Wild Friends - Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter - March 7, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Wild Friends Foods
Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter
Good - Good +
Weight: 1.5 oz. (32 g.) in total packet
Calories: 190 calories in 1 packet
Cost: $1.19 for 1 packet
Purchased from: Sprouts Farmers Market, Mountain View, CA

Today was Day #7 of Chocolate and Coconut Theme Week, and a lead in to Chocolate and Peanut Butter Week.

Conveniently packaged in a "knead and squeeze" single-serving packet, this Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter is part of a line of flavored nut/seed butters (peanut, almond and sunflower) from Wild Friends Foods* (Portland, OR).

Like regular peanut butter, this flavorful spread was good by itself, or I imagine it could be spread on cookies, toast, ice cream sandwiches, or other items, and likely would be fine for cooking or baking as well. Unlike many other nut butters, it was not too sweet. The peanut butter, chocolate and coconut were balanced nicely and tasted authentic.

What else did I like about this Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter? It was made with only 5 ingredients: roasted peanuts, coconut, organic agave, unsweetened dark chocolate, and sea salt.

*Founders Keeley Tillotson and Erika Welsh, started this business when they were University of Oregon students.

MaryJanesFarm - Pinnacle Coconut Milk Chocolate, Almonds bar - March 6, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

MaryJanesFarm
Pinnacle - Coconut Milk Chocolate and Almonds
Good
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (56 g.) in total package
Calories: 159 calories (estimate) in 1/2 package
Cost: $2.93 for 1 package
Purchased from: REI, Mountain View, CA

Decades ago, hiking snacks were largely DIY -- bags of homemade granola with chocolate chips or MandMs tucked into a rucksack or backpack were popular. Today, if you don't have time to make your own hiking or climbing snack, there are a wide range of interesting packaged, chocolate choices available.

Today's 41% cocoa Pinnacle Coconut Milk Chocolate and Almonds bar from MaryJanesFarm (Moscow, ID) was self-described as "High Attitude" Organic Chocolate -- part of a line of High Attitude foods that looked very suitable for backpacking, camping or hiking trips.

This relatively substantial bar (thickness probably helps prevent meltage on a warm day) had an authentic milky flavor, and smooth mouth feel; it contained both whole milk powder and coconut oil. Small pieces of almond embedded throughout the bar offered some complementary crunchy texture.

This Non-GMO, gluten free Coconut Milk Chocolate was created with cocoa from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms.

Today was Day #6 of Chocolate and Coconut Theme Week.

Askinosie - Coconut CollaBARation bar - March 5, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Askinosie Chocolate
Coconut bar ("A Beautiful Mess")
Good ++
Weight: .5 oz. (14.1 g.) / 3 oz. (85 g.) in total bar
Calories: 76.6 calories in 1/6 bar
Cost: $11.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #

This coconut chocolate bar from Askinosie Chocolate (Springfield, MO) was part of the company's CollaBARation* series of bars, made with bean-to-bar chocolate + added flavor inclusions.

The bar had two sides: the back was a tiny riot of toasted golden-brown coconut shreds, which yielded well balanced, freshly toasted coconut flavor. The bar was lightly sweetened with organic coconut sugar.

The front side was comprised of the standard Askinosie smooth, dark tiled format; each of the 18 squares held one letter -- spelling out Askinosie Chocolate.

For some extra fun you can break the squares apart and play chocolate word games. And speaking of fun, I think Askinosie staff must have been enjoying themselves when they named this bar:

"Flakes of Coconut Get Toasted As Rich, Dark Chocolate Teases Coy Coconut Sugar Creating A Beautiful Mess*"

*A Beautiful Mess is the name of a Missouri, lifestyle blog -- created by authors Elsie and Emma. Askinosie collaborated with this sister duo when they created this bar. 

Coco Polo - Toasted Coconut Chia bar - March 4, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Coco Polo
70% Dark Chocolate Toasted Coconut Chia bar
Good
Weight: .564 oz. (16 g.) / 2.82 oz. (80 g.) in total bar
Calories: 76 calories in 1/5 bar
Cost: $5.99 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Fresh Market, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #4 of Chocolate and Coconut Theme Week.

The desire for chocolate with less sugar (for both health and taste preference reasons) has resulted in many different offerings over time, ranging from 100% cacao chocolate bars (with no added sugar) to chocolates with artificial sweeteners and lower-glycemic "natural" sweeteners.

