Praim - Bosco milk chocolate bar - Nov. 23, 2017

Chocolate of the Day:

Praim Group
Bosco milk chocolate bar
Good
Weight: .7 oz. (20 g.) / 3.5 oz. (100 g.) in total bar
Calories: 108 calories in 1/5 bar
Cost: $3.99 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Orchard Supply Hardware, Mountain View, CA

Welcome to Day #4 of Milk Chocolate Theme Week.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate this holiday today in the U.S. and beyond.

Today's Bosco* milk chocolate bar was distributed by Praim Group (Salem, MA). Praim offers a variety of branded chocolates, through agreements with brand owners.

This sweet bar contained a relatively short list of ingredients: sugar was #1 ingredient followed by whole milk, cocoa butter and cocoa liquor, soy lecithin and vanilla. The bar had an aroma of classic milk chocolate—not that far off from a glass of milk with Bosco Chocolate Syrup (the bar's namesake).

Bosco syrup was introduced in 1928 and is still available from the New Jersey-based company, Bosco Products Inc.

Praim also offered a Bosco "holiday" bar, but it looked to be (from the description online) the same milk chocolate bar as today's, only with a touch of red and green design elements on the wrapper.

*Bosco is a trademark of Bosco Products Inc., "used under license by Praim LLC."

Godiva - Single Origin Mexican Milk Chocolate bar - Nov. 22, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Godiva Chocolatier, Inc.
Single Origin Mexican Milk Chocolate bar
Good +
Weight: .7 oz. (19.75 g.) / 2.8 oz. (79 g.) in total bar
Calories: 112.5 calories in 1/4 bar
Cost: $7.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Barnes and Noble Bookstore, El Cerrito, CA

Welcome to Day #3 of Milk Chocolate Theme Week.

Today's Single Origin Mexican Milk Chocolate (42% Cacao) bar was made in Belgium* and distributed by Godiva Chocolatier, Inc. (New York, NY).

This bar was better than your typical high-volume milk chocolate bars that contain a lower percentage of cacao and might be a blend of origins to arrive at a commercially consistent flavor from year to year.

On the flip side, artisan or smaller batch bars tend to capture more regional flavors (in this case from beans grown in Mexico) and the resulting bars vary from harvest to harvest.

Today's bar had consistency in texture and melt, and some fruit, caramel and dairy cream flavor notes.

*Godiva has been selling Belgian chocolate since 1926. The company was founded in 1926 in Brussels, Belgium by Joseph Draps. Godiva chocolates became available in the U.S. in the 1960s.

Patric Chocolate - Sweet and Sassy Milk bar - Nov. 21, 2017

Chocolate of the Day:

Patric Chocolate
Sweet and Sassy Milk bar
Good++ - Very Good
Weight: 2.3 oz. (65 g.) in total bar
Calories: 345 calories (estimate) in 1 bar
Cost: $15.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #2 of Milk Chocolate Theme Week.

Today's Sweet and Sassy Milk bar was created by Alan "Patric" McClure of Patric Chocolate (Columbia, MO). Alan has produced several award-winning dark milk (and dark) bars.

This creamy dark milk (46% cacao) chocolate bar offered sophisticated rich buttery caramel sweetness tempered with a touch of sea salt.

The bar was made with a short list of high-quality ingredients (organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, organic whole milk powder, cacao, sea salt).

Don't reach for this rich sweet and salty confection if you're overly hungry. It will completely vanish in minutes.

SOMA Chocolatemaker - Milk Chuao bar - Nov. 20, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

SOMA Chocolatemaker

Milk Chuao bar

Very Good 

Weight: 1.145 oz. (32.5 g.) / 2.29 oz. (65 g.) (estimate) in total bar (no weight listed)

Calories: 172 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar

Cost: $ missing information for 1 bar

Purchased from: The Chocolate Garage, Palo Alto, CA

Today it was adios and tchau (goodbye) to South American Chocolate Theme Weeks, and hello to Milk Chocolate Week, with the Milk Chuao bar from SOMA Chocolatemaker (Toronto, ON, Canada).

The SOMA high-end milk chocolate bar was made with fine flavored cacao, grown in the Chuao region of Venezuela, known for its lovely caramel and fruit notes.

This 50% cacao bar had the creaminess and slightly sweeter qualities of a high-percentage cacao milk chocolate, but the complexity of flavor you'd more often find in darker bars. 

This SOMA Chocolatemaker microbatch bean-to-bar chocolate bar may, unfortunately, not be available at the moment. However, look into the company's single origin bars and holiday "twig" chocolates and you won't be disappointed. Creativity and skill are applied in equal measures at SOMA.

