Ghirardelli - Milk Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Squares - Oct. 29, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Ghirardelli Chocolate Company
Squares - Milk Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Caramel
Good
Weight: 1.06 oz. (30 g.) / 5.32 oz. (151 g.) in total package
Calories: 140 calories in 2 squares
Cost: $3.50 (sale price) for 1 package of 10 squares
Purchased from: Safeway, Albany, CA

Welcome to Day #7 of Chocolate, Sugar and Spice Theme Week, and Day #1 of Trick or Treat Theme Week.

Today's Milk Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Caramel Squares from Ghirardelli Chocolate Company (San Leandro, CA) were composed of sweet milk chocolate.

Take a bite and soft, golden-colored, pumpkin spice-flavored caramel will ooze out. On a hot day, when caramel loves to escape its bonds, you'll be glad these squares come individually wrapped in attractively shiny, sealed packaging, especially if you've forgotten one in your pocket.

Domingo Ghirardelli (1817-1894) was a successful San Francisco chocolatier. The view over the Bay Area from Domingo Ghirardelli's mausoleum up in the Oakland hills (at the Mountain View Cemetery) is beautiful.

As Halloween approaches, I wonder what the company founder might have thought of this modern chocolate world and Halloween trick or treaters* below this week.

*Halloween is celebrated in the U.S. with small children dressed up in costumes who visit neighbors, asking "trick or treat" when neighbors answer the door. Children are most often rewarded with treats—a handful of small candies or chocolates. 

Fun facts found on the Internet: Of the 600 million pounds of candy sold each year in the U.S., approximately 90 million pounds are chocolate items. Americans spend $1.9 billion on Halloween each year.


Note: These squares were the first chocolate item I've seen with a statement (on the packaging) that read: "Partially produced with genetic engineering." Transparency is good.

SOMA Chocolate - Ginger Dark Mini Bar - Oct. 28, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

SOMA Chocolate
Ginger Dark Chocolate Mini Bar
Good ++
Weight: 1.23 oz. (35 g.) in total bar
Calories: 185 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $ missing info
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate, Sugar and Spice Theme Week.

Today's Ginger Dark Chocolate Mini Bar was from SOMA Chocolate (Toronto, Canada).

Over the years, SOMA has offered bean-to-bar and other chocolate items (bars, drinking chocolate, filled/flavored chocolates and inspired, high-quality novelties, such as their "twig" and/or "branch" chocolates).

I have fond memories of my first visit to the SOMA location nestled in a brick complex that used to house a distillery in Toronto, and buying and tasting items there.

In today's dark mini bar, ginger was the dominant flavor. The small hunks of candied ginger with a soft chew were flavorful, and had a very slight soapiness that ginger can sometimes have, that seemed to dissipate after the first chew.

The dark chocolate was smooth, and on one side was emblazoned with a downsized version of the same lovely botanical print found on larger SOMA bars.

The mini bar was a great size for a single serving, high-end chocolate dessert or snack.

This bar's ingredients: cocoa mass, sugar, ginger, cacao butter, natural vanilla, soy lecithin.

Nathan Miller - Gingerbread Bar - Oct. 27, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Nathan Miller Chocolate
Gingerbread Bar
Good ++
Weight: .2 oz. (5.66 g.) / 2 oz. (56.6 g.) in total bar
Calories: 30 calories (estimate) in 1/10 bar
Cost: $8.00 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Fog City News, San Francisco, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate, Sugar and Spice Theme Week.

Today's Gingerbread Bar was made by Nathan Miller Chocolate (Chambersburg, PA)

The bar was made with 55 percent Oko Caribe* direct trade organic Dominican cacao, organic buttermilk, organic cane sugar, and organic cocoa butter.

This Gingerbread bar (that contained some flour) was a complex mix of salty, slightly tangy, bitter-sweet chocolate with a hint of warm spice afterglow that kicked in at the end.

*Oko Caribe is a cacao fermentary near the city of San Francisco de Macoris in the Cibao region of the Dominican Republic.

Mulate Organic Chocolates - Spices bar - Oct. 26, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Mulate Organic Chocolates
Spices Dark Chocolate bar
Good+++
Weight: 1.4 oz. (40 g.) / 2.8 oz. (80 g.) (estimate) in total bar
Calories: 210 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $7.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Chocolate Covered, San Francisco, CA


Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate, Sugar and Spice Theme Week.


Today's "Spices" Dark Chocolate bar from Mulate Organic Chocolates was created by Chocolate Naive (a bean-to-bar maker in Lithuania).

The smooth, 65 percent cacao dark chocolate had well balanced and authentic cinnamon and vanilla aroma and flavor, and a hint of warmth from cayenne pepper—a perfect bar to enjoy on a cool fall day in the mountains.