Today's sugar-free, Toasted Coconut Chia bar was from Coco Polo (Highland Park, NJ). The company offers a line of bars made with fair trade cocoa and sweetened with Reb A (an extract of stevia*) -- and they've worked out a formulation where there is little or no stevia aftertaste.

The bar had a much less "sugary" flavor than most chocolate bars. Less sweet is usually good for me, as I like to taste the underlying chocolate and inclusions. And others may like the slightly lower caloric count and lack of sugar spike. The coconut in this bar was subtle and natural tasting. Added cocoa butter made this gluten-free, Non-GMO and vegan bar a little richer and smoother.

*Stevia comes from a plant native to South America. The leaves of this plant (Stevia rebaudiana) are naturally very sweet, and have been used for a very long time by the peoples of Paraguay and Brazil in teas and as a sweetener.

Charm School - Coconut Milk Chocolate bar - Mar. 3, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Charm School Chocolate
Coconut Milk Chocolate 49% bar
Good + - Very Good
Weight: 2.1 oz. (60 g.) in 1 bar
Calories: 315 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $10.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today was Day #3 for Chocolate and Coconut Theme Week.

The number of good non-dairy and vegan "milk" chocolate bars has grown in recent years. These bars are made with milk alternatives, such as coconut "milk" instead of cow's milk.

Today's Coconut Milk Chocolate 49% cacao bar from Charm School Chocolate (Reisterstown, MD) was definitely one of the best ones I've tasted to date.

Charm School Chocolate specializes in non-dairy, vegan chocolate offerings, incorporating organic and fair trade ingredients where possible.

The chocolate was made from scratch, stoneground and crafted using cacao beans from Maya Mountain Cacao (farmers co-op in Southern Belize). The finished bar had a rich, almost creamy melt and tasted like great chocolate all the way through -- an experience made possible by great beans and careful chocolate-making technique. The bar also had faint caramel latte, coconut, spice (cinnamon, vanilla, lemongrass) flavor notes.

This Coconut Milk Chocolate bar earned a 2015 gold seal of approval from The Good Food Awards. 

Divine - 70% Mango and Coconut bar - March 2, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Divine Chocolate Inc.
70% Dark Chocolate with Mango and Coconut bar
Good
Weight: 1.17 oz. (33.3 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories:  188 calories in 1/3 bar (per label)
Cost: $3.99 in 1 bar
Purchased from: Michaels, Mountain View, CA

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

One of my favorite desserts from Thailand and southeast Asia is Mango with Sticky (Coconut) Rice. Today's 70% Dark Chocolate with Mango and Coconut bar  from Divine Chocolate Inc. (Wash., D.C.) was the closest chocolate bar I could find that incorporated these two flavors. (I should add -- that I haven't already tried before.)

Chocolate tends to overpower delicate or less assertive flavor additions, so I didn't expect this dark chocolate bar to be the same as the fresh sliced mango and sweet coconut rice dessert.

It was, however, a nice rendition of these two flavors, with subtle mango fruit and even subtler coconut flavor.

Divine Chocolate offers a line of Fairtrade certified chocolate bars -- that are imported from Germany and distributed here in the U.S. (The story of a cacao farmer from Africa (Ghana) was printed on the inside of the label.)

Wine Country Chocolates - Coconut truffle - March 1, 2015

Chocolate of the Day: 

Wine Country Chocolates
Coconut truffle
Good - Good +
Weight: .45 oz. (12.7 g.) in 1 piece
Calories: 67.5 calories (estimate) in 1 piece
Cost: $2.00 (approximately) for 1 piece (part of a 6-piece box)
Purchased from: Wine Country Chocolates, Glen Ellen, CA

Welcome to Day #1 of Chocolate and Coconut Theme Week.

While driving through Sonoma recently, on the way to a hike, I took a wrong turn. Fortunately, this error resulted in a short and interesting detour -- and the discovery of Wine Country Chocolates Glen Ellen shop location.

The woman behind the counter proudly pointed out that Wine Country Chocolates had been around for 10 years, and was not a newcomer jumping on the "hipster chocolate" bandwagon. Working in a retail business, even a successful chocolate business, is a hard slog. And my hat is off to anyone who can be indoors, in one place (where temps need to be kept under 75 degrees) for that many years -- especially on the sunny day when we popped in. So, congrats to the two women owners (not at this location that day) for keeping this going.

I had previously bought an assortment of chocolates at the Wine Country Chocolates Sonoma location; but I missed a few, including today's oval-shaped, Coconut truffle.

Each dark chocolate Coconut truffle was filled with a white, shredded coconut filling, and had an attractive green stencil pattern across the top.