.3 g.) bar
Cost: $9.95 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Draegers, San Mateo, CA

Today was Day #5 of Chocolate, Rose and Strawberry Theme Week.

The attractively packaged Dark Chocolate with Rose Flower Petals bar from Bovetti Chocolats (Terrasson, France) was made from 73% cocoa and covered with a generous and beautiful sprinkle of pink rose bits.

Bovetti offers dozens of different chocolate bars with inclusions, including spices, fruits, seeds and ones with flower petals: rose, lavender, jasmine or violet.

Dark, rich and smooth chocolate texture and flavor paired well with sweet, crunchy petal bits.

This classy dark bar inspired me to fix high tea and little sandwiches. And I enjoyed this bar with rosehip tea and strawberry preserves on toast, alongside cucumber and cheese sandwiches. Pip pip, cheerio. Pinkies out and all that.

Lindt Strawberry bar + Rose berry Shrub - Nov. 30, 2014

Chocolate of the Day: 

Lindt and Sprungli
Strawberry Dark bar
OK+ - Good
Weight: .35 oz. (10 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 50 calories in 1 square
Cost: $2.50 (sale) for 1 bar
Purchased from: CVS Pharmacy, Los Altos, CA

Today was Day #4 of Chocolate, Rose and Strawberry Theme Week.

This Strawberry dark bar was a relative newcomer in the line of "Excellence" premium chocolate bars from Lindt and Sprungli (based in Switzerland; with manufacturing in France and operations in the U.S.).

I had a similar strawberry chocolate bar yesterday with excellent, natural-tasting pieces of organic, freeze-dried strawberries embedded in dark chocolate. Today's Lindt Strawberry dark (47%) bar was fine but the tiny strawberry bits in today's bar seemed to have an artificially pumped up flavor and aroma. I would have liked to try this bar with just natural strawberry flavoring.

Rose Strawberry "Shrub"
To accompany today's Strawberry chocolate bar I made a non-alcoholic version of a shrub (a cocktail made with a bit of fruit vinegar syrup). Rosewater, strawberry syrup, framboise (raspberry) vinegar, and a dash of berry anti-oxidant juice went into this virgin Rose Strawberry* Shrub, along with water and ice. It was very refreshing, and I look forward to trying this drink with other chocolate desserts in the future.

*As noted in a previous post, the rose family is quite large, and includes strawberries, raspberries, and other berries and fruits.

Cocoa Parlor - Strawberry Mermaid Bar - Nov. 29, 2014

Chocolate of the Day: 

Cocoa Parlor Chocolaterie
(a division of Tonic Scene)
Strawberry Mermaid 67% Cacao bar
Weight: .705 (20 g.) / 2.82 oz. (80 g.) in total bar
Calories: 109 calories in 1/4 bar
Cost: $4.99 in 1 bar
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #3 of Chocolate, Rose and Strawberry Theme Week.

Strawberries (raspberries, apples and many other fruits) are all relatives of the rose family, and all these tend to add some pleasingly complementary tart sweetness, or sweet floral flavor, to chocolate. And a glass of rosewater flavored iced tea was a good match for this bar.

The Strawberry Mermaid bar from Cocoa Parlor Chocolaterie (a division of Tonic Scene, Dana Point, CA) was made with 67% Peruvian cacao. Bursts of authentic flavor from freeze-dried, organic, strawberry bits gave this dark bar was a big plus.

This bar was vegan, soy-free and gluten-free, and made with dark chocolate that was sustainably grown, responsibly harvested and traded.