Ciao Bella Gelato - South American Dark Chocolate gelato - Nov. 19, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Ciao Bella Gelato Company, Inc.
South American Dark Chocolate gelato
Good - Good +
Weight: 1/2 cup serving (105 g.) / 14 fl. oz. (414 mL) in total container
Calories: 250 calories in 1/2 cup serving
Cost: $ missing information 
Purchased from: missing information

Welcome to the last stop on our 29-day virtual chocolate tour of South America. We've explored many single origin, ultra-dark chocolate bars from countries ranging from Venezuela to Bolivia for the past 3-4 weeks.

This month ends on a completely different note: two scoops of South American Dark Chocolate gelato from Ciao Bella Gelato Company, Inc. in the northeastern U.S.

This frozen dessert was packed with a lot more chocolate flavor than one normally finds in a frozen dessert. It was made with fair trade cacao grown in South America, via a partnership with TCHO Chocolate (Berkeley, CA).

At first whiff, this gelato smelled more like rich chocolate; and it had a richer, more fruit-acidic chocolate flavor. The texture and melt were smooth creamy.

Taza Chocolate - Bolivia 87% Dark bar - Nov. 18, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Taza Chocolate
Bolivia 87% Dark bar
Good + - Good ++
Weight: 1.25 oz. (35 g.) / 2.5 oz. (70 g.) in total bar
Calories: 230 calories in 1/2 bar
Cost: $7.50 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Draeger's Market, Los Altos, CA

Welcome to Day #28 of South American Chocolate Theme Weeks.

Today's single origin bar was made with cacao grown in Bolivia. The 87% Dark bar was crafted by Taza Chocolate in Somerville, MA.

This chocolate had a very pleasant hot chocolate/chocolate malt aroma with very faint, but again pleasing, sweet green, fruit and nut notes. This aroma was considerably more upbeat and friendly than one would expect for 87% cacao chocolate, in part due to the addition of what smelled like high-quality vanilla* beans. And the taste was very approachable as well.

Taza has worked hard to perfect the taste and texture of their stoneground drinking chocolate, bars, snacks and confections over the years to balance the benefits of more rustic stoneground beans and a smooth buttery chocolate experience that some desire. Sounds good, but it takes precision and skill to know just how long to (or not to) process/grind/blend cacao beans for the optimal result.

The company used traditional Mexican stone mills (molinos) to grind their beans. And today's bar was described as "perfectly unrefined."

Indeed the resulting chocolate maintained good flavor and was both smooth and slightly crunchy, with tiny sparkles of what felt like cane sugar crystals or vanilla* rather than weedy cacao or vanilla bean flecks—the likely result if I tried to make bean-to-bar chocolate in my kitchen with a coffee or nut grinder. (One also needs to know when to put in the sugar and vanilla bean so the right components sparkle and shine.)

*The Bolivia 87% Dark bar contained just three ingredients: Certified Direct Trade organic cacao beans, organic cane sugar, organic vanilla beans

Nibble Chocolate - Peru 72% Organic Dark Single Origin Criollo bar - Nov. 17, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Nibble Chocolate, LLC
72% Cocoa Organic Dark Peru Single Origin Criollo bar
Good +
Weight: 1 oz. (28.3 g.) / 2 oz. (56.69 g.) in total bar
Calories: 135 calories (per label) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $6.00 (estimate) for 1 bar
Purchased from: Cafe Mingei, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA

Welcome to Day #27 of South American Chocolate Theme Weeks.

Today's 72% Cocoa Organic Dark Peru Single Origin Criollo bar was made by Nibble Chocolate, LLC (San Diego, CA).

Nibble used Peruvian Criollo cacao beans from a small farm, in the Tumbes region of northern Peru, represented by a "co-op that promotes high quality and fair practices."

The company's description(s) for this Peru bar read included: "A delightful complex chocolate with caramel and dry fruit raisin notes, underlying maltiness and a long lasting finish"...and "Tasting notes: Caramel, smokey, nuts, biscuit, dried fruit with underlying malt notes."

That was very close to what I experienced with this certified organic, vegan, soy free and gluten free 72% dark bar, that had just two ingredients: organic cocoa beans and organic cane sugar.

My tasting notes read: "Dried fruit/raisin and slight green and smoked caramel notes in the aroma; the flavor had somewhat intense dried fruit and citrus dark chocolate notes; long finish. More robust/bold acidic flavor than many Criollo bars."

I almost always make my own notes before looking at maker's notes. It's fun to compare the two. They're usually quite close, with only occasional differences. It's interesting to note how different taste buds and preferences (and even memories) perceive different substances.

In this case, Nibble bars' thick 3x3 square matrix also influences the tasting experience. There is enough heft with each square that up to 9 people might each enjoy the full flavor spectrum of this bar. However, others may prefer thinner sheets of chocolate/bars for easy access to texture/melt and flavors.