Pumpkin Bread + Hershey's Chocolate Chips - Oct. 25, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Hershey's
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Good
Weight: 1/2 cup total for entire mix
Calories: 395.6 calories (estimate) in 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Cost: $1.99 (estimate) for 1 package
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Pamela's Products
Pumpkin Bread Mix
Good++
Weight: 2 oz. (56 g.) / 16 oz. (454 g.) in total package of dry mix
Calories: 320 calories in 2 servings (1/8 package, baked) -- 369 calories with added chocolate chips
Cost: $3.99 (estimate) for 1 package
Purchased from: Piazza's Fine Foods, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #3 of Chocolate, Sugar and Spice Theme Week.

Pamela's Pumpkin Mix was redolent with the smell of real, dried pumpkin; and the finished mix was quite good. I made this mix earlier this month with a mixture of butter and coconut oil that was delicious (without nuts or chocolate). Today, I added chocolate chips from Hershey's (Hershey, PA).

The sweet smelling and tasting semi-sweet chocolate chips also had a very faint wax crayon aroma. Although these chips did have an fairly creamy melt and mouthfeel.

Sugar and Spice Cookie Plate - Oct. 24, 2016

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

The Phoenix Pastificio
1.) Best-Ever Macaroons (2) - Very Good
2.) Pecan Chewies (Chocolate) (1) - Good ++ - Very Good
Weight: unknown
Calories: unknown
Cost: $11.50 for 3 cookies
Purchased from: Grand Lake - Oakland Farmers Market, Oakland, CA

Walkers Shortbread
1.) Gluten Free Pure Butter Ginger and Lemon Shortbread (1) - Good++
2.) Gluten Free Pure Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread (1) - Good++
Weight: 1.09 oz. (31 g.) in 2 cookies
Calories: 160 calories in 2 cookies
Cost: $3.98 (estimate) for 2 boxes of cookies
Purchased from: Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #2 of Chocolate, Sugar and Spice Theme Week. We're celebrating today with a cookie plate.

I like cakes and cookies; however, to avoid sugar overload, I save these sweet baked good items for the holidays. Oh, and look at that. It's almost Halloween; so what are we waiting for.

The Phoenix Pastificio
The first cookies I tasted were macaroons and pecan chewies from The Phoenix Pastificio (Berkeley, CA)—a company that specializes in organic pasta, sauces and baked goods. And a few of their offerings are gluten free.

However, these were not delicate, pastel-colored, filled French macaron rounds. Nor were they cloyingly sweet coconut macaroons.

The Phoenix Pastificio's "Best-Ever Macaroons" (regular and chocolate) were decadent and delicious. A "bitter" almond paste center (that maintained a moist, sweet almond brownie-like texture) was surrounded by a firmer, attractive extruded pastry shape. And the whole cookie was dusted with a liberal amount of powdered sugar.

The company's flourless chocolate Pecan Chewy had a meringue-like lightness, and yet maintained a satisfying, chewy chocolate texture with a hint of pecan nut flavor). The Phoenix Pastificio cookies held up commendably well, given that they'd spent some time in my refrigerator since my trip to Oakland where I bought them.

Walkers Gluten Free Shortbread
Walkers* (Aberlour-on-Spey, UK/Scotland) has been producing shortbread and biscuits (cookies) for decades. I was delighted when they started offering gluten-free versions of their rich, buttery shortbread rounds, a few years ago.

No doubt, the shortbread is the star. However, tiny bursts of chocolate in the Chocolate Chip version gave these rich cookies a little extra flavor oomph. And the Ginger and Lemon Shortbread cookie was also nice. Ginger is always a welcome, warming holiday spice, and a sparkle of lemon added additional flavor.

A five cookie-plate was fun, but too much sugar for one day. (Hey, I said I was gluten free. I didn't say I was glutton free.)

*Founded in 1898 by Joseph Walker, not only is Walkers well-known, but (according to one source I found) they're also Scotland's largest exporter of food items.

Wine Country Chocolates - Sesame Ginger Bar - Oct. 23, 2016

Chocolate of the Day: 

Wine Country Chocolates
Sesame Ginger Chocolate Bar
Good+
Weight: .78 oz. (22 g.) / 2.35 oz. (66.5 g.) in total bar
Calories: 117 calories (estimate) in 1/3 bar
Cost: $7.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Wine Country Chocolates, Tasting Room, Glen Ellen, CA

Welcome to the last day (Day #4) in this week's Chocolate and Sesame Series, and the first day of Chocolate, Sugar and Spice Theme Week.

Being located in Northern California, it's easy to find local wineries to visit. In the case of Wine Country Chocolates, located near several wineries in Sonoma County, they operate tasting rooms filled not with bottles, but rather chocolate confections, barks and bars.

I found today's Sesame Ginger Bar after after taking a wrong turn while driving in the Sonoma area. Happily, this led to discovering Wine Country Chocolates' Glen Ellen location on a tree-lined, meandering country road.

This Sesame Ginger dark chocolate bar was sprinkled with small pieces of candied ginger and toasted white sesame seeds. Ginger is a great spice and complement to chocolate. And this bar achieved a nice, balanced blend of flavors.